Dapo Abiodun’s Lackey Jittery; Running Amok with Frenzy
By Steve Oliyide
In the past two days, we have been inundated by yet many unfounded, unsubstantiated and unsigned conjectures called news stories.
The fact that the author of the stories which emanated from the same stable but still lacks the courage to append their names is sufficient enough to discredit the contents. They are stories with the same content, but dancing around the same theme of alleged betrayals; “OGD Camp in Disarray”, “Traditional Rulers Distance from…”, “.. Daniel left in the cold”.
The manner in which those stories were released in quick succession suggests the desperation of the puppet authors and their puppeteers. The first few things that came to mind was that something has gone wrong in the camp of the writers that could have provoked such desperation. They are either trying to hide something or they are faced with a new disappointment somewhere they least expect.
I know for certain that their Principal has not been able to sit at his desk since the elections; I also know they are busy running helter skelter for a “Beg and Kill” in order to get the other party to vacate the ongoing petition before the election tribunal and the financial offers they are allegedly trying to put on the table in negotiations shows the depth of their desperation.
After claiming to have “won” the election, is it not surprising the way the Dapo Abiodun media employees have been going about like one who had lost an election. People who claim to have won an election are more bitter than the people they have robbed in the same election.
That suggests that they know certain things that we don’t know; they clearly lost the elections, they know what they did and they are aware that whatever they did can only be but temporary and cannot be sustained before the Tribunal’s inquiry. Hence, their frustrations.
They want to sustain two things: pretend to be begging while the other party is getting excited about that process, they can perfect the records of rigging at INEC or destroy evidence; sustain media attacks as a means of further distraction while they carry out their sinister plots in other areas.
A little information may however suffice about How Mr. Dapo Abiodun lost the Governorship election and what informed the latest desperation from the puppets of the present but outgoing Governor of Ogun State:
- Mr. Dapo Abiodun is not popular anywhere in Ogun State. We see this much in many of his direct engagements with ordinary citizens. It was always tales of boos and jeers each time he showed his face, either in Abeokuta, Sango/Ota, Ifo or elsewhere. On a personal note, I was also a witness to many bad commentaries residents have of the governor during our ward to ward campaigns of Ogun East.
Because of how critical many of the comments by ordinary Ogun people in the districts were, we had to edit out many of the negative parts because we could air them on our weekly paid broadcast on state-owned OGTV.
- How Mr. Dapo Abiodun earned his unpopularity I cannot say. But I have various videos of complaints. Everywhere we go, people will say we don’t like Dapo. We tried to find out what could be responsible, and some revealed that he is not accessible, he doesn’t pick calls (these complaints were from different categories of people, including traditional rulers, party leaders, men and women, political appointees in every strata of government).
I have various proofs of these complaints on videos. At some points, my boss, Otunba Gbenga Daniel had to issue cautions to the political leaders that what they are saying is enough to “demarket” the party and if they, as insiders, are saying this much, what do they expect the people on the streets to be saying. He advised them that even if they have complaints, they should keep them in-house and they can find subtle solutions towards addressing their grouse.
I cannot count the millions that this must have cost him to douse some of these tensions against the government. At the end of every complaint session he tried to bring the tension down by “encouraging” those people in a sort of “Sorry”, “E gba, e ma binu”, “I will find a way to see the Governor to address your issues”.
- Was the Governor reachable afterwards? I doubt it. There is some arrogance in his mien, and some people deluded him that he is actually a brand. Some were even more mischievous to suggest to him that “OGD has lost steam” and that he does not have any structure anymore. So, DA can go it all alone on his own. They deceived him that he is the one rehabilitating OGD.
- Many party leaders, political appointees (State and LGs) lost the elections in their wards and local government council areas. The Governor himself lost his ward in Iperu and won his Polling Unit with just five votes despite some abracadabra. Some appointees, Chairmen of Local Councils and Councillors are also joking quietly that the Governor cannot accuse them of failure, after all he also could not deliver his Iperu Ward and whole local government.
- Albeit temporarily, while waiting for the tribunal judgement which is bound to sack Mr. Abiodun, there is a temporary season and window of jostling for appointments and many of the so-called leaders and appointees are hoping for one consideration or another. But their scorecard could not match the amount of money released to them for elections on one hand, and could also not match the level of trust the current appointment given to them commands. They are scared they might lose out in Dapo Abiodun’s temporary hold onto the office.
- They need to keep themselves relevant and sustain the conjectured betrayal story. Anyone who is familiar with the media will accept that OGD is a great newsmaker, he is a brand, hate him at your own peril, but he is a natural media Influencer that can easily get you noticed once you tag his name to your publicity fortune. And that is why it has been trending. Even those who are not competent to sit a thousand miles near him will also want to feel important that “yes, we are attacking OGD”. When they finally lose out in the battle ahead, they will crawl back to OGD like the shameless people they are. Knowing the forgiving spirit of OGD, they will cook all manners of stories to work themselves back into favour with OGD.
- Another thing that has given them a headache was the political visibility that OGD has garnered in the last few weeks, his network of contacts has been intimidating, his holiday visits with his wife to France has given them sleepless nights and troubled their day. Their imagination has run wild on what he could be doing in Paris, who could he be seeing, what are they discussing. After Dapo Abiodun’s serial betrayals of Asiwaju Tinubu, they cannot fathom the consequences of a deeper relationship between the President-elect and OGD, a relationship that they have nurtured for over 25 years (when their own emergency idol was still busy doing metal furniture for big men in Lagos).
- All these wild imaginations have made them run riots.
Steve Oliyide, a Public Analyst writes from Ota.
