Who are the “Ponbeles”?
The only claim, according to my findings, is the fact the “Ponbeles”, since joining the pdp, never crossed officially over to another party. Please take note that majority of them weren’t original founders of the pdp. Some of them crossed to pdp from the old APP, eg: Late Baba Adedibu, Dr Saka Balogun, Mogaji Fagbemi and some from AD.
After the demise of the great leader of the Oyo state pdp, Baba Lamidi Adedibu, many of the acclaimed pdp Ponbeles became factionalised. A part stood by the then governor, His Excellency, Otunba Christopher Adebayo Alao Akala while another went with Senator Teslim Folarin. At the 2015 Oyo guber election, those who queued behind Folarin remained the “Ponbeles” why others decamped to the LP with Akala. Some were even fencists: not here nor there.
It won’t therefore be far from the truth to state that the Ponbeles, up till 2017, were those being led by Folarin, Gbolarumi, Dr Saka Balogun, Olopoeyan, Babalola Jogor, Jumoke Akinjide, Mulika Akande, Haja Adedibu, Adeseun and many other notables.
There is this common factor that binds the Ponbeles together: they love to hold, at jugular and at all cost, the Party Executive Offices. They fight for the control of the structures of the party. They prefer to lead in party congresses and primaries. They use their party hierarchy to lobby seekers of elective offices into their homes. With the control of Delegates in their kitties, the Contestants have no option than to dance to the dictates of the leaders (Ponbeles) sometimes at rocket prices and prizes. Ask Seyi Makinde if you are in doubt. They literally became godfathers.
The Achilles heel of the Oyo state Pdp Ponbeles is eating fat at gestation without a hope for safe delivery. They strongly believe in garnering all the gains at party congresses and primaries without recourse to the pdp chances at the general elections. To buttress this point, let us rewind back to the Makarfiyah and Sheriffiyah period.
Answer these posers.
What denied the likes of Folarin, Gbolarumi, Jogor, and other Ponbeles from snatching the Oyo pdp guber ticket?
Why did Folarin decamp to apc?
Why was the ticket graciously handed over to Seyi Makinde?
Simply put, all boiled than to money: the pdp, win or lose, needed heavy ‘funder’.
The Folarins, Gbolarumis, Jogors of this world didn’t have such money to stake. The only MUGU, so they thought, was Makinde. Majority of the Ponbeles knew the pdp couldn’t win the Oyo guber. So, they weren’t prepared to waste their fortunes on a worthless adventure. I make bold to state that, aside Olopoeyan, hardly did other leaders of the Ponbeles believe in the emergence of Egnr Seyi Makinde as a governor.
The Coalition: the Accord, the ZLP, the ADC, the AD, we the apc, all believed and strife to see to the success of Seyi Makinde at the polls more than the so called “Ponbeles” who had already fed fat at pdp party primaries. The Ponbeles are not that stupid not to have committed Seyi Makinde to a written agreement if they had believed in his (Makinde) emergence. Ask the Ponbeles what exactly did Egnr Seyi Makinde promise them. Or rather, the Ponbeles should tell us the demands they asked from Makinde. Leave through the Report of the Dr Saka Balogun Reconciliation Committee. Aside Adebisi Olopoeyan, who amongst the so called Ponbeles had a genuine and specific complaints.
And now that the soup is done and ready to be served, the MAGA in Governor Seyi Makinde vamoozed. The vindictive Seyi Makinde with a long spoon in hand decided to serve the bigger portion to strange bed fellows than wicked soul brothers. This isn’t justifying the treatment being meted out to party leaders, this is just to put the records straight that before the REVELATION there was the GENESIS.
