There is something deeply troubling and frankly astonishing about how supposedly independent-minded people in Ogun State have become so thoroughly captured.
Yes, a political party has the right to choose its internal mechanisms, even if that means adopting “consensus” as its preferred pathway. But across every serious political system where consensus has credibility, it rests on one indispensable foundation: integrity. Without that, consensus degenerates into imposition.
That is precisely the issue before us. Those now attempting to foist this arrangement on Ogun State bring with them no demonstrable record of integrity neither in private conduct, nor in public service, nor in any coherent understanding of the responsibilities of governance. In such circumstances, what is being presented as consensus is, in reality, a crude instrument of control.
This is how state capture begins. And it must be resisted.
We are therefore confronted with a defining test: not just of the arrogance of those seeking to impose their will, but of the resolve or complicity of a people once known for their independence.
History offers us guidance. The decline of the Oyo Empire reminds us that no system, however entrenched, is beyond challenge. The legacy of the Egba United Government affirms that our people built institutions of governance strong enough to command respect even from external powers.
And the Ijebus themselves demonstrated this fiercely guarded independence in the Anglo-Ijebu War the so-called Magbon War where they chose resistance over submission in the face of imperial pressure.
That heritage imposes a duty.
We cannot, in this generation especially within the framework of a democracy accept the status of a conquered people. No justification political convenience, party loyalty, or manufactured inevitability is sufficient to compel a free people to return to servitude.
What is unfolding may be presented as process, but it is experienced as humiliation.
Otunba Segun Showunmi is Odofin Keesi, initiator The Alternative. He writes this piece from Abeokuta, Ogun State Capital
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