Three Things That Saved PDP In Osun Governorship Election

Osun was a Miracle. APC planned to rig shamelessly and succeeded in so many places scientifically and mathematically: cutting PDP victory in some places, inflating their own figures in other places – a hundred there, two hundred here, cutting it really close to look legit.

Let me do a quick thread on the three things that saved PDP in Osun apart from our collective efforts: The Adeleke-Underdog Strategy, Senator Iyiola Omisore and Focus on Osogbo not Ede where the election was actually decided. It was a victory for high strategy and experience.

Recall that Ekiti was lost because the APC came at Fayose with everything they could muster – it was like the entire hordes of APC he’ll against one man. In Osun, Adeleke was positioned as the underdog who was not a threat and APC focused on Omisore instead and invaded Ife.

If they had focused on Adeleke, they would have concentrated forces on Ede and not Ife, Boripe and Osogbo. While they were distracted, PDP snuck in and took four LGAs from their Ijesha stronghold, including my home LGA – Ilesha West. Omisore helped PDP in yet another way.

The spurious WAEC issue against our man – a serving senator whom INEC had thoroughly screened for election in the past had left many elite in the Osogbo areas considering holding their noses and voting Oyetola: But Omisore became their option instead after the debate.

Osogbo wasn’t the game changer and some of us knew all along but we needed to turn focus to Osogbo because APC could rig outrageously there. The game changer was Ede – and the figures confirm our calculation was 10/10 here – a solid margin delivered, home and dry.

Most difficult to execute was the underdog strategy – we could easily have defended Senator Adeleke on every issue he was attacked with but APC, feeling triumphant after defeating Fayose – couldn’t understand what was going on: how many votes can a dancing senator get? You couldn’t even tell there was an election from many PDP TL’s but far back as over a month ago, the recce was done with the full backing of the party and we identified what to work on. Bukola Saraki literally pulled PDP back into it with the Ogunbiyi-Adeleke reconciliation.

#OsunDecides : Three Things That Saved PDP In Osun Governorship Election

Not over on paper but onground: it is over and the gloves are off. We’re going forward as topdogs now – the Adeleke Dynasty is their daddy’s daddy: PDP has won Osun, the rest is formality and APC has only one option: Rig shamelessly and get exposed – Demola may not even play.

We ran on a Word – and it’s important to put that here I guess – for those who believe: God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. 2019 is being written already and it is a matter concluded, awaiting manifestation.

By the time they got wise to the threat and tried to arrest the man, Abuja saw it as in overkill that could tarnish their own evil plans for 2019. But even arresting Adeleke would have won us more margins – sorry but I was almost praying for it infact. But nothing would have worked without the massive online crowd who kept vigil for a state many don’t even know so well – they wished PDP success because they want APC out in 2019 and #OsunDecides2018 was the mock exam to be passed before sitting for the main. Guys, we’ve passed.

Again it dates back to 2015 when PDP was in crisis and we kept reminding people: Defeating APC and Buhari is not for PDP’s sake but a task for all Nigerians to buy into. The crisis was unplanned but we took advantage of it to key people into the opposition directly. What we have now is a massive online crowd of politically conscious young people who will support PDP to spite APC and if PDP too messes up, they will deal with us again until all our heads are correct. So we don’t take it for granted at all. And Davido is bringing fresh game.

Their daddy in Aso Rock is a goner. Their daddy in Lagos is upset that Aso Rock didn’t do everything to give him Osun yesterday – but doing that would have exposed the Aso Rock plan for 2019 too early and Osun wasn’t worth it for them. And this one is crucial to the matter.

A divided entity is a vanquished entity – APC is divided. Two Govs and one Gov-elect were practically working with another candidate, against the APC candidate who calls them the axis of evil along with one minister. (You know I can name names but the game is still on.)

I’ve gisted you people enough: let’s all just play our part in this thing and trust others to play theirs. If all you can do is RT or rant, please do, cos it works. We halted their plan to rig Osun last night and it was because of YOU, not anyone else alone, but YOU.

Fully aware also of the issues around the rerun but again, those tasked with raising that issue will keep raising it – #OsunWillDance after September 27 and neither all the area boys from Lagos nor the soldiers from Abuja will stop it. The Adeleke Dynasty is their Daddy.

This Piece was written by Demola Olarewaju, a Lagos based political analyst & member of the PDP.