Osun West Agenda: How APC, PDP should source candidates

From the beginning of this year, the race to the elections in Osun and Ekiti States has been attracting a lot of permutations and different narratives on who should be in the Government Houses of the two states. As the incumbents keep developing and fine-tuning their strategies towards anointing who succeeds them, concerned electorates and groups are not rest in agitating for selection of candidates from their regions, cities or towns.

In Osun State, the narrative has been that the next governor of the state should come from the Osun West Region. This has been the agitation of several political interest groups especially the youths from the region. They felt that the region has been marginalized because only the late Senator Isiaka Adeleke hailed from Osun West Senatorial District, but his governance was truncated owing to the aborted Third Republic.

The youths from one of the cities in the region have been saying that any political party that failed to choose candidate for the September 22 gubernatorial election from their city will lose over 100,000 votes. Agitation also rages on social media, where some concerned citizens of the region have been mobilizing towards the actualization of ‘It is the turn of Osun West’ agenda.

From the political analysts and prominent politicians in the state, Osun West needs to be considered for the coveted seat in the state because the region has contributed significantly to state development since its creation. Some believe that in terms of gaining significant results during elections, the region usually have more votes than other regions. According to them, the place of the region in the state political history cannot be neglected.

Beyond this, the region has competent and capable candidates who would sustain the gains recorded by the previous administrations. For those who against the “Osun West Agenda”, who becomes governor should not be the matter of region. Every region should be allowed to contest. At the same time, emphasis should be on competency and capability of the aspirants. If the place of the region in terms of previous elections’ performance has to be considered, where should the candidate come from?

Where the candidate should come from?

In 2014, the ruling party and the main opposition, People’s Democratic Party, had the highest and the lowest votes from Osun West 1 comprising Ayedire, Iwo and Ola-Oluwa. For the two parties, the highest votes were recorded in Iwo, the headquarters of Osun West Region while the lowest votes equally came from Ayedire and Ola-Oluwa.

Further analysis shows that three local councils in each division within the region have potential of ensuring victory for the All Progressive Congress and People’s Democratic Party in September 22 election. In the first Cluster for the APC, Ola-Oluwa, Ede North and Ayedaade are the councils the candidate should emerge from. The party also has the chance of winning the election if the candidate is chose from Iwo, Isokan or Ede South.

For the PDP, Iwo, Ayedaade and Ede North should be considered first while Ayedire, Isokan and Ede South should be the second unit of selecting candidate. However, analysis suggests that Cluster 2 is better for APC than Cluster 1 while Cluster 1 is better for PDP than Cluster 2.