THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO IN ONDO STATE

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”- George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905. US.

Recently I was at British Museum in London whiling away time, thinking and meditating on Nigerian questions and the rat race and rants of a self appointed overlord of Western Nigeria on the compulsory imperative of capturing my State, Ondo from the incumbent governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko and his party, Labour Party of Nigeria.

This is despite the overlord’s acknowledgement of the developments brought to the state by the incumbent.

As I was thinking of this infamy and the impending self immolation since I am sure of my people’s firm principles, resolutions and progressiveness, alas, right in my front inside the museum is the Death mask of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The mask jolted me back to life and as if I was in a trance, it dawned on me that to every Napoleon there is always a Waterloo!

Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the latter stages of the French Revolution. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815. His legal reform, the Napoleonic Code, has been a major influence on many civil law jurisdictions worldwide, but he is best remembered for his role in the wars led against France by a series of coalitions, the so-called Napoleonic Wars. He established hegemony over most of continental Europe and sought to spread the ideals of the French Revolution, while consolidating an imperial monarchy which restored aspects of the deposed Ancien Régime. Due to his success in these wars, often against numerically superior enemies, he is generally regarded as one of the greatest military commanders of all time and his campaigns are studied at military academies throughout much of the world.

After a streak of victories, Napoleon’s France secured a dominant position in continental Europe, and Napoleon maintained the French sphere of influence through the formation of extensive alliances and the appointment of friends and family members to rule other European countries as French client states.

However, the Peninsular War and 1812 French invasion of Russia marked turning points in Napoleon's fortunes. His Grande Armée was badly damaged in the campaign and never fully recovered. In 1813, the Sixth Coalition defeated his forces at Leipzig; the following year the Coalition invaded France, forced Napoleon to abdicate and exiled him to the island of Elba. Less than a year later, he escaped Elba and returned to power, but was finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815.

Napoleon's forces fought the allies, led by Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815. Wellington's army withstood repeated attacks by the French and drove them from the field while the Prussians arrived in force and broke through Napoleon's right flank. Napoleon was decisively defeated, never to recover the loss.

Like Napoleon who was obsessive of territorial domination of the world, the Action Congress of Nigeria is obsessed about the party dominance of the West of Nigeria politics, which is relatively separate from the call for South-West integration, that surpasses political party affiliation, especially as the political history of the Western Nigeria championed by the late sage, chief Obafemi Awolowo had long-established that even at the height of the reign of the Action Congress (AG) and the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), no politician in the zone was forced to coalesce, while opposition parties were given their own space.

As it is, regardless of the battle cry, the Mimiko’s Ondo State government has refrained from joining issues directly with Action Congress of Nigeria trusting on the need not to be distracted and decided to focus on delivering on egalitarian dividend which will count in the opinion of the people when election actually comes in 20th of October 2012.

The strategy of overlooking distractions has led to monumental deliveries on electoral promises on the Mother and Child Hospital, urban renewal, agricultural programmes, education re-engineering and Infrastructure development in general as the government was recently named one of the top performers in delivering on the Universal Basic Education(UBE)projects. None of governments run by the so-called progressives in the South-West is so rated.

Aside from performance base issue which is subjective, like Napoleon who first suffered defeat in the War of the Sixth Coalition at Battle of Leipzig before the grand and decisive defeat at Waterloo, the Action Congress of Nigeria began their recent and serial defeats due to apparent imposition of candidate for election.

First in Kwara State, the party national leadership brought from Lagos, Dele Belgore, SAN a gentleman, a legal giant and the scion of the famous Belgores in Ilorin to be imposed on Kwara people.

The Kwarans who are known as political sophisticats, voted for the Abdulfatai Ahmed to the satisfaction of all and affirmation from the courts.

As if this defeat was not enough, the maximum Leader again imposed a money bag & Ex-Gov. Abubakar Audu on the ACN faithfuls in Kogi State which lead to the monumental loss of Confluence State.

The same mistake has happened once again in Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN a respected senior colleague is presently reported anointed; by all ramification his choice without any imput from the people of Ondo State is nothing but an apparent political harakiri, a misadventure, and a miscalculation, that will only spell the doom of Battle of Waterloo magnitude.

Therefore no soothsayer is needed in suggesting that another Waterloo is in the offing Action Congress of Nigeria comes October 20, 2012. The clock is tickling.

From the Office of: 'KAYODE A. AJULO, LL.B. (Hons.) LL.M., B.L., MNIM., fcl