•••Says Senator’s Political Rise Based On Opportunism Not Popularity
Oyo State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said that the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 election, Senator Teslim Folarin was no match for Governor Seyi Makinde, who contested on the platform of the ruling party.
The ruling PDP reaction followed a claim credited to Folarin in a statement which circulated across various online media platforms on Saturday that he lost the election to APC’s arrangements to win the presidency.
Folarin also described the APC as the strongest party in the state, having won the three senatorial seats of Oyo South, Oyo Central and Oyo North, including nine federal constituency seats out of 14.
A statement by the Publicity Secretary of PDP in Oyo State, Akeem Olatunji, on Sunday described Folarin as a sore serial loser who was fighting hard for a political comeback by associating his political misfortune to whom he ought to regard as his political master and most successful politician in the history of Oyo State, having emerged in two consecutive governorship elections with unprecedented electoral records.
Olatunji, while going down memory lane, reminded Folarin that he lost his polling booth woefully by over 100 votes, same with his Ward and local government in an election he was the gubernatorial candidate.
“So, who threw him under the bus in his polling booth, Ward and local government? Furthermore, Folarin was a nobody as far as Oyo State politics was concerned in 2003 and 2007 when as an opportunist he became a Senator by chance,” the statement said.
The PDP PRO stated further that it was the late Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu who threw his political weight to push Folarin as an adopted political son, stressing that he could never have won any election on his own as Makinde did to emerge governor.
Describing Folarin as a mere featherweight overrated politician, Olatunji said similar opportunity presented itself in 2019 when the then governor, Late Abiola Ajimobi, did same for him as part of plans to kick him out of the 2019 governorship race among the APC guber hopefuls.
The party stated that if Folarin truly is politically savvy as claimed he would realize that the controversial electoral success of the three APC Senators was entirely a product of ‘Tinubu effect’ or what many now term Tinubu Tsunami.
Olatunji, who described Folarin as a political orphan having no political godfather to associate with him or do his political bidding, should humbly retire from politics and stop living in self denial of obvious reality stressing that politics has advanced far more than the era of political hooliganism and reckless brigandage where ‘jagba’ or jagbajantis’ as the case may be was applicable in winning elections.
He narrated that the Senator’s years of being an opportunist in public office, winning elections on the back of political godfathers had deprived him the privilege of learning real grassroots politicking and political teamplay stressing that it was Folarin’s ‘jagba’ mentality that gave him false impression and hope of having a chance in the last election.
“Ordinarily, we would have ignored this reckless outburst by the most ungrateful politician in Oyo State since the return of democracy to Nigeria in 1999 being a political opportunist undeserving of the ground of merit and order of political ranking at the time on three different occasions.
“How can a Folarin hate himself so much that he keeps punishing himself with the psychological pain? Why can’t he just wake up from his delusions and self denial of obvious reality that Seyi Makinde is a political godfather to him and does not belong to his political class or league of politicians? What’s so hard in doing these things?
“The least Folarin could do for himself now is to hold his peace, stop talking abstractly, and if possible, retire from politics and face his private life because God has been so gracious to him to have offered him those three opportunities. He was a monumental failure to the good people of Oyo central who were never proud of his exploit in the Senate for the three terms, even when he became Senate Majority Leader through the influence of late baba Adedibu, he still failed to make use of the exalted office once occupied by the Great Late Senator Abubakar Olusola Saraki to facilitate notable projects for the people of Oyo State and most importantly the good people of Oyo Central Senatorial district.
“Governor Seyi Makinde who has since become a nationalist and unarguably the most successful politician as far as Oyo State politics is concerned could not have been a match for such a political puppet who was merely an opportunist. Isn’t it very obvious now that there is no more political godfather to help him win election that Folarin has sadly become a political orphan?
“We want to, for the sake of emphasis and record, state very clearly that winning two governorship elections back to back with such historical electoral victory were no mean feats and we urge Folarin and his likes to put respect to Makinde’s name each time it drops from their mouths because there is absolutely no basis for comparing father and son, it is in fact insulting to the sensibility of Oyo State citizens to do so. We won’t allow Folarin seek any come back from his political oblivion by associating his political misfortune to Governor Seyi Makinde.” Olatunji said.