WHEN DUTY IS NEGLECTED, THE BALLOT BECOMES A WEAPON: ONDO NORTH APC PARADOX
WHEN DUTY IS NEGLECTED, THE BALLOT BECOMES A WEAPON: ONDO NORTH APC PARADOX
By Temidayo Lawrence KONIBAJE
lawrencetemidayo25@gmail.com
It is not only an act of dementia, but also parody to watch the incumbent political Office holders of the All Progressives Congress in Ondo North Senatorial District running Helter skelter in panic for tenure renewal. Having relinquished governance for sycophancy, they now fall back on political blackmail, imposition, and deception to engineer their inferiority and mediocrity.
Let it be on record, so that you mediocres, rapacious kleptocrats, and vampiric political elite may read: that your stewardship will be demanded for as evidence that you serve the people.
We will not allow you miscreants to weaponized blackmail and continue to subject the people of Ondo North to whims and caprices of penury in the name of election.
The recent apocalypse in Ondo North political terrain draw me back to W.B. Yeats in _The Second Coming_, 1919:
*“Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold; The falcon cannot hear the falconer.”*
It is too late for political wheedling. Monetary influence will not change them. Even the party mechanism cannot enforce them from impending disgrace. The people have withdrawn their mandate. The falcons *”the electorate of Ondo North,”* have, in oneness across constituencies, decided to remove the “falconers”: extravagant failures parading as representatives. That resolve now constitutes an integral threat to these political marauders.
In response to my Egbon Folahanmi Odun article tagged *“CHIEF ALEX AJIPE (DLA) ENDORSING ANOTHER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE AGAINST PRESIDENT TINUBU WILL BE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE FOR THE LATEST OWO BRIDE”*, I am convinced and compelled to believe that the piece is of more a political statement than assessment.
The facts remain unchangeable, Hon. Alex Ajipe, an illustrious son of Owo, has been consistent in his commitment to the emergence of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Owo LGA and by extension, Ondo North.
Permit me to take you down the memory lane. Senator Jide Ipinsagba got the APC ticket through the back door under the auspices of our late father, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN. It was endorsed then in the spirit of geopolitical equilibrium, to allow Akoko retain the Senate seat even after the languor of Senator Boroffice for years in the house.
However that aberration, Hon. Ajipe remained the safeguard of APC in Ondo North while the incumbent senator was bewildered with erecting a mammoth Hotel beside ShopRite in Akure as his constituents wallowed in poverty.
Honorable Alex AJipe was the only aspirant whose votes were monitored by INEC officials and transmitted to the Ondo North collation center located in Owo Local Government Area. Senator Ipinsagba who failed woefully, refused to announce or convey his results to the collation center. That was not politics. That was a profanation of democracy.
Our most distinguished leader, the Hon. Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, lent his signet to Jide Ipinsagba retention. If I may ask: Has Akoko suffered collective amnesia regarding Aketi benevolence? I am very much aware that it was our late brother, Arakunrin Akeredolu who brought Jide Ipinshagba to the limelight even when he had the power to back Honorable Alex AJipe.
With great respect to the performing Minister, speaking with utmost candor, Akoko currently have 2 members in the House of Representatives, and nothing less than 5 Directors-General at the federal level, other key appointments, and 2 Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Why, then, the refusal to support an Owo son during the primaries election? To me, this is a parochial self-interest, and it is a threat to our relationship as district bounded by love. I make no allegations. The jury is the people.
That betrayal hastened Hon. Alex Ajipe philosophical migration to DLA, a platform created not too long, and this decision is taken to emancipate Owo and Ondo North from neo-colonial political overlords. Hon. Alex Ajipe remains a reputable and quintessential progressive, impelled by intellectual intentness and the capacity to reshape our political architecture.
The sacred purpose of Ondo North citizens remains the delivery of the Tinubu mandate and victory. Left in the custody of these mischievous “falconers,” APC will suffer a calamitous verdict in Ondo North, because the party standard bearers, especially Owo/Öse and the Akoko pastor, Senator Jide Ipinshagba, have been devoid of impact.
The present Representatives of APC in Ondo North are nothing but vampiric political elite, rapacious kleptocrats, and extreme megalomaniacs in aged Agbada.
This reverberate with Chinua Achebe in *There Was a Country* publish in 2012. APC exists in Ondo North, but the party members can no longer identify with the source. The party is drowning. Its identity has been exiled by rapacity and egocentrism. No caucus meetings. No grassroots impact. Only transactional stipends during electoral seasons.
In the forthcoming election, the people of Owo and the remaining sideline local government in Ondo North senatorial district will conjoin behind leadership defined by purpose, vision, and legacy, not by silly empowerment and fleeting palliatives.
Senator Jide Ipinsagba cannot highlight a single monumental project executed in Ose, many part in the akoko and Owo, the epicenter of progressive in Ondo State and Nigeria.
The people of Ondo North senatorial district are no longer meek. They are politically conscious. They are prepared to relegate failure and enshrine competence.
Temidayo Lawrence-KONIBAJE
Owo LGA, Ondo State
Nationalist | Writer | Public Speaker
21st August, 2026
