Oyo State 2023 Governorship Election has come and gone. The winner is still basking in the euphoria of victory. The losers, licking their wounds, counting their losses. For political parties in disarray, it appears too early to start mending fences. The candidates who fell at the general election and aspirants who didn’t scale the hurdles of party primaries are already back to the drawing board in preparation for another round of governorship election in 2027. Trust Nigerians! They will soon start condemning politicians for starting the race to 2027 now. They will scold them that ‘a soul who’s not sure of making it to another day is nursing six months ambition’. The politicians would shrug their shoulders and give not a thought to those people who hold that it’s a sin to be ambitious. The politicians are wise to hold that ‘a person with sunken eyes starts to cry from afar’. As long as time is not ripe for world to end, politicians will continue to strategise to gain power.
While political activities are temporarily on hold in Oyo State as the returned Governor-elect Seyi Makinde is pressing up to embark on the second lap of his tenancy in Agodi beginning 29 May, 2023, there is something crucial that needs to be addressed and redressed about one of the governorship candidates in the last election, Senator Teslim Folarin, who flew the flag of APC. What is crucial about Senator Folarin that needs a redress is the baggage of misrepresented reputation holding down his political strength. Many people have held that Senator Teslim Folarin lost the election because of his ‘tainted’ reputation which, according to them, makes him unpopular among the Oyo electorate. However, even if Senator Folarin is no longer interested in vying for Oyo governorship seat again, it is just fair to him, to humanity and to God to clear several misconceptions surrounding his personality. Something happened recently which made it necessary to clear the airs on some of the negative tags on Senator Folarin’s personality. Though there were attempts during the last electioneering to put the records straight about his personality, it needs reemphasising that Senator Folarin does not carry the tainted personality some people ascribed to him.
The other day, precisely last Sunday evening, this writer made a detour to his Pharmacist’s to pick some drugs. It was almost time to break fast and he just wanted to pick the drugs and left for home to break fast. Immediately this writer stepped into the store, the Pharmacist who knows the writer to be an APC member and an addict of political discourses, pointed him out to a young man who was with the Pharmacist in his cubicle. The young man turned out be a supporter of Governor Seyi Makinde and a sworn enemy of Senator Folarin. He was ready to bet with his life that Senator Folarin wasn’t a good person, that he didn’t bring any dividend of democracy to Oyo State in all his twelve years in the Senate, four out of which he was a Senate Leader. The first question I asked the young man, who sounded educated but carried a lot of ignorance in his head, was ‘which senatorial district is Senator Folarin representing?’ The young man could not tell us the senatorial district Senator Folarin is representing and I put it to him that he couldn’t have seen the dividends of senatorial representation facilitated, implemented and sponsored by Senator Folarin since he could not identify the senatorial district the Senator is representing. This writer ended up leaving the Pharmacist’s few minutes after 8pm after having enlightened the young man on some of the misconceptions wrapped around the personality of Senator Folarin.
As it is with the young man at the Pharmacist’s, it is the same story of misrepresented reputation with many Oyo electorate who were too gullible believing all the negative propaganda thrown to smear Senator Folarin’s personality, who were too ignorant to counter the negative narratives, who were too unmindful to seek clarifications and who were too mischievous by spreading the narratives to those with whom they shared sameness of mischievous mind. This writer is bold to assert here that Senator Folarin’s misrepresented reputation contributed in considerable measure to his loss at the governorship poll. Regardless of any argument of internal conspiracy against Senator Folarin within the APC, it is no brainer for listeners and watchers of political events in Oyo State to conclude that Senator Folarin lost largely on account of his allegedly soiled reputation. It wasn’t Governor Makinde that was popular to have recorded almost a landslide victory at the poll. It was the depopularisation of Senator Folarin by his perceived negatives that haunted him at the poll and earned Governor Makinde the popularity that led to his eventual victory. This is not to say that the conspiracy from within and the bitter reactions that arose from the primary election that produced Senator Folarin as the bearer of APC’s guber ticket did not have negative effects on the outcome of the election against Senator Folarin. It is just safe to affirm that despite the conspiring factors of the last minute internal conspiracy and the ‘jagba’ backlash, Senator Folarin didn’t do badly in the election, having polled over two hundred and fifty thousand votes! For this writer, if you conducted a random sampling of how people intended to vote before the election, out of say, ten people, you would likely get eight of them passing derogatory remarks about Senator Folarin that ‘he doesn’t have a good reputation’, that ‘his body doesn’t have meaty flesh of love’, that ‘he’s a killer of Eleweomo’, that ‘he took back a power transformer from Sabo Community because he lost a previous election’, that he didn’t do anything worthwhile for Oyo State in all his political journey’, that ‘he didn’t establish companies for the youths to work in and earn living’ and other petty reasons why Senator Folarin was not fit to govern Oyo State. There’s also a misrepresentation of TKF’s personality by spreading it that he was miserly. Let us address some of the spurious allegations.
