Akinlade: Tale of a Befuddled Politician

Akinlade: Tale of a Befuddled Politician

Do you wish to write a book about a certain Nigerian politician who allegedly lacks any political ideology and talks from both sides of the mouth? If yes, you should be considering profiling Abdulkabir Adekunle Akinlade, who seems to have displayed the attitude of a politician who has no mind of his own but rather plays a puppet to his godfather.

It will be recalled that when his godfather and former Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, picked him as his anointed candidate for Ogun governor towards the twilight of his tenure, many kicked perhaps, based on his antecedents.

In the build-up to the election, when he couldn’t be accommodated in the APC fold, the former member of the House of Representatives “launched” a totally unknown party, Allied Progressives Movement, APM.
However, this was the beginning of his political albatross. He eventually lost the governorship election to the APC candidate, Prince Dapo Abiodun.

Acting on the advice of his godfather, he refused to accept the result of the election and pursued it to the Supreme Court, where he lost woefully. Maybe if he had known, he would have accepted his fate in good faith. But like an unrepentant optimist, he decided to challenge the outcome of the election.

However, many in the state were not surprised at the outcome of the result, especially because he as well as the party was not so popular in the state.

Today, the saying among political watchers in the state is that he is somewhat comfortable being tied to the apron strings of Amosun.

This thinking gained traction last week when news broke that he had returned to APC.

Akinlade also reportedly advised everybody who contested the 2019 elections on the platform of APM to bury their grievances and return to the fold.

He was said to have urged his supporters to put their grievances aside and display the same courage and high sense of responsibility that kept them on the course of justice through the last 15 months.

What a tale of a befuddled man!

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