Olusegun Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo may have begun deft subterranean activities at ultimately installing his first daughter, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello as the next Governor of Ogun State, South West Nigeria.

The latest political onslaught by the former President is being blamed for the latest political tension in the state as Obasanjo's faction is now headed for a debilitating head-on collision with the political machinery of the incumbent Governor of the State, Mr. Gbenga Daniel.

Relationship between former President Obasanjo and Governor Daniel has become sour with speculations that the former President confided in one of his close confidants in the state that he regretted throwing support for Governor Daniel in 2003 when he first ran for the Governorship of the state.

Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello

Governor Daniel had recently stormed out of a meeting with President Obasanjo, an action seen as a disregard for the former President.

According to sources, ex-President Obasanjo started putting plans in place shortly after leaving power in 2007 for the long term objective of installing then first daughter, Senator Obasanjo Bello as a successor to Governor Daniel who himself was grooming someone after his heart in order to forestall a damaging probe to his "towering legacy of corruption."

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Pointblanknews.com learnt that Governor Daniel used Obasanjo's serpentine incursion to the politics of the state as a mission to exert unwarranted vengeance for "unknown sins." Governor Daniel decided to orchestrate Obasanjo's second fall by making sure that Obasanjo's preferred candidate for Local Government Councilors were not selected by the People's Democratic Party, PDP machinery.

Sources said that Obasanjo who has now sensed that his influence in being resisted has perfected an alternative plan that would make him support the present Minister of Solid Minerals, Mr. Chief Sarafa Tunji Ishola , as the optional candidate to Senator Obasanjo Bello.

In what is fast becoming an epic modern political battle, various forces and interest in the state are aligning and trying to out maneuver one another. For example, Obasanjo is said to be cajoling and making peace overtures to the Speaker of the House of Representative, Hon. Dimeji Bankole. Obasanjo wants Speaker Bankole to forget the family feud which had lingered between the one time president and Bankole's prominent father, Chief Alani Bankole, a shipping magnet and former chieftain of the All Nigerian People's Party, ANPP.

Sources told Pointblanknews.com that Speaker Bankole's own ambition to govern Ogun State may be the only obstacle to Obasanjo's elaborate game plan. According to insiders, Obasanjo's stake in the unfolding saga has to do with a "personal belief that his political influence has been systematically whittled by the grass root machinery of Gbenga Daniel.

A successful agenda to install any of his cronies, whether his own daughter, Senator Obasanjo Bello or Mr. Ishola would go a long way in helping Obasanjo to have a sense of political restoration.