Former President Olusegun Obasanjo may have given up after meeting an unyielding brickwall that frustrated his efforts to get two leading candidates in Ondo State to step down and forge a common front against incumbent Governor Rotimi Akeredolu in the October 10 governorship election.
His meetings with the leaders of the Zenith Party (ZLP), led by Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, and chieftains of the leading opposition in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), found both sides intransigent and unwilling to yield ground.
Claiming superiority, PDP and ZLP asked the former Nigerian President to convince the other party’s gubernatorial candidate to step down for its own flagbearer.
Ondo PDP Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kennedy Ikantu Peretei, told Daily Times on phone that Eyitayo was the candidate to beat and there was no need for such an alliance.
Conversely, ZLP Ondo State Chairman and former twoterm Member of the House of Representatives, Honourable Dr. Joseph Akinlaja told Daily Times: “Why should the majority step down for the minority?
On what basis would our candidate and the Deputy Governor be stepping down for Eyitayo?”
Having been unable to cross that crucial hurdle of forging an alliance, the former President obviously could not table other terms of the possible alliance for consideration, especially on the matter of a running mate and other portfolios that would feature in case the PDP-ZLP cooperation won and formed the government.
Obasanjo, who ruled the country from 1999 to 2017 on the platform of PDP, had called the former Ondo Governor and ZLP National Leader to Abeokuta to see how the candidates of Mimiko’s new party, Honourable Ajayi Alfred Agboola, and that of PDP, Barrister Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), could collaborate to win the October 10 poll.
Also at the meeting were former PDP governors like Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Osun State and Otunba Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State.
