OPINION: Osun Parliamentary Elections

Come February 14th and 28th 2015, the people of Osun State will join the rest of Nigerians to cast their votes for the candidates of their choice for the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly elections. Also on these dates, the Presidential and Governorship elections will hold respectively.
In Osun State, the elections will be unique because there will be no gubernatorial election. This is because election into the office of the Governor took place in August 2014 with the Action Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola re-elected for a second term. Thus, the battle shifts to the Osun State House of Assembly for election of Honourable Members, as well as the National Assembly for the election of Honourable Members of the Federal House of Representative and that of the distinguished Members of the Senate. We must note also that in Osun State, just like in all other States of the Federation, we now have two major political parties – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressive Congress (APC) in addition to the other smaller political parties thereby making the elections more competitive.
Before we go to the parliamentary polls in Osun State, we need to ask ourselves the question: Do we want continuity of the harmonious relationship that has existed in the last four years between the State Executive arm of government and the State Legislature? Do we want continuity of the massive infrastructural development that is taking place in Osun State as a result of this harmonious relationship? If your answers to these questions are in the affirmative, then you must vote for all the candidates of the ruling All Progressive Congress in Osun State. Please note that Governor Rauf Aregbesola wouldn’t have succeeded in his first term if he did not receive the support of the State House of Assembly members. Also, the wonderful support he got from the House of Representative members and Senators from Osun State cannot be underestimated. And mind you, this unflinching support is hinged on one major fact: the State House of Assembly members and those of the National Assembly are from the same Party (APC) with the Governor.
I am not saying that cordial relationship does not exist in States where the Governor and members of the State House of Assembly come from different Political parties but my experience in south west politics has shown that such party differences between the head of the Executive and the majority members of the Legislative arm gives room for frictions. The ugly incident playing out in Ekiti State since the election of Ayodele Fayose of the PDP as Governor is a pointer to what I am trying to explain. When an opposition party gains majority in a State House of Assembly, the threat of impeachment is usually high. It is either the Governor will be busy wooing some members of the House who are in the opposing party to decamp to the ruling party or the House members will be pre-occupied with how to frustrate the Governor through the threat of impeachment and non-passage of executive bills. And of course, the end result of this scenario is the collapse of governance. This is the least of what we expect in Osun State and that is why I plead with all Omoluabis to continue with the progressive politics that we have enjoyed in the last four years in Osun State. With the co-operation of the State House of Assembly, Governor Aregbesola has performed excellently given the limited resources that come to Osun State. We have witnessed massive infrastructural development, peaceful co-existence and security of lives and properties as well as over 20,000 jobs created for our Youths just to mention a few. We need more of these developmental strides in our beloved State of Osun and these can only be guaranteed if all hands are on deck to support the present government of Aregbesola by electing all APC candidates into the Osun State House of Assembly and also at the National Assembly.
-Yinka Olatunbosun, a former Aspirant for Ife East Constituency in the Osun State House of Assembly, wrote in from Ile-Ife.
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