There is no denying the fact that Ondo State people are enthusiastically awaiting the decision of the national leadership of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) on the choice of that man who will fly the flag of the party in the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo State that has been scheduled to hold in October 20 later in the year.I wouldn't know if Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu or Chief Bisi Akande, among other leaders of the party, has zeroed their mind on the candidate for the Ondo State ACN. I do not also know if the national leadership of the party has gone about picking the candidate using the said traditional system of anointed candidate without considering the peculiarities of Ondo State in the politics of South- West. Whatever the case, I hope they know that Ondo State is different from other states in the South-West. I hope Asiwaju knows that what is observable or practicable in other states in the region may be dangerosus in Ondo State-and that a mistake of not selecting the most credible, most popular and mostly 'on ground' may be very costly as this may rapidly destroy the party's chances soon after the choice is announced. No doubt, all the over 30 governorship aspirants in the party in Ondo State are qualified to serve their father's land if they choose to do that sincerely. But there are some factors these leaders may consider to be germane to selection exercise or whatever grammar they choose to use. Few of these factors which can be found in the candidate of the party are competence and pedigree, the candidate must have managerial skills. This person must be on ground. He must be on the field, popular with necessary political relevance to command the votes.He must be able to build a bridge within the party and be loyal to the party. There is no gainsaying the fact that these qualities are abundantly deposited in the candidature of Dr Olu Agunloye. I will briefly back this assertion up and I will say the facts are easy to crosscheck by the leaders. They must ask Civil Servants and Labour Leaders, common man on the streets, party men and opinion leaders across the State. The reason we came to this conclusion are briefly presented below: There are three undisputable attributes which make the status of Dr. Agunloye clearly stand out amongst other governorship aspirants in Ondo State. The first is his pedigree and experience as technocrat, minister and politician which span over 30 years without blemish; the second, is a very strong and virile structure within the ACN which he has set up with the establishment of Omoluabi Platform throughout the State and third, is his unrelenting drive for grassroots mass mobilisation. In overview, we shall touch only on the last two attributes. At the current time, Agunloye's structure, Omoluabi Platform permeates the state with 52 physical offices, including the prestigious head office along Oyemekun Road Akure and a so-called 'world headquarters' in a four storey building in Erusu-Akoko. The platform boasts of 157,000 formally registered members and has 'branches' in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, London, Connecticut, Atlanta and Washington. In terms of mass mobilisation which is another reason that has made Dr Agunloye stand out, the Erusu born technocrat turned politician and senior managers of Omoluabi Platform can be meticulous in negotiating and implementing the process of midwifmg and effecting mass mobilisation or what he calls 'serial decamping'. Dr. Agunloye proudly says his Omoluabi Platform has midwifed 205 decamping sessions which had recruited several thousands of new members into ACN as at the beginning of June 2012 since May 8, 2011 when his Omoluabi platform started the drive to strengthen ACN in Ondo State. He maintains that some of the requirement and processes are not only expensive but time consuming and requires skilful persuasions and negotiation; hear him: 'take for instance, initial discussions and negotiations on the Serial Mass Mobilisation facilitated by Prince Adewale Omojuwa (former OSOPADEC Chairmen) started in October 2011 with several meetings in Erusu-Akoko, Akure, Okitipupa, Oshogbo, Ila and Lagos with senior officers of Omoluabi Platform and party leaders in and outside of Ondo State. Consummation of this meticulous groundwork only began to manifest publicly with the mega decamping rally led by Prince Omojuwa in Igbokoda, Ilaje LG on the 28 April. 2012 when the Ilaje Prince decamped with some 3,000 former PDP member, garnished with 1,000 ex-militants ... ' Decamping by politicians from other political parties to the Action Congress of Nigeria has remained a major mass mobilisation tool to strengthen the party and has been used significantly by the Omoluabi Platform to contribute to a stronger ACN in Ondo State over the last one year. Publicised decamping activities promote the party as well as swell the population of the party with membership from the Labour Party, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and other parties. This has become crucial since ACN was rather relatively in a weaker position at the beginning of year 2011. The prolific recruitment drive of the Omoluabi Platform can be seen from recent serial decamping sessions in the first half of the month of June 2012 of essentially 11 days as there days were held as national mourning in respect of the victims of the air crash. These are few of the achievements of Dr Agunloye.There is no denying the fact that Dr Agunloye is one of the brains behind the new ACN in Ondo State today. As the would-be governorship candidate of the party in October 20, 2012, Agunloye truly stands tall among others. His track record and contributions to better Nigeria, Ondo State in the past and his task of growing and strengthening the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which is a party under which he is contesting, are there to speak for him. Omolade wrote in from Akure.
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