Adeleke’s funeral : Real reasons Idiat was attacked

From YINKA OLUDAYISI FABOWALE

What was to be a solemn ceremony to bid farewell to the departed first civilian governor of Osun State, the late Senator Isiaka Adeleke last Monday turned rowdy and violent, as an irate mob attacked one of the principal guests and mourners, Ms. Idiat Babalola, erstwhile Special Adviser to the state governor on Federal Matters, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, whose nomination again as commissioner in the just reconstituted state cabinet is awaiting clearance by the state House of Assembly.
But, for the chivalry of the Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun and Adeleke’s younger brother, Deji, who, ignoring their personal safety and humiliation of having the canopy under which they, along with other guests were seated, collapsed on them by miscreants, to rescue her, the obviously shaken female politician could have been lynched.
Her assailants, had set the stage for her eventual humiliation by taunting and abusing her, making it clear that she was not welcomed at the event, as she walked in and took her seat among the mourners at the country home of the late politician along Aisu Road, Ede.
Against the backdrop of insinuation that the deceased Adeleke, a prominent indigene of the area and formidable power broker in the state, was allegedly poisoned to death to short-circuit his ambition to rule the state when the incumbent governor’s term expires next year, Babalola, from Ede as the late Adeleke, who was rumoured as being considered to be paired by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, establishment as running mate to an allegedly anointed candidate from another zone of the state, was apparently seen as a betrayer and persona non grata in the vicinity. What’s more, she was accused of having gradually shifted her allegiance from the late Adeleke, who reportedly brought her into politics and mentored her, after her return from the United States of America, and got closer to Governor Aregbesola after the latter appointed her as his aide.
Babalola, who is a daughter to the renowned industrialist, Chief Sakariyau O. Babalola, and sister to a former minister of mines and power, had, however, denied the charge in a public rebuttal last week insisting that there was no rift between her and her late mentor or any ambition to supplant his interest.
Be that as it may, the incident, Sunday Sun investigations showed, underscored the climax of the sour relationship between Babalola and loyalists of the late Asiwaju of Ede land, as well as perhaps, other APC elements who were aggrieved by her political career and serial activities in the party and government, which, they felt, often shortchanged other loyal and hardworking members from the area. The fact, a party chieftain in the area said, was that the woman politician had made a lot of enemies for herself and the death of Senator Adeleke only provided a channel to vent their anger and get back at her.
Sources said Babalola may have stepped on toes for allegedly riding roughshod over, and not acknowledging original members of the party and those of the Adeleke political family (to which she used to belong) often compelled to make sacrifices for her to be elected or appointed into public offices since her entry into politics.
Worse still, she was said to have been forming her own faction, whose members, she allegedly favoured with political patronage and appointments using her closeness to the corridors of power, a thing that did not go down well with other party members.
The height of it was her recent nomination by Governor Aregbesola as a commissioner to represent the area, above three other more favoured candidates from the community, who are considered to be more popular and with greater electoral value, being home based and grassroot politicians, as against her, viewed as an Ede abroad. Babalola’s bases were said to be in Lagos and Abuja, where she lived and interfaced with the Federal Government as SA on federal matters.
Babalola’s history of making political foes, it was learnt, may date back to when she was drawn to contest election to represent Ede South constituency in the State House of Assembly under the Peoples Democratic Party in 2007. Although there were already many aspirants jostling for the party ticket, they were persuaded to withdraw and the late Adeleke political caucus vigorously campaigned for her. She won.
After her tenure lapsed, she sought re-election and the Adeleke structure, it was gathered, still backed her, although she lost. Sources attributed her defeat to possible disenchantment by some members of the party at her alleged poor human relations with party supporters while in the House. Said a source: “For someone for whom some people were denied the ticket for her to have even a second shot, her interaction and attitude was said not to be so superb. Perhaps because she was new in politics or because of her American background, she didn’t understand how to relate with people in the way grassroots politicians do here. So, she did not satisfy many people.”
To compound the problem, the source said, Babalola herself, rather than pacify and reconcile with the people, reportedly started to nurse a grouse about those she felt sabotaged her second term bid.
The commissioner-designate probably made a new set of enemies when out of the blues Governor Aregbesola named her Special Adviser during his first term. The appointment was reckoned to be very curious, as Babalola was then still a member of the PDP. Observers note that this must have angered APC members from her constituency, who felt the slot should have gone to any of them who worked assiduously for the victory of the party in the elections.
Although, she claimed to have resigned her membership of her former party, many were not so happy with her that she did not immediately declare for and identify publicly with the ruling party until 2014, thus creating a gap between her and the party members in her constituency.
