Between Muraina Ajibola and Mulikat Akande-Adeola

Between Muraina Ajibola and Mulikat Akande Adeola, a tale of two lawyers
By Sola Shittu
The outgoing Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole is undoubtedly under pressure at the tail end of his tenure as the Speaker of the 6th Assembly. His colleagues are mounting a lot of pressure for their last pay. Over two hundred and fifty of them lost their seats in the hallowed chamber to green horns lawmakers who will replace them at the 7th Assembly. Last Thursday Bankole fought a battle of his life and narrowly escaped the wrath of angry members who are bitterly complaining about the delay in the payment of their allowances. Some members who are bent on taking a pound of flesh from Bankole are not finding it funning that their money is hanging somewhere in a bank in the face of serious hardship confronting many of them now. Yet in the mist of all the heats and tension in the House, Bankole was able to flash his toothy smiles to member after a long drawn executive session and even jocularly predicted the ascension of Muraina Ajibola to the leadership ladder in the next few weeks. The question is whether Bankole has shifted his support for Bethel Amadi to Muraina after the office of Mr. Speaker was zoned to the South West.
That Muraina is in the race for the Speaker of the House is no longer a story but the real battle is whether Muraina , a practicing lawyer of many years, representing Ibarapa Central/North of Oyo State will be able to withstand his strong rival, Mulikat Akande-Adeola, also a lawyer and representative from Ogbomoso North/South/Orire in the same Oyo State. The battle became more complicated over the weekend when the South West caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, met at former President Olusegun Obasanjo hill top residence at Abeokuta to endorse Obasanjo’s choice of Muraina as the candidate of the South West PDP for the office of Mr. Speaker. Even outgoing Governor Adebayo Akala, who is one of the key sponsors of Akande-Adeola was compelled to respect the decision of the caucus. But Obasanjo’s appearance on the side of Muraina has brought both the good and the bad to Muraina’s dream. But obviously the good is more than the bad in the sense that even though Obasanjo has made more enemies in politics than friends yet, his views are well respected by the PDP big shots both as a former president on the platform of the party and the Chairman Board of Trustees, BOT of the party. Obasanjo’s endorsement has brought the fear of external domination against internal influence in the business of the House. But there is another silent contestant who is rarely mentioned by observers of the happenings in the hallowed chamber of the House of Representatives. There are fie members of the PDP in the House from Oyo State, in the coming assembly but only three of them are ranking members namely, Muraina Saubana Ajibola, Mulikat Akande-Adeola and Kareem Tajudeen Abisodun. Abisodun’s chance of contesting for the exalted seat of Mr. Speaker was limited by the fact that he is a cross over member from the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN to the PDP where he obtained his return ticket. Like his two other colleagues, Abisodun is also not well known in the House because he has never been chairman of any committee and was not even prominent in any committee as Muraina, but he is regarded as the only level headed man waiting at a corner to see what is like to happen to the duo and the opportunity for him to come in. He has also been able to make a lot of friends among the lawmakers but how far that carry him, no one can tell. However, while attention is focused on both internal and external politics of the House, many are brushing aside the religious factor which is of stronger influence in the House. Many have argued that the true Speaker in the waiting is actually Mulikat Akande-Adeola who is expected to give the women folk a brilliant sense of belonging in the nation’s politics. Besides, her attachment to the first lady, Patience Jonathan who has been at the vanguard for women playing prominent roles in politics is a powerful influence for her. Mulika, like Muraina are not so popular in the House but in fairness to Muraina, his role in the power probe by the House committee on power led by Ndudi Elumelu in 2008 is a plus for him, just as his decision to write minority report against the Elumelu report did not also go down well with some of his colleagues in the House. However, unlike Mulikat, the power probe and the role of Muraina in it propelled him above his competitor. But Mulikat is also a lawyer with Master degree who also has the ability to communicate fluently in all the three major languages of Nigeria as well as being agraduate of ABU Zaria. while the religious factor favour both Muraina and Mulikat who are coming from Islamic religion yet, the Islamic religion places less emphasis on women playing a leadership role or even leading a prayer in the mosque or at home. This religious inter-play was a dominant factor in the removal of Madam Etteh the predecessor of Bankole even though nobody mentioned it. It has always being an underground factor that controls the votes of lawmakers in the appointment of Speaker. It will be recalled that Etteh’s exit was largely blamed on her being the choice of Obasanjo but the election of Bankole was based on being a muslim and the candidate of the Muslim north members and that was why it was difficult to remove him even in the face of serious scandals rocking the House.
The challenge before Muraina and Mulikat therefore is to go beyond external support of sponsorship to warming themselves to the hearts of their colleagues in the House who actually have the voting right in the election of Mr. Speaker. At the moment, the duo have shifted their base to Protea Hotel at Apo where they have their campaign offices. The exodus of member to the hotel is an indication of seriousness attached to the office of Mr. Speaker.