He lost in his bid for the governorship of Oyo State on PDP platform. And it is not as if the party’s governorship ticket has been handed over to him. But Engineer Femi Babalola aka Jogor seems to have bounced back in a way.
He is one of the former PDP governorship aspirants in Oyo who has been brought together to head each of the eight directorates in President Jonathan’s campaign organisation in the state. Jogor heads the all-important Contact and Mobilisation Committee. And in that onerous assignment, he has brought his midas touch to bear.
Jogor, a renowned engineer and successful entrepreneur, is said to be making things happen in the campaigns, pulling support here and there for the president’s re-election. Some said he is one guy that has made the president’s campaigns thick in the state. He has won plaudits for staying by his conviction.
How? Jogor used to be a close ally of former governor Adebayo Alao-Akala and when he was running for the governorship, many were wondering whether he was serious that he would run against his former principal, Alao-Akala. But he proved skeptics wrong as he went to the whole hog with his governorship aspiration.
And when the former governor defected to Labour Party, Babalola told his associates that though he was aggrieved about the way and manner the party’s primaries were handled he would not defect to any party but rather stay back in PDP. He made good his pledge.
He was even sighted in Ogbomoso, Alao-Akala’s hometown, recently campaigning along with the party’s governorship candidate, Senator Teslim Folarin. That is Babalola for you, he is perhaps the only leader around in PDP today who has never left the PDP for any reason since inception in 1998.