Unfortunately, some of her new party members accused her of the same old fault of being inaccessible. “She worked in Abuja and spent limited time when she visited home. Many people rarely knew she was around, because she appeared to only sneak in, except when she attended important functions in the town,” a source hinted Sunday Sun, stressing, however, that: “In fairness to her, she still did not abandon Adeleke, her mentor and his political family.”
“The late senator was like a brother to her. In Ede, we are like one family and the Adelekes have had a long history of deep relationship with her father,” another source explained.
Although her personal relationship with the late Adeleke was not affected in any way till the man died, it was not the same with the prominent politician’s followers. The major source of friction, Sunday Sun learnt, arose from the sharing of the APC tickets for the various elective posts in the Osun West Senatorial District after the late Adeleke left the PDP to join APC in 2014. The dispute arose over the insistence of the latter’s supporters to have the state House of Assembly ticket for the constituency, in addition to the senatorial ticket having been conceded on a platter of gold to their boss.
That stance was considered unfair and unjust by the original caucus they met in the party, as they complained that such arrangement would leave them with absolutely nothing, the ticket of the House of Representatives which was earlier allotted to them in Ede having been given to Mojeed Alabi from Ejigbo, from where the senatorial ticket was taken from Mudasiru Hussein and handed to Adeleke, in the strategic reconfiguration to win the poll.
Despite this, the Adeleke group fielded aspirants for the primary, but Nureni Adebisi was picked out of three nominees who emerged in the shadow election. The Adeleke boys believed Babalola was behind the emergence of the candidate now representing the area in the Assembly and never forgave her.
But, a chieftain of the party in the area said although the Aregbesola’s aide supported Adebisi, she did so in isolation. “Adebisi wasn’t her protégé, as they alleged, although she supported him. But, it was a collective thing. We all supported him, because we felt it was the only right thing to ensure harmony, cohesion and stability of the party here,” the party stalwart disclosed.
The crack between the Adeleke group and Babalola widened further with suspicions that she used her position and closeness to the governor and leaders of the party to influence subsequent appointments into, for instance local government caretaker management committee by Governor Aregbesola to their detriment. It was learnt that Babalola’s faction was favoured in the appointment of the caretaker committee members for the Ede-South, Ede-North, Ede-South-East and Area Council.
The development was seen as part of a game plan and permutation against next year’s governorship election in the state, more so, as the late Senator Adeleke, as one of the key leaders of the party was allegedly not consulted.
Also, some groups were said to have been further incensed that she was picked, while the names of some candidates preferred by the community did not feature in the commissioner-nominees list sent to the House about a fortnight ago.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was the rumour that she was positioning herself to be picked as running mate to a top official in the administration from Osun Central Senatorial District, said to have a link with the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, being considered to succeed Aregbesola.
This was viewed as a betrayal of not only Osun West, expected to produce the next governor of the state after the two other zones had also had a shot at governance of the state, but also treachery against her mentor, Adeleke, who had already signified interest in contesting the 2018 governorship and had begun state-wide consultation to realize his ambition. Accepting the deputy governorship post, the people felt, amounted to playing second fiddle and betrayal of their larger interest to have the governorship.
Hence, whenever Babalola visited Adeleke’s house, his supporters and boys always molested and abused her.
However, an associate of hers told Sunday Sun that “The mistake she made was that instead of reporting them to Senator who would have called them to order, she felt it wasn’t worth it, and ignored them. Rather, she stopped coming to the house temporarily to avoid the constant embarrassment.
But, seeing her again at the funeral and knowing the political situation on ground, it was not surprising that they attacked her,” the source said.
It was to them, an opportunity to vent their anger on their opponent. But Babalola, in her defence said: “I am a proud daughter of Ede and Uncle Isiaka has been a mentor and we never had any disagreement till the news of his death was broken to me while in Lagos on Sunday morning. I was heartbroken and immediately cut all my other engagements and came down to Ede from Lagos.
“We worked together with Uncle for the re-election of Governor Aregbesola in 2014 and for his own election into the Senate in 2015.
“Those who masterminded the attacks on me are people with poor understanding of the relationship between us and who act based on their own political permutations only,” she said.
Indeed, Babalola’ ordeal is, perhaps, what the late maverick politician and strong man of Ibadan politics, Chief Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu, an advocate of the Machiavellian principle of  “All is fair in war and politics” would describe as falling victim of a political canon shot (Ibon oselu). It’s a weapon deployed to sound the knell of the political career or character of opponents.
Will Babalola survive it? The answer blows in the wind.

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