Arrogant Amosun and His Unguarded Utterances -By Olamilekan Sotayo

“He who talks too much talks nonsense”, says an African Proverb. And now the “omniscient” and megalomaniac Amosun has noisily belched. When you talk nonstop, you would not have much time to think. Consequently, you would end up spewing balderdash.

On Friday evening, during an interview with journalists after receiving an award from the Abeokuta Club to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the association, Senator Ibikunle Amosun belched, “Just wait, very soon, you will hear where we are going next. Clearly, you know my stand, and my stand is my stand. I am not supporting this administration that is there now. He must be removed.” He directed his dirty words at the incumbent Governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun. Amosun bragged, “Well, I am happy. When you are in a place and they are telling you that you have done the work of four or five governors altogether. I feel elated. I am happy that they appreciated our little efforts,”.

Senator Ibikunle Amosun combined two traits of character that make a narcissist and vaingloriousness: loquacity and pride. He doesn’t know when to stop talking and he sees himself as the best (though worst) thing that has happened to Ogun State. It was an Igbo proverb that says “when an idol becomes too powerful and arrogant we tell him the wood it was carved from. Since Amosun’s totem has begun to act up, we the sons and daughters of the soil will simply make a bonfire out of it too. If simply to tell, it is only wood, after all.

Several people who worked with him during his “regime” did not only complain about his intransigence and narcissistic nature, they also groaned about his habit of one-upmanship when planning policies and events with other members of his cabinet. This negative attitude has become public in his ego-tripping quest to ruin Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, an institution named after the greatest benefactor of education in Ogun State, by relocating it to another venue. All attempts to prevent the relocation by leaders in the state, staffers, parents and students of the institution fell on his deaf ears: he was the god. Power drunk. And he could do anything he likes: that’s his nature, his love for power is on the same wavelength as his love for using it catastrophically.

Again, as typical of the former Governor, on Saturday, October 16, 2021, he wreaked havoc. The All Progressives Congress (APC) state congresses were held across the country and Ogun State was not left behind. In an orderly and peaceful manner, participants were exercising their party rights at the MKO Abiola Stadium, the approved venue, in Kuto Abeokuta before reports circulated that there was another Congress ongoing at the revered Alake’s Palace. As expected, it was the Ogun APC Judas at work.

In a deadlier version than the attack on President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, February 11, 2019, in a campaign rally during the administration of former Governor Ibikunle Amosun where the President was stoned by loyalist of, Abdulkabir Adekunle Akinlade, the Governors candidate as he raised the hand of APC governorship candidate,Dapo Abiodun, hoodlums who were a part of the fake congress caused mayhem. For some hours, chaos was the order of the day in that axis until men of the Nigerian Police arrested the situation.

Visibly, wherever the Judas (Amosun) of Ogun APC visits, mayhem visits. I hope Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his team become aware of this ruinous attitude of Amosun and be as tactical as possible while dealing with him in the forthcoming presidential elections. Despite Amosun’s efforts to both thwart the ambition of Prince Dapo Abiodun and provoke his person during the 2019 campaign, he met a mature trait of character in the Governor who neither had an altercation with him nor vilified him since he has become the Governor of Ogun State. However, as the power monger that the former Governor is, he would not stop trying to wrestle power with the governor and make the State ungovernable.

It was Confucius, a Chinese Sage, and Philosopher, who said “There cannot be two suns in the sky, nor two emperors on the earth.” That exclusivity applies to other skies as well in which the Abiodun sun chooses to shine. It is dispiriting at best and devastating at worst to see Senator Amosun who is the poster boy for unfinished projects thereby creating difficulty in livelihood for most indigenes and residents of Ogun State talking down on the incumbent governor who is tirelessly righting Amosun’s wrong without persecuting him.

Finally, for we have chosen him (Abiodun) to be the Governor of Ogun at the moment, the man whose cap is inordinately long and outlandishly roomy—a chamber of mischief, a capacious armory, a contraband warehouse, and a vault for illicit funds— should allow the Governor have a breathing space to give the dividends of democracy to the people of Ogun State.

Olamilekan Sotayo writes in from IFO, Ogun State