THERE is an innovation to electioneering campaigns in Edo State. Apparently, at the approach of every election, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, puts a basket in the hands of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to go to the river and fetch water, with instruction not to return until the basket is full.
As the ACN goes about its constructive campaigns, it gives the PDP something to talk about; and something to keep them busy. For instance, at the beginning of the 2012 gubernatorial election, it was about the imaginary multi-billion Naira proposed country home of the Comrade Governor; and this time around, they were sufficiently engaged with whether the man was 60 or 61 years old.
In essence, while Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole was criss-crossing the State, showing what his administration had done and what it would still do for the people, the PDP was busy addressing futile but expensive world press conferences; and sponsoring smear tactics and mud-slinging campaigns over Oshiomhole’s age.
Too soon, the whole thing began to boomerang. It began to translate into sympathy for a hard-working administration. The question on the lips of most Edolites was: “When will these loafers leave our Governor alone to continue his good works?”
Unknown to most people, those who sit in judgement also stand in judgement. The Edo State local government elections have come and gone but their memories will linger on. Presidents may not have a way of knowing some of the things that happen all the time. There has always been this abuse of the concept of Federal might under which ministers and all those at the corridors of power commit a lot of havoc in the name of the President.
In the particular case of the Jonathan administration, they inundate the entire place with large cache of the Police, the Army and various colours of security operatives, apparently secured by illegal arrangements, to create confusion at elections. People are left wondering if this molestation is a fair reward from Jonathan for their voting for him across party lines at the April 2011 elections.
Even in the empire of goats, there are traditions. For instance, when you push a goat to the wall, it will resist you. It will fight and bite. Similarly, those without the “Federal might” are quickly reminded of the wise counsel of a great American President, Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919): “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”. Regrettably, though, self-help resides quite close to this place.
Opposition parties, led by the PDP, are crying blood. They cannot believe how they are incrementally going down the abyss. Various press conferences aimed at discrediting the elections have been held. We have an archetype of the opposition press conferences in the ramshackle concocted by Chief Solomon Edebiri, which bespeaks him as the worst Governor Edo State never had. His disjointed press conference was as contradictory as it was self-indicting. Edebiri may be right that what applies to one ward also applies statewide.
He complained bitterly that four of his buses were destroyed at Ewan village in Isi South Ward on the election day. He was registered to vote at Iguogbe, a distance of some six kilometres from Ewan. Reasonable people have sought to know what he and his four vehicles were doing in a place where he was not registered to vote and where he had no business whatsoever. The answer is anyone’s conjecture. Some have said that he used those vehicles to transport his goons, illegal police and soldiers to the place. Some claim that the vehicles could also have been used to convey thumb-printers from outside the State to execute his manoeuvres for the election. Whichever way one looks at it, his motives were clandestine and against the laws of the land.
His own explanation was warped and absolutely ludicrous: “ANPP officials distributing lunch were kidnapped by Oyegue, taken hostage, beaten up and vehicles destroyed and vandalized”. Ha, ha! When did the ANPP become the Soup Kitchen of lunch distributors to the extent that four vehicles were on that assignment on an election day? To whom were they supplying the lunch?
It is possible that under the party’s welfare scheme, they were distributing free lunch to the citizenry, which would constitute unlawful inducement, particularly after the period allowed for campaigns had elapsed.
Edebiri complains that materials were in short supply. Hear him: “Out of 3005 registered voters in Isi South, only 2,500 ballot papers (83.19%) were supplied. In unit 2, Iguogbe which is the ward headquarters and collating centre, a total of 572 voters were registered, while the electoral officer delivered 500 ballot papers (87.41%)”.
Only those intent on ballot stuffing would insist on 100 percent ballot papers. Edebiri is aware that Isi South has never recorded up to 1,000 votes out of its registered 3005. Available records show clearly that Iguogbe, Unit 2 has never recorded up to 250 votes out of the registered 572, thus rendering his demand for 100 percent ballot papers superfluous and totally dubious!
Worse still, Edebiri accuses Mr. Harrison Oyegue who is the Local Government Chairman of the ACN for advising him to accept and sign for the materials that were supplied.
We see Oyegue’s intervention as reasonable and he should be praised rather than vilified for such intervention. However, why would a former governorship candidate be relying on a member of a contending political party for advice on critical issues?
And this, too, would have been our Governor? You must look the role you want to play. Why would a man who had bargained to govern the more than two million people of Edo State now cut himself to the size of struggling desperately to produce a councillor? How are the mighty fallen! Faced with a similar paradox, our late sage, Senator Chuba Okadigbo, asserted unequivocally: “I would rather dine with Kings and Queens than with local government councillors”. This is instructive.
After the Edo LG election (1)
No comments:
Post a Comment