MDadmin
JUST by the huge margin of victory alone, and the fact that even the dinosaur could not hold his community, Adams Oshiomhole’s victory in last weekend’s Edo governorship election, has sounded the political death knell for Chief Tony Anenih. The dinosaur had arrogantly declared that Adams “does not have the capacity to remain as governor of the state”.
The Edo people showed the controversial chief, who has NEVER won an election in his life that he did not speak for them. Adams’ record as governor spoke for him and his style appealed to the people and the dynamics of his politics created a positive appeal with the people.
In him, they saw an activist governor who spoke their language and represented their aspiration. They therefore demystified Tony Anenih and voted for progress. Politics can be that simple and effective, if it is in the best interest of the Nigerian people. Adams Oshimhole has shown what is possible.
On an incremental basis, we must try to win more spaces of development in the interest of the Nigerian people just as we hope that the Nigerian political opposition can work with a greater sense of patriotic purpose to provide the platform of change and political liberation. The challenges facing Nigeria today are located centrally in the failure of politics and governance.
The people have become increasingly alienated from a political process that seems incapable of offering the possibility of change and a new way of doing things for the better. That is why Adams Oshiomhole’s victory at the weekend is very important for Nigeria’s political process. If the PDP had been allowed to steal the election, as it was wont to doing, the effect would have cast a dangerously pessimistic pall on the country’s political process.
It is the rapacity of the PDP in the main that has given democratic politics such a bad name in the country, since 1999. The hope invested by the Nigerian people in the struggle against military dictatorship and for a democratic order, was wastefully expended by the PDP, and to a lesser extent, by the other parties that inherited post-military power.
Non-state acts of violence; the loss of monopoly of violence; the erosion of the legitimacy of the political process and the ruling elite are all consequent upon the elaborate regime of theft, fraud and insensitivity to the people’s yearning, which has reigned in the land since 1999. I also think we should give respect to the revered Oba of Benin. He spoke unambiguously on the side of his people’s best interest.
I really hope our traditional rulers in the North can learn a lesson from the Oba of Benin: stand by the people not with a corrupt ruling elite!
