And when in 2014, I invited the then Managing Director of the SUN newspapers and President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Femi Adesina, to be the reviewer of my book, Ogun State: The Golden Years, an occasion in which Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, then presidential aspirant of the APC, was to be the chairman, it never occurred to anyone that the paths of both the reviewer and chairman would soon cross in Aso Rock!
As it turned out, Gen Buhari could not attend the book presentation as it coincided with the APC National Convention in Lagos. I had sent my first letter of invitation to the Daura home of the General and did all I could to avoid the clash with the APC date. As Shakespeare would say, “What can be avoided whose end is purposed by the mighty gods?”
To the glory of God, Gen Muhammadu Buhari not only emerged the presidential candidate of the APC but became the first opposition candidate to win a presidential election in Nigeria. And Governor Ibikunle Amosun, who has been associated with historic achievements, as captured in the book, Ogun State: The Golden Years, won a resounding re-election. Governor Amosun is today paying host to President Muhammadu Buhari, who is to inaugurate 40 landmark projects of the Amosun administration as the state marks its 40th year of existence.
Following the victories of the duo in the 2015 elections, I wrote an article, “Heroes of Buhari/ Amosun Victories”, published virtually in all the major newspapers in the country in April, 2015. In that piece, I submitted as follows: “I stand to be corrected, but I am yet to know of any political office holder in this country that embarked on such an extremely laborious ward-to-ward campaign as the governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, did in the run-up to the 2015 polls.
After such strenuous visits to 236 wards, leaving home in the morning and returning sometimes 2am or 3am the next day and doing such daily without a break except on Sundays, the second phase of the electioneering saw the governor touring the 20 local councils in the state, visiting virtually every market in each council.
The third phase (partly merged with the second) was another exceedingly tight schedule in which the state helmsman met groups and associations for hours – trade groups, professional associations, artisans, civil society groups, labour unions, student bodies, civil servants, organised private sector, community development associations (CDAs), traditional heads, religious bodies (Christians, Moslems, Traditionalists), etc.
“In all these, four points were placed on the same pedestal by Amosun. First, the election of General Buhari as president. “With the dire state of our country today, it is only a man like Gen. Buhari that can fix it,” was Amosun’s refrain throughout the campaign. His own re-election; the election of the National Assembly members; and members of the House of Assembly.
“I testify that Amosun worked very hard and gave his all for the presidential poll… Given this background, I believe Senator Ibikunle Amosun should hold his head high for having commendably played his allotted part at this momentous turning-point in Nigeria. Indeed, he is one of the icons of this historic moment – the first victory of an opposition at the federal level in Nigeria’s history.
“But the heroes of the victory of Buhari and success of Amosun in Ogun are those our parents all over the state who, on a number of occasions, waited from morning till evening to receive the campaign train led by the governor. I was personally touched by this expression of fondness. Certain exigencies, most often the number of men, women and groups that met the governor on the way to one ward, market or council led to arriving at nightfall in some hamlets, villages and towns
.
These elderly men and women waited patiently to identify with the governor…They, and all those who trooped out in numbers to vote for Buhari and Amosun are heroes of the victories of the All Progressives Congress in the 2015 polls in Ogun State…”
History beckons today as President Buhari, whom we all trooped out to vote for on March 28, 2015, is now live in our midst to launch many legacy projects built by the current governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun. Those projects include the state-of-the-art model schools, the first of such in the history of the state; the international standard six-lane highways, including the 10-lane boulevard; the flyovers – all of them changing the landscape of our state; the 21st century compliant markets and houses; the model farms, among others.
President Buhari is right here in Ogun in the midst of his own people.
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