About 18 months ago, I was at a media event in Lagos where Senator Iyiola Omisore unveiled his decision to contest the 2014 governorship election in Osun State. He spoke so passionately about his love for the state and why and how he would contest and win. I remember a number of people spoke. I remember (for whatever reasons) I was asked to also say something. I remember I got up, slowly, then told Senator Omisore that if the election was held under the prevailing circumstance, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, then of the ACN, would win. I remember I explained that Aregbesola would win, not for anything else, but for the fact that there would be no opposition political party to contest the seat with him. Omisore’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as far back as that time, was already rent, badly divided in Osun State. It was at that event that some of the editors got to know that Omisore had parted ways with his friend, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, at a time he ( the senator) was already in competition for the governorship ticket of the party with three other key stakeholders in the PDP. I thought I was helping him, giving him hints of what needed to be done, but the ever confident, optimistic Omisore dismissed my words. “Nobody will be a threat to this project,” he said as I took my seat.
As I sat back at that event, playing with my phone, my mind was scouring the ocean beds of history, of Generals who went to wars and came out victorious and in one piece, and of those defeated, badly bruised. I remembered Hannibal, imperial Rome’s tormentor for many years. Would history have listed Hannibal among military geniuses if he had repeatedly fought and failed in his missions? And, more importantly, would he have won his wars if he had fought all battles? Should a good commander fight all battles? Shouldn’t he select his battles while focusing intently on winning the war? Would Hannibal have been celebrated in history if he had not taken his troops (and elephants) through the Alps? Would he have been able to cross the Alps if he had not been conciliatory with the Gauls through whose territory he had to pass to fulfill his destiny?
