2027: Egbas Are Not Under Obligation To Dash Yewa/Awori Free Governorship Ticket – Showunmi
ABEOKUTA – A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State, Otunba Segun Showunmi has dismissed the call for support of the Ogun West Governorship bid by the Egba section of the state.
Otunba Showunmi who spoke on Monday while addressing newsmen in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, said the Egba division should jettison the idea of claiming autonomous rights to the Governorship seat in 2027.
He said the Egbas are not under obligation to give the Governorship ticket to the Yewa/Awori people ala-carte.
Showunmi, who recalled that the Yewa/Awori were supported on three occasions in 2011, 2015, and 2019 respectively for the governorship race, said nobody has deprived them of the opportunity of producing the governor once again in 2027.
“We can’t be running democracy as if the only thing that happens every four years is election. We must prepare our minds that after every election we won’t be talking about another aspiration. It is too dangerous for us to conceive the idea that between an election to the next election, is the conversation to the next election.
“I do not think that the conversation to the next election of Ogun State is ripe. I feel that everything considered, we should still allow the person in charge to have a good two years of working.
“We are not under obligation to dash them the Governorship, because we gave them the ticket many times and they didn’t make it, nobody stopped them from voting for their children. But we have to balance society. I want to be governor, but I don’t believe that we have to convert the Egbas into the Fulani of federal government of Nigeria because of the careless talk of Awa L’okan as if anybody has ever deprived them. We should be talking in a way that accommodates all of us.”
Showunmi, who was the spokesperson of Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign Organization for the 2019 general election, described the Egba agenda as annoying and irresponsible.
He noted that, if any section of the state should display entitlement to the governorship race, it is the prerogative of the Yewa people who have never been governor for almost 50years.
“And if the Yewa people can negotiate and persuade and demonstrate readiness, we cannot put people’s private ambition, we cannot put a target behind the Egbas, the same way we put a target behind the Fulani of this country.
“I consider it the most irresponsible and annoying 2027 narrative for any race or any tribe or any section, especially the Egbas to give the impression that they are a super race within this state, they are not.
“This state we call Ogun State is a state that came about as a result of migration. The Egba people mostly came from Igbo Egba around Oyo, the Owu people mostly came around Ago Owu in Osun, and those that are mostly called Yewa/Awori are from the old great Oyo empire.
“Under this created state called Ogun, they did not seek express permission of the Abeokuta people to create Ogun state and there is nothing on record to say that the Egbas conquered the Ijebu by conquest. As much as I’m an Egba man, I do not like the idea that the Egbas are approaching 2027 in an unnecessarily entitled manner. I believe if anybody would be entitled, or displaying entitlement, it is the prerogative of the Yewa people who have never been governor for almost 50years. Therefore, we will discuss 2027 at the end of 2025. We are distracting the governor with the 2027 agenda.”