The former political aspirants for 2023 election in APC felt embittered at the manner Senator Folarin outsmarted them by getting not only the guber ticket but also the state executives. In protest, some of the aggrieved aspirants across political positions left APC to join another parties while those who didn’t leave stayed behind to destruct the party from inside. They thought Senator Folarin had committed a political harakiri by what they termed ‘jagbaism’ though in actual fact, the aggrieved aspirants also made efforts to get favourable lists of delegates from the party headquarters at Abuja. It’s a point that they all sought to outsmart one another but that one was smarter than the rest.
It’s already been put to rest that Senator Folarin didn’t have a hand in the murder of Lateef Salako Eleweomo as testified by late former Governor Alao Akala and Dr Victor Omololu Olunloyo who were political actors at the time. Yet, Governor Seyi Makinde, emboldened by the gullibility of Oyo people, told an illogic lie that a file indicting Senator Folarin of Eleweomo’s murder was on his table. This is the kind of authority recklessness that nailed the coffin of Senator Folarin’s misrepresented reputation before the people of Oyo State. Seriki Hausawa, Alhaji Ibrahim Zungeru, had debunked that Senator Folarin took away the transformer he donated to Sabo Community because he lost 2015 Governorship Election. It defies logic that Senator Folarin who was the first to gleefully congratulate Senator Abiola Ajimobi for winning 2015 governorship election even when the whole results hadn’t been released would turn round to confiscate a transformer he gladly donated to a community. I guess rumours thrive more in a state like ours where ears that hear and believe in rumours don’t listen to or believe in debunking of the rumours again. Senator Folarin was alleged not to have done anything to benefit his senatorial district in his twelve years in the Senate even when the footprints of his senatorial representation are conspicuous and ubiquitous in Oyo Central Senatorial District. The display of Senator Folarin’s many senatorial interventions/projects in the state during the recent electioneering could not assuage the ill-feelings that Oyo people had been made to develop against him by misrepresenting his reputation before the public.
Silent philanthropy doesn’t have a place in Nigerian politics, same way disbursement of political benefits isn’t done in secret. Your left hand must see what your right hand doles out in politics. Political benefits to political footsoldiers and the public must be shared in public square with trumpeters of news present to blow the trumpets of political benefits to all nook and cranny. Senator Folarin must have been found wanting in this. He arguably thinks political benefits attract religious rewards. A public office holder may do less but trumpet more to mislead people that he is the next best thing to where he represents after Barack Obama. I know people that are beneficiaries of Senator Folarin’s interventions on jobs, trainings and empowerments. How this didn’t get to public domain is saddening!
As Senator Folarin faces his political future, it is essential to re-present his reputation before the public. He’s allowed his adversaries to tell unpalatable stories about him and they got away with it. It is high time he put the records of his reputation straight. As this writer said earlier in this piece, Senator Folarin didn’t do badly in the recently conducted election, having scored over two fifty thousand votes despite the underhand compromises from some leaders and highly placed members of Oyo APC. This writer could bet that had Senator Folarin enjoyed a half of the goodwill that Governor Makinde enjoyed with Oyo people, the election would have been a close contest, that is, if Senator Folarin didn’t win narrowly. The odds were stacked up to the ceiling against him in the election and if he had considerable goodwill with Oyo people, it could have saved him from the undeserving defeat.