TAYO OYEKANMI
Make no mistake about it, Hon Oladipupo Adebutu, the supposedly PDP Governorship Candidate in Ogun State before, is not mighty politically as he wants people to perceive him. Save for family resources being made available, particularly during election periods.
It was Winston Churchill who once said that politics is almost as exciting as war and quite as dangerous. Imagine someone had told Lado that he might not be on the ballot for the Governorship election in Ogun State, despite being the Alpha and Omega of the party in the state. Of course, Lado would have treated such a claim with derision and much more. In the state, since the passage of Prince Buruji Kashamu to the great beyond, Hon Ladi Adebutu has assumed the sole ownership of the party. He allocates offices at will and dashes tickets to anyone who catches his fancy. But the latest judgement of the Supreme Court has put paid to that. It must be a shock down his spine. Now his Governorship ambition is in jeopardy following the omission of his name from the party’s register submitted to INEC. The truth of the matter is that Lado always treats what matters, especially the administrative and organizational aspects of politics, with levity. He always major in minor things. He has so much belief in the resources at his disposal. That is the reason he finds himself in the current cul-de-sac, as happened in 2019.
In 2019, the judicial hammer fell on Ladi Adebutu as the candidate of the party. He lost it to arch-rival Prince Buruji Kashamu at the eleventh hour of the race. He has failed to learn any lesson from that episode. Ladi Adebutu will always fall victim to his own cocky attitude toward what matters. He has busied himself fouling the political turf of Ogun State without doing the needful. Such a freestyle personality is not good enough for a State like Ogun.
Personally, I actually want Hon Ladi Adebutu to get to the election so that he can properly know his rating by the people of Ogun against Sen Solomon Olamilekan Adeola Yayi. But as things stand today, he might not. What a pity! This might actually be poetic justice for his indiscretion and inordinate ambition of trying to succeed his kinsman from the same town, local government, and senatorial district, when a whole race of people and the entire Senatorial District of Ogun West hasn’t been able to govern the State since it was created over 50 years ago. This is the highest level of political insensitivity and cruelty one can imagine.
While one is tempted to say it serves Ladi Adebutu right that he might not be on the ballot, he actually orchestrated the whole dead-end ambition upon himself unconsciously. The self-defeat is a result of not paying attention to details and being clouded by ambition and reliance on resources, as stated earlier, at the expense of doing the needful at the most appropriate time. Hon Ladi Adebutu has failed the elementary test of politics and the import of what former American President Lyndon Johnson said: “When you walk into a room, if you can’t tell who’s for you and who’s against you, you don’t belong in politics.” Now the likes of Otunba Segun Showunmi have earned the bragging rights to sing and reference Lado as a novice in politics.
But be that as it may, alarm bells should have triggered suspicion for Hon Ladi Adebutu when he was made to pay his Gubernatorial form fee into a private enterprise account. More of an oddity for a functioning political party, if you ask me. But Lado was engrossed, and he might have to pay heavily for not being alert. Now the self-acclaimed mighty man is down. Will he be back? Only time can tell.
But for now, Hon Ladi Adebutu can begin to understand that politics, as they say, is the real sport; all others are just contact sports.