A former Oyo House of Assembly aspirant, Mrs Folashade Agoro-Braimoh has avowed that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) stands a great chance of producing the next governor of Oyo state if the party ensures that its candidate hails from the Oke-Ogun area of the state.
Agoro-Braimoh premised this assertion on the recent conglomeration of “strong progressive politicians” of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and All Progressives Congress (APC) into the ADC, which she said had made the ADC the party to beat in 2019.
Describing the ADC as the new bride in Oyo politics, Agoro-Braimoh said what was imperative was for the party to galvanise politicians and stakeholders in Oke-Ogun zone to agree to present one sellable candidate to the electorate.
Agoro-Braimoh in the conversation with journalists, in Ibadan, also echoed the arguments of some indigenes of Oke-Ogun that the zone, having not produced a governor since the creation of Oyo state, was ripe to produce Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s successor.
“I believe that Oke-Ogun can actually spin it. I believe strongly that if we come out with the right candidate, a sellable candidate if we agree together if our values are same if we believe that the candidate that we are putting forward will consider our best interest, I believe that Oke-Ogun can still spin it.
“Considering the different political parties at the moment, looking at all of them, the PDP, APC, SDP and the ADC, I think ADC is a party that I believe will be open to an Oke-Ogun indigene becoming the governor. Because if you look at the other structures, I mean the other political parties, they already got their candidates mostly from Ibadan. APC has many of its big candidates from Ibadan while SDP and PDP also have Oke-Ogun party chairmen. So the likelihood of having our chance in those two other parties might be slim.
“The call to the leaders of ADC will be to reach out to the good people of Oke-Ogun to educate them on who to vote for irrespective of political party. They need to focus on who they think will serve the region better and as I always say, you are free to choose but you are not free from the consequences of your choice,” she said.
Agoro-Braimoh, who had aspired for the Iseyin/Itesiwaju state constituency seat in 2015 on the platform of Labour Party, said there was the possibility of the Labour party collapsing into the ADC.
“I as a politician obviously believe in the values of my part. I also share in the mission of the Labour party and considering which party I might be aligning with, I think that will be for my leaders to say or make informed decisions. Having said that, I have got a party that I believe is of the progressive-leaning and a party that believes in the people and not in authority so to say. I think I won’t be surprised if I go with the ADC. But like I said to you, it will be for the leaders to decide.”
She, however, called on youths and women in the State to equip themselves with enough political education in order to break what she called the shackles of oppression from the ruling elite.
Especially, Agoro-Braimoh commended the signing of the Not Too Young To Run Bill by President Muhammadu Buhari but noted the youths of Nigeria still have a long way to go in actualizing the dream of having sustainable representation in political parties and government.
“There is still a lot to be done especially in terms of low participation of women and the youths in the political trend of Nigeria. Signing of the bill is commendable but we still got a long way to go.
“In Nigeria in particular, we find that women and youths are discriminated against from running for political positions either overtly or covertly. We know there are different factors that contribute to all these, such as structural and personal.
“I believe strongly that women and youths are to engage in the political processes that affect them and the society. I always say that whatever happens in politics is my business as a woman, because directly or indirectly, it will affect my family and my society. So there is discrimination against women because, in Nigeria, politics is male-dominated.
“Look at the structures of the parties, you will realize that they still believe in the idea that the men need to rule while women are to serve in the domestic area and that is why the percentage of women vying for political positions are so low.
“In the structure of all Nigerian parties, you have the chairman, the vice-chairman as males and the only place reserved for a woman is when they want a woman leader and the only place you will see a youth in the structure is when they need a youth leader. It should not be so. It should be a level playing field. So our women and youths should also avail themselves with basic information about today’s politics and really get involved,” she said.
