Senator Kola Balogun recently spoke about his rejection of the Oyo state Governor and PDP’s offer of the senatorial ticket. Balogun who represents Oyo South at the National Assembly was presented with the ticket by the governor, Seyi Makinde. However, he rejected this offer especially since he had previously been denied the ticket.
Balogun spoke about this in a live radio interview tagged ‘Political Circuit’ on Fresh FM, Ibadan, the state capital. He said the governor tried to prevail on him to take back the ticket shortly after he defected to APC. However, he firmly refused.
The senator said his ticket was given to Olasunkanmi Tegbe. Tegbe would later lose the 25 February senatorial election to APC candidate, Sharafadeen Alli. He said that if he accepted the offer, which was presented to him before the primaries that produced Tegbe, he would be ridiculed as a political prostitute to further his ambitions.
Balogun said he has no regrets about joining the APC and he would not change anything if the opportunity presented itself again.
According to him-
“What you don’t know is that it was the most unexpected thing to happen, not just to me but to a lot of PDP members, leaders and followers because the governor and I were really very close and he was telling all those that cared to listen that there was no vacancy in Oyo South.
“But you know 24 hours is a long time in politics. You think the deal is done and sealed but the next day you wake up and something else is happening. If I had to do that all over again, I would make the same decision.
“What may not be known to most people is that after a while that I left the party and there was controversy whether what he did was right or not, he (the governor) actually sent for me to come back and take the ticket before the primary election that produced Olasunkanmi Tegbe.
“He actually sent a lady to my wife to please tell me to come back and take the ticket and I said no. I don’t want the ticket anymore. My life is not all about being a senator. I have been something before being a senator and by God’s grace will continue to be something outside of being a senator.
“I said what that means is that I will be subjected to public ridicule within the space of one month to be jumping from the PDP to APC and back to the PDP in the name of senatorial ticket. I said no. He should keep his ticket. I’m gone. Goodbye. That was what happened at the time.”
Balogun said Makinde’s decision to deny him the ticket did not go down well with a lot of senators in the Red Chamber. He pointed out that senators were usually not in good relationships with their governors. However, he was considered different because of his closeness to Makinde.
cc: Punch Ng
