THE six states in the Southwest geopolitical zone have managed to come under a political hue except one. In an elementary verbal aptitude test, all six will be presented and the pupil asked to pick the odd one in the list. A smart pupil will pick Ondo State. It is the odd one out because it is the only state that falls outside the expanding umbrella of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).Ondo governor, Olusegun Mimiko, is in the Labour Party (LP) and somehow, too, a lone voice in the wilderness of progressive politics where the operating rules are being constantly redefined by the new grand patron, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.Now Mimiko, with all his leftist and bohemian postulations, does not appear to have a foothold in the new order. Apparently, the man, whom the people call Iroko, on account of his entrenchment in Ondo politics, has been marking time on the old spot and may not have known when things changed dramatically.The progressiveness of Southwest politics has grown beyond what it was in the days of Chief Obafemi Awo into a brotherhood cult where membership and not necessary one's philosophical or ideological disposition is the sole prerequisite.In the new thinking, Mimiko is not a pure breed. He has stuck to his Labour platform and refused to fuse into the brotherhood, the ACN, after he was declared winner of the 2007 governorship election by the Appeal Court.If the Awo tradition must be strictly followed, there can only be one political Baba at a time in the Oduduwa enclave. For now, the Asiwaju, with a fairly vast political estate comprising most of the Southwest and Edo State, is unchallenged. He is the reigning Baba. Much as he tried, the beloved Alhaji Lateef Jakande could only end as Baba Kekere. Till date, he has not attained adulthood in that strict sense and it is unlikely if that can be given the time left for him.Mimiko's sin is his refusal to follow tradition and recognise the sole Baba and then dobale. He also wants to be Baba, just like that, without a corresponding investment in cash and challenging political battles.After the PDP hurricane whose devastating winds were further fuelled by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the Southwest in 2003, Bola Tinubu was the only man standing. The onslaught continued in 2007 when the PDP retained the entire Southwest minus Lagos State.In the face of the danger, the options before Tinubu were slim. In fact, just two! It was either he jumped on the Obasanjo bandwagon, like Mimiko did, or stood fast like the immobile right hand marker in a parade formation and do battle to reclaim the fallen empire.He chose the latter, which was also more difficult. He fought from the polls to the courts and in the case of Ekiti State, back to polls before finally berthing in the court, to chase away the invaders.Mimiko was a direct beneficiary, in deed, the first in the Southwest epic political cum judicial battles. In the Ondo post-election contentions, the Asiwaju reportedly assumed the centre stage in the belief that the material difference between the Labour Party and the ACN was not more than the difference between six and half a dozen.Unfortunately, while the Asiwaju was expecting a thank-you package in whatever form from the Iroko, the latter got some strange inspiration to challenge his Ori to a wrestling match. He literally bit off the fingers that fed him so well.Instead of yielding his space to the common grounds being rigorously cultivated by the Tinubu, Mimiko might have felt that, he, too, could begin in earnest, the building of his credentials as a baba of Oduduwa politics.It is a manifestation of the new dynamics in Southwest politics. No one man, as such, controls it from one location as it was in the days of Awo under the Action Group (AG) and the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). The quasi-totalitarian tradition had endured a while, after Awo, when Pa Adekunle Ajasin dictated the pace from Owo. Even Pa Abraham Adesanya had managed to hold together the highly politically active region from Ijebu-Igbo before his death.Now, there are no rally points, as personified by respected elders of the region. Instead, there are tendencies, which separately and collectively pull the Southwest in all directions. Gradually, the region is losing its character of being the mainstream of purposeful and progressive politics and sliding into an arena where everything is accommodated.OBASANJO and the PDP represent more than one of these tendencies. For instance, former Ogun State governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, has been struggling within the PDP to create an identity of a progressive. He has been finding it difficult even when he tries to position himself as a counter-force to the overwhelming influence of Bola Tinubu in Southwest matters.Others like Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Olusegun Agagu and Segun Oni, all former governors, are collected under the Obasanjo section of the PDP umbrella in the Southwest. All of them, including Mimiko, who has also grown into a tendency, have a common enemy in Tinubu and the ACN and their overriding aim is to limit or possibly stop the expansion of Tinubu and his political platform in the region.Even now, the encircled Iroko of Ondo politics may be contemplating returning to the PDP as a battle strategy against Tinubu. If that happens, it will not be too surprising of a man who is defined by an unusual acumen to understand when to abandon a sinking platform for another in order to remain afloat.Ajayi Boroffice, a Labour Party senator who defected to the ACN, provided these perspectives in one media report: 'When the late Papa Adekunle Ajasin wanted to go for a second term, his deputy, Akin Omoboriowo, opposed him and Governor Mimiko was part of Omoboriowo's team. He did a similar thing during the late Adebayo Adefarati's government in which he served as a commissioner. Adefarati wanted a second term, but Mimiko opposed him, factionalised the then Alliance for Democracy (AD) and defected to the PDP.'Again, when former Governor Olusegun Agagu wanted to go for a second term, he was equally opposed by Mimiko. Do not forget that Dr. Mimiko was Secretary to the State Government during Agagu's administration and was later made a minister in the PDP government. Despite that, he fought Agagu, broke the PDP and moved again to the Labour Party.'The above scenario creates the picture of a cat with many lives to expend.Meanwhile, positions have become deeply entrenched and nothing in the equation is indicative that the parties will be prepared to shift ground. A titanic clash complete in all elements is imminent.The Asiwaju has reportedly issued the order for the surrounding ACN states, including Edo, to work in concert to take over Ondo. Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State has been carrying on as if there is more to it than meets the eye. He is inexplicably angrier than others and he has come close to openly calling Mimiko 'ingrate' and a 'traitor' of the Yoruba cause.In the consuming obsession to cut the Iroko to size, the real issues in the Ondo governorship election have taken back seat. Nobody is asking, for instance, if Mimiko has done well enough to merit a second ture. The refrain is: 'Good or bad, the Iroko must fall'. And as the countdown continues, the burgeoning ACN crowd of supporters is increasingly transforming into a Roman mob, which does not ask question before it acts.Reports say close to 30 aspirants are jostling to secure the ACN ticket, to face Mimiko in the Ondo governorship election in October.It is like the last encounter between the beloved hero and the 'Bad Man' in a Chinese movie. For the movie to end, either of the men, usually the anti-hero, must be dispatched.The hero and his antithesis in the ensuing Ondo political fight are yet unknown. But the result of the brawl shall define where the characters belong: either under the same political hue or in different entities, as it is today.
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