Ondo 2016: A race wrecked by lawyers?

By Emmanuel Aziken That Saturday’s scheduled governorship contest in Ondo State has been entangled in legal convolutions is not surprising to some given the fact that the candidates of all three major parties involved are senior lawyers.

Two Senior Advocates of Nigeria, including a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA Rotimi Akeredolu; and the first SAN to have emerged from the Northeast, Eyitayo Jegede are central players in the election. Akeredolu is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC in the election while Mr. Jegede again resurfaced as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP after his name was initially removed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC supposedly on a court order instigated by a rival faction. The beneficiary of the court order, Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim, is also a lawyer even though his reputation came from his strides in business and controversial role as a turnaround expert. Jegede re-emerged as the PDP candidate after stringing the kind of legalese that he had in time past used to win many political cases that made him one of the leading legal luminaries in the Northeast. Chief Olusola Oke, the candidate of the Alliance for Democracy, AD is also a lawyer, fittingly turning the governorship contest into a quasi-battle between ‘learned’ fellows. Of the lot, Akeredolu is the most senior in the bar having graduated from law school in 1978 and won his silk in 1998. Mr. Jegede graduated from law school in 1984 and earned his silk as a SAN in 2008. Chief Oke was called to the bar in 1987 having graduated from the Obafemi Awolowo University. Mr. Ibrahim was called to the bar in 1992 having graduated from the Obafemi Awolowo University a year earlier. Remarkably, the only other candidate with national name recognition in the contest and who is not a lawyer is, Dr. Olu Agunloye, who is the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP. Though Dr. Agunloye by his history as a former minister is reckoned to have held the highest political office of the lot, the lawyers have seemingly used legalese to elbow him out. He is, however, not ruled out given the last minute political gesticulations arising from the legal combats. Did the circumstance of their professional leaning contribute to the complications that have surrounded the governorship contest? Mr. Emmanuel Onwubiko, a former federal commissioner in the National Human Rights Commission and national coordinator of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HUWIRA strongly rebuffed that suggestion saying that the lawyers in the contest have been engulfed in the lifestyle of Nigerian political class. “The Nigerian politician whether he is a lawyer or a media practitioner or a scholar all have one lifestyle, they are avaricious, they are greedy, they are selfish, the will to capture power among them is overwhelming. So, it doesn’t matter what profession they are trained in; it doesn’t guide them in the way they pursue power in Nigeria. “They are like footballers who are hustling for the world cup, so I think that is the reason, not because they are lawyers.”