Ogun: What next after Daniel’s truce?

It is in the public domain that the Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, has apologised to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, but FRANCIS FALOLA writes that Nigerians may not have seen the end of the rift between the two leaders

In 2003, former President Olusegun Obasanjo played a pivotal role in the emergence of the Peoples Democratic Party-led government of Otunba Gbenga Daniel in Ogun State. The election period then was an era of desperation when the PDP-led government at the federal level was zealous to wrest power from the Alliance for Democracy, the party controlling the affairs in the South-West then.

Victory eventually came for Daniel as he defeated the AD-led government of Chief Olusegun Osoba, and so, the PDP took over governance in Ogun. But at the twilight of the first four-year term of Daniel, a rift ignited between him and Obasanjo and it took the intervention of prominent people in the state and traditional rulers before Obasanjo could give his nod for Daniel’s second term ambition.

Daniel re-contested and won the 2007 poll. Soon after the victory dance, a crack occurred again and as the race hots up for the 2011 polls, so the gulf between the two prominent figures became widened. The crisis got messier as the two men led different factions of the PDP in the state. The situation led to the conduct of parallel PDP primaries in the state. As the battle for supremacy raged, Obasanjo, known for his rigidity, unbending posture and fearless disposition, was nicknamed ‘Ebora Owu,’ meaning the ‘Idol of Owu,’ as the former President is of the Owu stock in Ogun State. The loyalists of Daniel, in a move seen as fanning the embers of discord, named Daniel ‘Ebora Ogun,’ meaning the ‘Idol of Ogun State’ and inscribed same on some PDP campaign buses in the state.

The crisis festered as the two factions went into the primaries in the state. But just as the Daniel faction appeared to be having an upper hand – the national executive of the party and the Independent National Electoral Commission had accepted the list of candidates submitted by the group for the state in the electoral contest – the unexpected happened with the ruling of an Abuja high court, which affirmed the Obasanjo faction executive as the authentic, while directing the party and INEC to accept the list of the candidates submitted by the faction. With this, the former military governor of the old Oyo State, Brig.-Gen. Adetunji Olurin (retd) became the governorship candidate of the PDP in the state, as against the preferred choice of Daniel, a former Group Managing Director of Gateway Holdings Ltd, Mr. Gboyega Isiaka.

Efforts by the Daniel faction, through counter-litigation, to get the decision of the court overturned, proved abortive, a development that led to most members of the faction, especially those who contested the primaries, to defect to the Peoples Party of Nigeria in their search for brighter political fortunes.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who had earlier postponed his presidential rally in the state twice on account of the crisis in the state, however, saw the defection of the group and the fresh outcome of the court ruling as a measure of political stability in the state to organise the rally. Daniel, whose camp had been depleted following the defection of some of his loyalists, eventually made a dramatic U-turn as he apologised to the former President at his Abeokuta hilltop residence penultimate Friday.

The governor, who was led by legal luminary, Chief Afe Babalola, on the truce mission, admitted begging, saying, “Yes. I apologised to Baba Obasanjo and I will continue to apologise. Let me say this to you, I’m a true Yoruba man and in Yorubaland, it doesn’t matter who is right or wrong, it is the younger person that will beg the old person. I have begged Baba and I will continue to beg Baba.”

Obasanjo, in his response to whether he had forgiven Daniel, went biblical by reciting The Lord’s Prayer. He stated that he had forgiven Daniel as a Christian and in line with the biblical injunction in the prayer that God should “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”

With the truce safely negotiated, Babalola gave the assurance that Daniel, who is the South-West coordinator of the Goodluck/Sambo Presidential Campaign, would be at the MKO Abiola Stadium, venue of the rally, the following day to receive the President.

Daniel, as promised by Babalola, was at the stadium for the presidential rally, but the governor was humiliated when he was acknowledged by some speakers at the event. As a man who was supposed to play a pivotal role as the South-West coordinator of the President’s campaign, Daniel was neither recognised nor assigned any role in the programme of events for the occasion.

