As the preparations for the 2019 polls gather stems, the decision of a former deputy governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Bayo Adelabu, to contest the governorship seat of Oyo State, has pitched the youth against certain elders within the ruling party in the state, All Progressives Congress (APC).
Sources in the know told Global Excellence magazine that, already the APC youth within Ibadan and those from Oke Ogun have endorsed the former banker for governor but the challenge posed by some influential elders within the party, it was gathered, is the reason for the latest crisis.
The youth, under the aegis of New Era Ambassadors (NEA), Global Excellence magazine gathered, is championing Adelabu’s political cause at the moment, while it is said to have been reaching out to politics-inclined youths from other constituencies in the bid to ensure that the young Adelabu in 2019 succeeds the incumbent governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi.
An industrialist, strategist and philanthropist of note, Bayo Adelabu is a grandson of a pre-independent firebrand Ibadan politician, Adegoke Adelabu, fondly called ‘Penkelemesi’. The youth groups speaking through one Femi Awogboro, its coordinators, stressed that Adelabu “has done well as a banker and as such is well equipped and qualified to replicate same as governor,” adding that he is the best to carry on with the legacies of Governor Ajimobi who he said has raised the bar of governance in the state.
Global Excellence magazine learned that the elders who are against Adelabu’s choice as Ajimobi’s successor had their preferred candidate for the office and have been doing everything possible to ensure he does not scale through, including, allegedly sponsoring media attacks on his personality.
The group, however, warned that Adelabu’s rejection by anyone will be a great disservice to the people of the state particularly the youths who look up to having Oyo State breath a new life with the election into office of a new generation leader.
“We are passionately appealing to our elders to allow Adelabu to bring his expertise, vision, tact, intelligence and vibrancy to bear on the office of the Governor of Oyo state come 2019, in order to keep on the good works started by the incumbent,” the group said in the statement.
-Folorunsho Hamsat
