Could Hon. Mulika Akande-Adeola be heading to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and dump the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the party that offered her platform to contest and emerge member of House of Representatives on two occasions to represent Ogbomoso Federal Constituency and in which she has remained since joining politics in the 2000s? it is on record that she never cross carpeted from political party to another.
Well, politics is always a game fraught with surprises and which fosters reunion of old foes and disunion of current allies at a drop of the hat.
Hon Akande-Adeola, Majority Leader in the House of Representatives between 2011 and 2015, was once a close ally of erstwhile Oyo state governor, Otunba Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala, with the latter playing the role of godfather to her. This cannot be disputed because since she parted ways with Akala, she has not won any personal electoral contest whereas when she was under the wings of Akala she won the two elections she contested, against apparent formidable opponents.
The 2015 election meanwhile was the straw that broke the camel’s back, as far as their political relationship is concerned. Mulika refused to decamp with Akala to the Labour Party after his being denied the PDP guber ticket, as Muilka believed remaining in PDP was the only option that could boost her chances of nicking the goal of emerging Speaker in the 7th Assembly, a position she missed by the whiskers in 2011.
Since then, each had gone their separate ways, working diametrically opposed to one another. Akala has become a chieftain of the ruling APC and indeed a prominent leader of the party in the state while Mulika is a strong leader of PDP, believably with great influence at the national headquarters of the former ruling party.
However, the lawyer-turned politician has fallen out with the party at the state level and particularly with incumbent governor of Oyo state, Engr. Seyi Makinde, whose posture towards the former lawmaker has made her totally estranged from the party.
In an interview recently, Mulika confirmed her loss of fortune in the party when she lamented, “I feel used, l feel dumped. I think this was the situation from day one but l didn’t see it, l was just like PDP must win, PDP must win. That was what l was saying…
“We are in government, people are expecting so much and people are also wondering what is going to happen come 2023, so, for me, it is about the party and I have also told you that given another opportunity I will do a lot of things differently.
“You can only talk about what you feel and what you are planning to do, you don’t know what other people are planning, so, it is difficult for me here to be saying any other thing other than the fact that I am in PDP, and I worked for PDP…
“When Ajimobi was there I never passed in front of the government house not to talk of going there, that was not my party, I didn’t have any business with the government but this one that is my party, I don’t I know anything about the government …
“When people say these things I don’t listen because I want people to hold me responsible for what I do. Even if the closest person (I don’t know the closest person to him today) is saying, ‘don’t talk to Hon Mulikat again,’ he should sit down and reflect. He comes to Abuja, he knows my house and visited even after the election. So, he knows how to reach out to me, there are many ways you can carry people along so that nobody will feel offended …”
Head or tail she is an aggrieved stalwart of PDP and when politicians are aggrieved with no effort to assuage their grievances, other options are always options worth exploring.
Perhaps this is the unfolding scenario as the PDP in the state has completed the ostracism of the woman they once admirably called “Iya Gomina.”
ogbomosoinsightonline.com learned from impeccable sources that some forces within the Ogbomoso socio-cultural milieu have kick-started the process of smoothening the rough edges in the political association between the two gladiators in the face of the 2023 general elections.
According to information gathered, two powerful groups have been identified which have stepped in to resolve the matter harmoniously and bring the two together again.
The first group, made up of non-politicians it was learnt initiated the move calling on the two politicians who did not oppose the effort.
However, Akala reportedly gave a condition that Hon Muilka needed first to make amends with certain political heavyweights like Senator Brimmo Yusuf, a retired Brigadier General and strong pillar of Akala’s political empire. Mulika was said to have met the condition.
Subsequently, another group of peacemakers said to be traditional chiefs stepped in to further explore the peace process and are also reported to be making remarkable progress, with a meeting between the duo expected to unfurl soon.
But whether brokering of peace between the two stalwarts will lead to Mulika dumping PDP for APC is not yet clear. Nevertheless, APC becoming the next destination of Mulika is a high possibility considering the poor treatment she received in the PDP at the state level despite the immense connections she is claimed to have at the national level. None of her nominees is a local government chairman or vice chairman and neither is any a councilor at the moment just as all her former supporters in government have been made to abandon her through coercion, made irrelevant or sacked.
In the meantime political pundits await the event unfolds.
