Society Gists

Debonair former managing director of Guaranty Trust Bank, Fola Adeola, has started oiling the machinery of his campaign to take over from incumbent Governor Ibikunle Amosun. Interestingly, both are in the same party, the All Progressives’ Congress, APC. But the party is fictionalized in the state with two different executives – that of the governor and former Governor Olusegun Osoba’s – laying claim to the soul of the party. Adeola is reportedly banking on the support of the Osoba faction, which has in its fold the state’s three senators, and majority of the House of Representatives members.

As the story goes, Adeola, who was the vice presidential candidate of the then Action Congress of Nigeria is desirous of adding political power to his already invincible economic power.
And because of his financial war-chest, he reportedly fits the bill of someone who, backed with Osoba’s grassroots appeal and persuasion, can match Amosun cash for cash in the run up to the 2015 elections.

There are fears however that Adeola may once again become the pawn in this political game if Amosun and Osoba were reconciled before the election apparently because the war of acrimony between the two power blocs portends an implosion of the party in Ogun State.

But we gathered that Adeola is being very careful this time around. He does not want to spend so much money and at the end of the day be told to hold on and allow Amosun finish his term. At 60, Adeola reckons that he doesn’t have that luxury of time. More so, the betrayal he and Nuhu Ribadu, ACN’s presidential candidate in 2011, suffered in the hands of their party leader and financier, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, still rankles. And he is not willing to put his money where his mouth would not be