Alhaji Hon Kabiru Lawal Bolakhale has been a political old horse dating back to the days of GDM. He was a Councillorship candidate of AD in Ward J in Ifelodun LCDA, then, but he lost that election to the PDP candidate and since then he has remained in politics. He was in the Action Congress (AC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and later All Progressives Congress (APC) his current party.
He later became a Councilor and the deputy leader, then leader of the House after the death of the late Hon Owolabi Abdulkareem, the former leader.
He came out for the chairmanship position in the year 2016 during the second term campaign of Hon Fatai Ajidagba, a former chairman of Ifelodun LCDA, but his ambition was cut short by instructions from the apex leader that all council chairmen in their first tenure should be allowed to return for their second term.
To compensate him, Hon Kabiru Lawal was given an appointment at the local government because he was instructed to support Ajidagba’s candidature for a second term by our Apex leader.
He explained more about how his chairmanship ambition was truncated.
“Let me use this medium to give a true perspective of events at that time. It’s our party’s practice that when the party has an overriding interest in any aspirant, and they ask you to drop your aspiration or to step down for their preferred choice, they will offer you certain other things
” At the meeting where the Apex leaders asked us to step down, I was offered the position of vice chairman to Hon.Ajidagba which is why people still call me Oshibanjo .
It was at that time that my friend Hon Kolawole Taiwo who was bigger than me by all ramifications, by virtue of his position and influence said he was ready to align with the instruction by Tinubu. He said the vice chairmanship slot should be given to him which he later offered to Hon Nurudeen Koleosho.
“The question thereafter was, what should be offered to me? Fatai Ajidagba then said he would not relinquish his SLG position, implying that he could not give me the SLG position because he still wanted Garba Adeola to return with him as the Secretary to the Local Government.
“At this time, I left but was later called by Ajidagba who proposed I should take another Councillorship form to return for a third term as a Councilor so that I would be made the leader. I was shivering and wondering how I was going to present the offer to my people and by this time, I was already having issues with the HKT group and had left the group.
“I was afraid people would say I was just fighting because I wanted to return as third term Councilor and that would destroy my reputation”.
Hon Kabiru further explained that when he became confused about what to do, he had to seek the advice of a brother Tunde Lawal, who told him not to accept the offer to run for Councillorship for the third time and later called Hon Ajidagba and told him that he will not go for a third term as a Councilor and the chairman promised to support him the best way they can.
“By this time, I had 12 delegates to my side and should we add my 12 to Ajidagba, he will win in the primary if any group insists. Despite that the post of Supervisor was shared among the leaders, Ajidagba insisted that I take Special Adviser on Community Development..
“It was because I joined Ajidagba Campaign Organisation (ACO) that my last aspiration was downplayed. ACO group said whoever is interested in contesting the chairmanship should indicate interest and when the group came up with Dr Leye, I was bound. You see how a group is erroneously determining the strength of one against the other.
“I noticed the blunder I committed then because I fought a lot of people in ACO by asking why not Adeola Garba as the group’s chairmanship flagbearer. It was because of Adeola Garba that made me not put up a strong fight in ACO then. This is what the group does, the same thing that happened in my former group. See the length of time we have been together in the HKT group, only for Koleosho to come and take vice chairman.
“Similarly, Baba Success built another take, giving the ticket to Dr. Leye which broke ACO. The same people who misled Ajidagba have long left him. However, I made up my mind to stand by Ajidagba in a win-or-lose situation and I instructed all my followers to do the same. By this time, I already knew that Okeowo was going to be Chairman but I never made any move to switch camp because of appointment. He emerged the way he did because anybody who wants to hold any elective position in the local government must have somebody to speak and stand for him.
“But sad enough despite all our efforts at the general election, we did all we could as a party people, canvassed, mobilized, and voted and at the end of the day, we heard people saying nobody voted for the incumbent chairman”, he further stated.
According to him, “We did all we could, mobilized, spent our money because just coming out from the Council as Supervisors we still had money and Ajidagba also gave us some money from his personal purse to help mobilize people”.
He added that APC’s constitution did not stamp that a second term is a must for anybody but there’s an implication that one has to earn the second term himself.
“If I should say I made consultation this time, yes, I consulted my God, because I am aggrieved as a former two-term Councilor, former leader of the House, and two times former Supervisor at Ifelodun council, there has not been any common letter of recognition to attend a stakeholders meeting or any program, nothing like that from this present government and that is not the way to treat people that had contributed to a system.
“This is real alienation from a group to some of us that toiled to develop the Council before they came. Not that I am out of the party, I am still in the system and the party. What then is the problem and what went wrong?
This truly made me conclude something was wrong with our party and I went ahead to develop myself in preparation to correct some things. Typically, when I was at the Council, I had only a School Certificate but I have furthered my education: I added a National Diploma in Marketing and a Higher National Diploma also in Marketing. This also infused a higher moral boost of having more than the basic minimum qualification.
Kabiru boasted that his educational qualification and his political experience a key factors in contesting any political position in the local government today.
“This additional qualification plus my political history from GDM, SDP-NRC, through the era of Ajeromi under Badagry and Ojo, to all my political appointments and experiences, I am ably qualified to seek for higher position.
“Even as people think in this part of our world that once you aspire against an incumbent office holder, it means you are against him. Nobody sees it from the angle that everybody has the right to aspire for any position.
“I heard people say that I am an enemy of the incumbent chairman and I sat down to reason, why should I be his enemy? And now I realize where he is coming from. Could he be thinking I did not support him before his emergence but there were others like Kolawole Taiwo, and Hon Adenekan at that time who did not support him and a lot others. It was only God that made him the Chairman through the area that he got his support and I respect God’s will,” Kabiru said.
The politician said part of what may be Hon Okeowo’s grievances against him dates back to 2003- 2007, while he was still in the PDP. They refused to give him their support to go for the House of Representatives.
“I realized being from the same ward, the Chairman may still have the year 2003-2007 grievances in his mind. That was when he was in PDP and we never gave him the opportunity. People should ask Paul, the former Ifelodun NULGE Chairman who will attest to how we doggedly worked for him at the election that produced him.
“Paul is still alive, he can testify to all my efforts on the day of his election and that is how party politics should be played, anyone who aspires and was dropped should drop every aspiration and sentiment to fall in line to support the party candidate. That was what we did; after all that, somebody can still call me an enemy.
“The boys with him in PDP abandoned him for another candidate in another party, are they not back with him now
In this dispensation, I am happier because no group can inhibit or determine my aspiration. So, it is me and my God though I know that an incumbent has some advantages I am not afraid
However seeing that not all that gives him 4+4 sign are with him, and it is not in their mind to support him and they are not with him because they are not enjoying his government”, he noted.
