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By Razaq Bamidele
In Nigeria, and indeed, all over the world, whenever any elective contest is around the corner, the Yoruba axiom that at the death of the elephant, various sizes of knives are always in attendance, long, short, sharp, blunt. So, the coming 2023 presidential election could be likened to the proverbial elephant while the aspirants are just like the knives. It is always the period various contenders – serious, formidable, weak, unserious, jokers and palace jesters – would go about sweet-talking the people into believing in what they are and what they are not.
However, in this case under discourse, the name Iskilu Ibikunle Amosun, a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a big political fish, whose presence in the political ocean cannot be ignored, not even with his skyscraper cap. Beside the uniquely styled cap, Senator Ibikunle Amosun (SIA) is just a proverbial Odu vegetable that is not strange to the farmer on the country’s political arena. His political antecedence and pedigree have confirmed his being a grassroots mobiliser and astute politician of no mean repute.
This Chartered Accountant cum politician was in the Senate for the first time in 2003 before he ventured into the gubernatorial business in 2007 but lost to the immediate past governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel (OGD). Having lost the legal battle to unseat OGD, Amosun waited patiently till 2011 when mother luck smiled on him and became the executive governor of Ogun State. In 2019, after his two terms in office, SIA returned to the Senate to represent the Ogun Central Senatorial District. Right now, SIA is in the senate.
As 2023, the year of general election, inches closer, political watchers suspect that the two-term governor is up to something bigger than where he is now. And right now, there are two elective offices that are bigger than where he is – the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and office of the Senate President.
However, to occupy any of the two aforementioned offices by the 63-year-old senator, he needs to wait to see whether the situation on ground now would change to be in his favour or not. Pundits are of the conviction that someone like Amosun would not jump into any political ocean when he is not sure that the coast is clear enough for such a venture. Right now, the situation on ground has to change to accommodate presidential aspiration of the like of Amosun, a Yoruba Muslim from the South-west.
Unless the situation changes, it is not likely for Nigerians of today to welcome another Muslim to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim. And again, if a Yoruba Christian eventually becomes the president in 2023, it is not likely for another Yoruba man to become the Senate President.
A close ally to the senator confided in our correspondent that Amosun’s ambition is to retain his seat in the Senate in 2023, reminding that to become the Senate President, one has to be in the Senate first.
“I can assure you we are working towards available options towards 2023. So, we would not be found wanting when the chips are down,” the ally submitted, |
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