Edo 2020: Memo to Edo citizens

If you have followed the campaigns closely, you’ll notice that very little of the governorship election coming up on Saturday is about the people of Edo State.

Of course, on the face of it, politicians, on either side of this largely two-horse race, mouth all sorts of benefits that would accrue to the people if they get voted in; the electorate should be wiser. Not after watching politicians fleece the people and toy with their emotions over the past two decades should the most gullible of Nigerians allow themselves to be deceived into taking all that political actors say hook, line and sinker.  Haven’t we been shown that they do not even remember stuff that they even wrote down as manifestoes, let alone speak of what they say?

So, what have these campaigns been mostly about? They have been about the wounded egos of two big elephants and the desperate attempt by one elephant to assuage its hurt, deal a fatal blow on the other elephant and reign peacefully ever after.

Adams Oshiomhole, a former labour leader and until lately, chairman of the All Progressives Congress, lost his high office in the ruling party ignominiously. And current Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, played a huge role in this sudden and shameful disrobing of the man who fancied himself as (and was just getting used to being) the godfather in all states where the APC has a sitting governor. He is determined to take his own pound of flesh by getting Obaseki out of office and installing Osagie Ize Iyamu in his stead.

Every human being should understand Oshiomhole’s pains. If a man was told that he would be knocked to death by an animal with horns, there is no chance that he would flee at the sight of a snail.  That the former APC chairman’s downfall could be effected by the same man on whose behalf he traversed the length and breadth of Edo State marketing and canvassing votes just four years ago is a betrayal too much to stomach in a place where politicians want to play eternal godfathers. That double jeopardy is one from which the verbose politician is scrambling for redemption. Fortuitously, he found Ize Iyamu, an ally turned foe and turned ally again, a man whom he pilloried to no end while “marketing” Obaseki against whom they are now a tag team in this must win war. All is fair in this war, hence, Oshiomhole ensured that his erstwhile godson was denied the APC’s ticket and has made a new protocol of genuflecting in contrived penitence for selling a dummy to the people of Edo State by saying then that Obaseki was the best. The question to ask the kingmaker however is, how anyone can be sure that he is not blinded by the bitter juice vengeance to sell another four years of failure for which he will have an apology at the end?

In his own case, Obaseki is bitter that he was schemed out of his bid for the APC ticket by agents of his former godfather. It is curious that both parties contemplated different ends though. For a relationship that has been thorny for an entire four-year tenure, nothing but the mutual annihilation of the other party should have been expected.

, this is one clear evidence of the selfishness of both parties. Were the people and their development truly the object of the disagreements between the two, there would have been a rapprochement, that should make this election a celebration of democracy and the right of the people to choose rather than the war that it has been made to look like.

Whether we take Obaseki’s allegations that the misunderstanding has its roots in a request for the misuse of the people’s money or Oshiomhole’s contestations about the deployment of resources appropriately, the root of the current personality crisis in Edo State is nothing but the attempt to manipulate the affairs of state.

This is why the people cannot allow themselves become pawns in the hands of the power mongers whether they are physically on the ballot on Saturday or not. In spite of every attempt to hoodwink the people into thinking that any of this is a function of the performance or lack of it by someone, the people should understand that it is more about who gains access to the resources of the state and is able to use same to march on the face of the other party for the next four years. It is therefore a selfish war for which the struggling ordinary Edo voter should not allow themselves to be drawn into for nothing but crumbs coming from the tables of the warlords.

Reports indicate that 31,000 policemen have been deployed to the state for the elections. The most obvious purpose is that the presence of these law enforcers would discourage troublemakers from plying their criminal trade but there are also fears that this could be a strategy to suppress the will of the people. Anyway, it is a shame that a regular democratic exercise like an election would require such a huge number of policemen at the same time various parts of the country are battling all shades and volumes of insecurity.

Apart from the fragility of Nigeria’s democracy however, the huge deployment of policemen should tell the citizens one thing- do not let any politician use you or your children to perpetrate violence. Of course, every eligible citizen should go out and cast their votes as their conscience dictates, but you must avoid engaging in any violent act that could lead to disruption of the election or even bloodshed.

The Edo electorate should also be discerning in their choice on Saturday. Nigerians, as a people need to start to realise that the country’s future is totally dependent on what they make of opportunities like the ones Saturday presents. The citizens must be conscious of this right enough as to shock the main gladiators in the election to choose an underdog, whose motive is more than self-aggrandizement.

The late Bahamian evangelist and speaker, Dr Myles Munroe, once told a television interviewer that Africa’s leadership programme is a function of the quality of people voted into power.  He warned that poor people who do not know the true value of leadership should never be allowed near power. Why?  Because they will use power to empower themselves. Poverty in this context is not a dearth of resources in the pocket and bank accounts of people, it is an internal lack of contentment, which makes people see power as their existence and validation.  Such people think they are “dead” without power and would do anything to acquire power as urgently as possible.

What should be on the mind of the electorate this Saturday and at every other time that Nigerians go to the poll is the election of true leaders, those who see power as a tool for the empowerment of people rather than the self. Munroe said leadership should not be measured by how many people serve you but how many people you serve.  In making a choice about leaders in Nigeria, attention needs shift from desperados, whose target is the public purse and the continuous subjugation of the people’s will to those who will utilise power for the good of all. Let the Edo people be guided.

Adedokun tweets@niranadedokun