It is barely five months to February 2015 elections, but in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, jostling has begun among major aspirants contesting their party tickets for the various politi­cal offices. A major mark of the season is a rash of campaign posters that dot public places loudly announcing the aspirants’ ambitions.
In places like Iwo Road, Queen’s Cin­ema, Mokola, Bere, Challenge, Ojoo and Mokola Roundabout, posters of aspirants in the various parties have gone viral. Apart from posters pasted on concretes holding streetlights on the median on ma­jor highways, places such as neighbour­hood wall fences and under bridge in Saw­mill along Old-Ife Road are also flooded with posters bearing various messages. Giant billboards have also sprung up and are busy, campaign shuttle buses, cars and other vehicles are not left out.
One place this has been most prominent is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secretariat facing Parliamentary Road on Queen Elizabeth Road, Dandaru, Ibadan. Looking like a gallery, it stood with post­ers and banners of various messages of its political combatants hung and stacked on the entire edifice. From the entrance of the secretariat you are greeted with two life-size banners bearing the picture of Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, former Sports Minister with the message: “Oyo State Governor 2015 By God’s Grace”.
Approaching the party secretariat from either Mokola or Gate/UCH area you find the biggest of the posters; it is a large canvass fixed to both sides of the build­ing bearing the image of Alhaji Kehinde Olaosebikan, a former Local Government chairman under the past Adebayo Alao Akala administration on a green. It reads: “Igba Otun” (a new era) in bold white on a red background.
In the front of the building, apart from posters displaying the image of President Goodluck Jonathan sponsored by few groups within the party, what follows is a poster strapped to the railing on the balcony of the topmost floor branded “Ore Mekunu Dee” (the friend of the masses is here), a message from the former Gover­nor of Oyo State, Otunba Adebayo Alao Akala, who is staging a comeback having lost to Governor Abiola Ajimobi in 2011.
Next on the railing is a banner of Mr. Femi Babalola. His poster carries the mes­sage: “Governor in the making.”
Another poster is that of Mr. Seyi Ma­kinde, which carries the message: “Pillar of PDP in Oyo State 2015. Engr. Makinde for Governor”. Also in the race is the for­mer chairman, Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board, Prof Olusola Adejumo with a banner reading: “Opomulero Oyo State 2015”.
“Ayo Solar!” that is how Senator Ayo Adeseun’s banner announces his ambition with the words: “Idunu Oyo 2015”; “Of­fer to serve better”; “The most suitable alternative.” He is being fielded by the Ogbomoso group of PDP alongside Akala to get the party ticket. Another candidate Hazeem Gbolarumi, a former deputy gov­ernor in the infamous 11-month illegal impeachment of Senator Rashidi Ladoja, with his poster: “Let us rally round. No stopping Gbolarumi. The right choice for 2015.”
Other posters in the “gallery” include that of Dr. Azeez Popoola Adedutan, Ambassador Taofeek Oladejo and former Senate Leader, Teslim Folarin, copies of which have also been conspicuously displayed at notable places in the state. Aspirants into federal and state legislative houses have also joined the fray trying to outdo one another in strategic locations.
For the All Progressive Congress (APC), much of the aspirants have not been engaged in this poster war, except the governor, who has his image pasted with message on billboards at the state secretariat and other strategic locations.
These include Mokola and the junc­tion leading to the Premier Hotel on the Mokola hills.
They bear the words: “A leader is born” “Oselu yato si Ojelu (A statesman is dif­ferent from a looter); “Ajimobi, gbogbo ilu Ibadan wa lehin re” (Ajimobi, Ibadan supports you) and Ise rere ko gbodo duro (the good work must not stop).
The governor’s major challenger for the party’s ticket, however, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, has a poster which stands next to Ajimobi’s bill board at Mokola. Another is that of Rilwan Adesoji Akanbi, a former member of the House of Representatives.
On the Accord Party side, preparations are also upbeat, although, this appears concentrated more around the personality of the party’s national leader and appar­ently sole governorship candidate, Senator Ladoja. The party’s secretariat in Samo­nda, Ibadan, has the picture of its leader and other aspirants displayed on its walls, with a reminder to the electorate to also vote the party in, in 2015.
A visit to markets and other com­mercial areas in Ibadan reveals that the party targets this segment of the public as posters can be seen pasted everywhere. Images of some aspirants in Accord can also be found on vehicles, among them: “Ni ibadan North Kaka iroko ni eniyan tia 2015”.
Of all the posters that currently flood the state, PDP appears to have the largest number followed by the Accord Party. The development, according to investigation, suggests that the intra party tussle appears more intense therein.
It was gathered that loyalists of aspi­rants in the process of pasting their princi­pals’ posters, tear off that of the opponents or paste theirs over them.

Campaign posters war in Ibadan