Though Obasanjo rose in defence of Daniel as he admonished the supporters for booing the governor, saying, “Today (Otunba Gbenga) Daniel is the governor of Ogun State; he must be accorded respect no matter what he has done. Don’t pay him in his own coin. I take serious objection to your booing him when his name is called. What you have done now is unwarranted. It does not matter what OGD might have done or about to do, in Yorubaland, we must respect age and authority. He must be accorded the necessary respect.

“Until May 29, Daniel remains the governor of this state; he must be accorded the respect, dignity, the honour that he deserves. If he does not give anyone that respect, we don’t pay him in his own coin. You must show that you are well-bred. I take serious objection to you booing him here when his name is called and that should not be done.”

Daniel later claimed that he had a fore-knowledge of the booing and heckling that greeted his presence at the event, while accusing the perpetrators of being sponsored from some neighbouring states.

The governor, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Adegbenro Adebanjo, on Sunday, said, “On Saturday, March 12, 2011 during (President Goodluck) Jonathan’s campaign tour of Ogun (State), a section of the crowd, acting on the prompting of those who hired them, made uncomplimentary remarks when the name of the Governor Daniel was called by officials during proceedings at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta.

“For the avoidance of doubt, we want to put it on record that there was nothing spontaneous about the disrespectful act to the person and office of the governor of Ogun State. It was a premeditated act by the sponsors of the ignoble act, who, having failed to get Daniel not to attend the event, decided to embarrass him at the venue. They had hired some undesirable elements mainly from outside the state and briefed them to heckle the governor during the event.”

The governor stated that he was fully aware of the plot following security reports made available to him, but indeed, he had to consider every option available to him before the President’s visit. Some of the governor’s advisers, the statement noted, had counselled that the supporters of the governor should be mobilised to the venue to counter the plot, but Daniel was said to have over-ruled this suggestion because of security considerations.

The statement added, “The situation could degenerate into a face-off between both sides, which would have seriously embarrassed Mr. President and marred the visit. And the plotters would have gone to town accusing the governor of violence.”

The governor was said to have discouraged his supporters, who wanted to hold another rally on the same day at another location as the action could be termed as an anti-party activity.

Daniel stated that he chose to attend the rally so as not to play into the opponents’ hands because they had accused him of showing no commitment to the Goodluck/Sambo project as its South-West coordinator.

Though Obasanjo chastised the crowd for booing the governor, the choice of words by the former President, such as, “If he does not give anyone that respect, we don’t pay him in his own coin,” and, “Until May 29, Gbenga Daniel remains the governor of this state; he must be accorded the respect, dignity, the honour that he deserves,” were seen in some quarters as a nail on the coffin and an indication that all was still not well between the two.

The former President, who, some critics say is hard to please, no doubt before the apology made by Daniel, must have concluded within himself on how to combat Daniel. The incident at the rally and Obasanjo’s poignant comments raised doubt as to if the retired general, in accordance with the Lord’s Prayer he recited, had really forgiven the governor.

The Speaker of the G15 group of lawmakers in the Ogun State House of Assembly, Mr. Tunji Egbetokun, who is a loyalist of Obasanjo, had while reacting to Daniel’s apology, urged the governor to do more than the show of penitence.

He said, “If you are submitting, there should be total submission. You cannot say you have shown penitence when a series of illegalities are hanging on your neck and remain unresolved. These are issues that Obasanjo and other well-meaning Nigerians are complaining about. The House of Assembly had for about seven months remained shut, only for you to allow your surrogates to sit and say they have passed the budget. Is that how a budget is being passed in a decent society?

“There is the need for the governor to surrender his arms; your arms cannot be up and you say you are surrendering. I agree that begging is a process of reconciliation, but it has to continue by righting the various wrongs committed and that is when we can believe that a genuine penitence has been shown.”

He lamented the backing and support being given by Daniel to the G9 group of lawmakers and described all the actions of the group as illegal.

With events still unfolding in the Gateway State, it is a matter of time for the public to know if the former President has truly, as a Christian, acted in line with The Lord’s Prayer he recited on forgiveness.