Ondo 2020 Election: A Two-Horse or a Three-Horse Race?
It is no longer news that the Ondo State gubernatorial election will, barring unforeseen circumstances, hold on October the 10th this year.
Already, the various political parties have started reaching out to the electorate in a bid to garner their votes in the race to the Alagbaka Government House.
It will not be out of place that some are not serious contenders and this fact is not hidden to the would-be voters. Some of the political parties are not even popular with the electorate, not to talk of their logos.
The Peoples’ Democratic Party is no doubt the strongest opposition in Nigeria, having ruled Nigeria consecutively for 16 years before it was shoved aside in 2015, and going by the number of state governor it currently parades.
What this means is that it would not be short of funds and resources to prosecute the October 10 election. Its candidate once more, just as in 2016, is Eyitayo Jegede, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and one-time Attorney-General of Ondo State.
The soft-spoken lawyer hails from Akure while his mother hails from Ipele, very close to Owo.
His education took him from Modakeke to Aquinas in Akure where he was the Head Boy and Christ’ School where he captained the Volleyball team and later University of Lagos where he bagged his law degree in 1983.
In 2016 when he had his first run at the governorship, he came second. This time, his party has shown faith in him again, but the question is will he able to muster enough votes.
Odunayo Oluwarotimi Akeredolu is not just the incumbent governor of Ondo State, who is not running on a promissory note, but on his antecedents in office and in his legal profession, having held the highest office in the Nigeria Bar Association and being a Senior Advocate of Nigeria as well.
In 2012 when he first contested, he came third, but he won convincingly in 2016. He would be campaigning on what he has been able to do since he was sworn in February, 2017. Whether these records would be enough to make the people of Ondo State trust him one more time remains to be seen.
Akeredolu’s father was a cleric from Owo while his mother hailed from Igbotu in Ese Odo. He schooled in Owo, Akure, Ibadan and later University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University where he graduated from in 1977.
He was Ondo State Attorney-General between 1997 and 1999. Once more, APC’s hope is on Akeredolu to secure a second term for the party. No doubt, being the party at the centre with the highest number of governors, the APC is expected to have enough funds and resources to prosecute the election, more so that Akeredolu is the sitting governor.
Another strong contender in this race is the deputy governor of Ondo State, Agboola Ajayi, who left the APC on which platform he came into office and will now be running on the platform of Zenith Labour Party, a party well identified with former Governor Olusegun Mimiko.
Agboola Ajayi is also a lawyer, but younger at the bar compared to Jegede and Akeredolu. But he is not young in politics. He was a ward chairman in the defunct AD and a former chairman of Ese-Odo Local Government. He was also at the House of Representatives. His supporters say his pocket runs deep and that he would not be short of funds or tactics to pull his weight in the October 10 election.
Many political pundits in the Sunshine State and around Nigeria believe the election will be a three-horse race between Jegede, Akeredolu and Agboola, while some argue that the ZLP does not have enough structure to serve as a springboard for Agboola’s ambition.
As the political parties continue to reach out to the people, the judgement day is on October the 10th and that’s when we would know for sure whether this is a two-horse or a three-horse race.
Written by Oladimeji Daniels
