September 24, (THEWILL) – It is no longer news that Dimeji Bankole, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives and a former presidential aspirant on the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC, lost out in the race for a ministerial position. Bankole expected to be rewarded for stepping down for President Bola Tinubu during the party’s presidential primary last year and for always accompanying him during the campaigns. Several factors however worked against him. 0ne of such factors among several, is his lack of political deftness. Those who are better at playing the political game pulled the rug from under his feet.
Also, THEWILL had reported how the current Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, then a ministerial nominee, was moved as a former nominee from Lagos State to Ogun State. Bankole was reportedly supposed to make up the third nominee from Ogun State which had the highest number of ministerial nominees. The other nominees were Bosun Tijani, the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, and Dr Isiak Salako, Minister of State for Environment and Ecological Management. But Edun getting moved to make up the third nominee ended Bankole’s chances of being the third ministerial nominee.
Another factor that worked against Bankole is the Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, aka Yayi, factor.
Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State had allegedly put in a word on behalf of Bankole to a member of Tinubu’s inner caucus for him to be made minister. Abiodun had hoped that making Bankole who nurses a gubernatorial ambition, a minister, would give him (Bankole) the sort of leverage and influence he (Bankole) needed to succeed him as governor. He had found an ally in Yayi, who is currently representing Ogun West and together they both allegedly approached this influential politician to put in a word on behalf of Bankole. The influential politician had agreed to make it happen only for Yayi to allegedly go behind Abiodun to the same politician with another request.
Yayi also desires to become governor someday and he figured that making Bankole a minister would erode his own shine and influence. He was afraid that if they both had any reason to slug it out at the polling booths, Bankole might likely floor him. So, he allegedly asked this influential politician to jettison Abiodun’s request and ensure that Bankole isn’t made minister. He made a case for himself as having more political experience than Bankole, having spent more time than Bankole in the National Assembly. And what’s more? He allegedly argued that Bankole having a wife of Fulani extraction is an alleged minus. Bankole is married to Aisha Shinkafi Saidu, the stepdaughter of the immediate past governor of Kebbi State, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu and a granddaughter of late political heavyweight Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, a one-time head of the Department of State Security, DSS. He had hoped to align himself politically by divorcing his long-suffering wife, Olaitan, in 2017 and marrying Aisha. Well, Yayi allegedly made a convincing case for himself and that ended Bankole’s quest for a ministerial position.
