A former speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole is currently getting knocks over his poor performance at the recent governorship election in Ogun State.
Certainly, this is not a flattering period for the ex-speaker.
The 49yr old is said to be having it rough regarding perception about his style of politics in Ogun state, especially his stronghold in Abeokuta.
Bankole was Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives between November 2007 and May 2011 contested the Ogun state gubernatorial election on the platform of Action Democratic Party (ADP).
The former federal legislator polled less than 10,000 votes across the 20 local government areas of the state.
The poor result has, however, sparked off all manners of comments about his commitment to his political ambition.
‘’Just for the relevance’’, ‘’Alawada (joker)’’, ‘’unserious’’ are some of the comments being bandied about town regarding the former speaker’s performance in the gubernatorial election.
In a report monitored on Societynow.ng, keen followers of Bankole’s activities in the build-up to the gubernatorial election are, however, not surprised by the dismissal result he recorded.
‘’Bankole was actually one of the candidates that declared their intention very early but at a point, for well over a year he just went silent and just a couple of weeks to the election he surfaced and started visiting mosques and churches and such places’’ a source stated.
Insiders insist his followers and supporters didn’t get the kind of mobilization that would have helped them galvanize support for Bankole’s gubernatorial ambition across the state.
‘’He left a lot of people disappointed. He raised their hopes when he started the campaign and a lot of people keyed into his promises and Bankole dashed their expectations with the manner he handled the campaign, the consensus of opinion is that he just performed the motion to keep his name relevant’’ a source stated.
In defence of Bankole, those close to him claim that he decided to be frugal with his spending based on his experience in 2011 in the failed bid to return to the Federal House of Representatives.
‘’Bankole opened the vault and dole out funds like no man’s business to virtually all his support group but he failed to win the election , so he changed tactics by making his supporters stakeholders in his gubernatorial ambition with promise of participation in government if he wins…obviously that was a wrong move as shown with the less than ten thousand votes he got’’ a source analysed.
