When Labour Party locked down Ibadan

The launch of the Labour Party in Oyo State, less than a year to the next general election, may have redrawn the political architecture of the state, writes DARE ADEKANMBI, who covered the event.
It can be likened to the days of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s campaign, when fanatical supporters of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), in the Second Republic, filed out not just to catch a glimpse of awe-inspiring Awo but also to listen to well-researched and pragmatic solutions to the problems impeding the growth and development of society and its inhabitants.
This captures the scenes in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, recently, when the Ondo State governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, literally locked down the political capital of the South-West for the Labour Party (LP). The occasion was not a campaign rally but a two-in-one event of the
inauguration of the LP interim state executives and the commissioning of the party’s state secretariat located on Awolowo Road, Oke Ado.
Bedecked in various attires bearing different inscriptions and with the LP symbol, a mammoth crowd guesstimated to be about 50, 000 stood in defiance of the scorching sun and hot tarmac to welcome Mimiko and the LP national leadership led by its national chairman, Chief Dan Nwanyanwu; a governorship aspirant of the party in Osun State, Alhaji Fatai Akinbade; and many others to Ibadan.
Although the LP national leaders were billed to arrive at the venue from Abuja in the afternoon, enthusiastic LP members started trickling into the secretariat from 9 a.m. in groups. And within a few minutes, a large crowd had gathered. The surging crowd was kept entertained by one of Ibadan’s popular fuji sensations Taye Currency. Quickly, the two carriages of the busy road had been taken over by the bubbling LP members. Movement from Molete end of the road to Mokola and other areas was an ordeal.
After some hours of dancing and several “songs of celebration and freedom” from LP members had watered down the inclemency of the weather, news filtered into the venue that the Mimiko had landed in Ibadan from Abuja. At the Ibadan Airport to welcome the governor and others were members of the interim executive and chieftains of the party, as well as hundreds of members. Amidst shouts of Iroko, gbasibe, the governor and LP leadership were warmly received by their hosts.
From the airport, Mimiko and others, accompanied by a massive motorcade of about 150 vehicles, moved to the Moniya house of the Olubadan of Ibadaland, Oba (Dr) Samuel Odulana, not just to pay homage to the paramount ruler of Ibadanland in order to have a good outing but to also congratulate him on reaching the centenary milestone. As the long convoy drove to the Olubadan’s residence, scores of people from Alakia to Moniya paused to behold the unusual sight of the extraordinarily long convoy. They waved and cheered at the convoy, on discovering those in the motorcade were Mimiko and LP officials.
At Olubadan’s residence, royal blessings were poured on Mimiko and his entourage, as well as LP leaders in the state. The road show continued from Moniya through Idi Ape, Yemetu and Beere to Oke Ado. And it was cheers all the way for Mimiko and LP.
The storm of a crowd which had expected to catch a glimpse of Iroko surged back and forth on sighting him and the party’s NEC members.
Chauffeured in an open roof car and surrounded by eagle-eyed security personnel, Mimiko waved at the crowd composed mainly of people of low station in life, shook hands with them, acknowledged their cheers and blew kisses in appreciation of their admiration for him and the LP.
In their separate welcome addresses, co-chairmen of LP in the state, Mr Basiru Apapa and Honourable Gbenga Olayemi claimed that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) would go into extinction in the state, after the 2015 election. They described the LP as the party to beat in the next elections, noting that “time is up for APC” and that neither the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nor the swiftly spreading Accord Party would out-perform LP in the elections.
Also speaking, Chief Nwanyawu commended the people of Oyo  for embracing LP as the only truly progressive party in the country. He thanked the state LP chieftains and executive members for working hard within a short time to net big fishes from the PDP and the APC into the LP. He added that the crowd at the secretariat confirmed reports that Oyo was LP’s for take in 2015.
Nwanyanwu announced that waiver had been granted the young leaders of the APC, who dumped the broom for LP, adding that there was no dichotomy of old versus new members in the “new, improved LP” in the state. Shortly after inaugurating the state executive, he tasked the party leadership to organise rancour-free fresh registration of members, as well as congresses of the party.
When it was his turn to speak, Mimiko chose his words carefully. He drew a parallel between the LP and the APC which tags itself as a progressive party and claimed that the APC’s tag of “progressive” was inappropriate, as the party, its governments and leaders had been anything but progressive. To buttress his argument, he alluded to the increase in tuition fee paid by students of the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, to N250, 000, contending that such unfriendly policy was designed to take university education from the reach of the children of the masses who braved all odds to vote governments in at elections.
The governor reeled out many of the achievements of LP in Ondo State and urged the people of Oyo to compare notes between the LP and the APC. He explained that, while his administration embarked on urban renewal which was similarly done in many APC-controlled states, he ensured that not just the city but also the masses were renewed as envisioned in the agenda of his government. Unlike what was done in some APC states, he said his government first enumerated all road side traders, collated data on them and then proceeded to build ultra-modern markets for them away from the streets, before moving them away from the roadsides.
Mimiko gave a hint of the partnership between President Goodluck Jonathan and LP members across the country in 2015. He told LP members in Oyo to distance themselves from those whose stock-in-trade was to malign the person and impugn the character of the president, as well as condemn his policies and programmes. He also charged them to work their fingers to the bone and ensure Jonathan triumphs in the February 14, 2015 presidential election.
Some analysts believe the resuscitation of the hitherto little known Oyo LP ahead the 2015 election has changed the political calculus and equation of the state, making some observers to remark that the race for Oyo governorship seat is appearing to be a battle that will be fought, in the main, by Accord Party and LP.
Some of the hitherto APC but now LP young leaders are: Honourable Olayemi, who resigned as chairman, Oyo State Agency for Youth Development in Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s government; Chief Sharafadeen Alli; Lowo Obisesan, who was dropped not long ago as the Commissioner for Environment and Habitat; Sunmbo Owolabi, who was dropped as Water Resources Commissioner; Bayo Olagbenro, who was also dropped recently as a commissioner; Peter Odetomi, who was Ajimobi’s running mate in 2007 and also dropped recently as a commissioner; Kazeem Adedeji, who contested the governorship ticket Ajimobi in 2010 and was appointed and later dropped as a commissioner and dragged to court on sunday charges, in a matter a Lagos Federal High Court later dismissed.
Others include Caleb Oyaniyi, who was a commissioner during the administration of  late Alhaji Lam Adesina; Alhaji Popoola, a former council chairman; Nurudeen Akinyo, who was dropped as a special adviser of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters and later spun at an offer to be elevated a commissioner in the new cabinet;  Gbenga Oyekola, who was a board chairman; Yemi Aderibigbe, who was a special adviser on transport; Rasaq Folorunsho, who was APC’s interim state treasurer; Olalekan Olanisebe, who is a lawyer; Honourable Adelowo Emmanuel; Mr Yekeen Omo-Tuntun; Honourable Tayo Adeagbo; Honourable Gabriel Olaomi; Honourable Lanre Akintola; Mr Kola Salami; Honourable Abiade Yekeen; Honourable Lanre Akintola; Mrs Fausat Rasheed and Mrs Kehinde Aremu.