Thanks goodness the organized madness which
accompanied the Ondo State gubernatorial election ended last Saturday
without any violence. We can now tuck away- safely- the side effects of
the malady until 2016.
Ondo State Labor Party Governor Olusegun Mimiko aka Iroko was
comfortably re-elected with 260, 199 votes. PDP’s Olusola Oke polled
155, 961 while Rotimi Akeredolu of ACN came distant third with 143, 512
votes.
Of the 18 local government areas of the state, Governor Mimiko’s LP won 13, ACN 3, and PDP 2.
The Action Congress of Nigeria’s (ACN) most coveted political prize
was bringing back the ‘lost sheep’ as it were, into the family fold of
southwest governors.
Yanking Iroko from the Labor Party (LP) was not going to be easy.
To cut down Iroko, many real and imagined unbelievable varieties of popular myths must be devised and applied.
The ACN on behalf of its challenger, Rotimi Akeredolu, with glorious
hyperbole demonized the incumbent Iroko. No one was left in doubt as
to the doom prepared for him.
Politics is not conducted by rational adversaries with a sense of
history. For sure, there is no limit to the absurdities in politics.
Since the dawn of politics, the emotional impulse to “get the better
of one’s opponent” has been the name of the game. Thus, the enmity and
bitterness nursed against Iroko metamorphosed into a do or die affair.
With sardonic attacks on traditional morality, Iroko was not spared
by ACN. The electorate was badgered with those familiar twins – fear and
hate.
The pivotal base of ACN’s argument was the ‘seditious’ charge that Iroko is a “traitor” to Tinubu the southwest god father.
Iroko was demonized and characterized as a prodigal son who should be denied a return ticket back home.
Tinubu, as the story goes, had helped Iroko to recapture his lost
mandate that was rigged by PDP. For that favor, the god father wanted
Iroko to pay him back by trading LP for ACN, taking orders from Lagos,
and forever remain silent. This was what the noise was all about!
In superstitious moments, god father and his ACN cohorts tried very
hard to persuade us that if Iroko was re-elected, greater impiety,
looting of the state treasury, and backwardness would continued
unchecked.
More importantly, economic darkness, tragic and terrible political
pestilence awaits the people of Ondo State, the godfather warned.
The ACN badly needed Ondo State to fall within its column and be
part of the much vaunted southwest economic and political regional
integration.
If Ondo State remained outside the ACN geo-political sphere, it
would be the weakest link capable of halting or out rightly immobilizing
the “progressives” southwest states from marching forward, so we’re
told.
A good product advertises itself. If the progress and development of
the southwest states were that stunning, there is no need for any
godfather to coerce or manipulate, or even try to buy elections.
Willingly, other states would join the progressive band wagon!
This past Saturday, I was one of a three-member panelist on Sahara
TV. The ebullient Sahara TV moderator Rudolf Okonkwo, fielded questions
centered on hot button issues ranging from the US presidential
election, the return of First Lady Patience Jonathan from “vacationing”
abroad, to Ondo State gubernatorial election.
I argued that godfather Tinubu had no business to dictate or impose who would be the next governor of Ondo State.
Furthermore, I said the touted developments in ACN-controlled
southwest are selective as opposed to the overall development of the
state.
Am example is Lagos State, where island areas such as Lekki, Ikoyi
and other prime sections of the city are being developed at the expense
of the mainland.
A case in point is the construction of Abesan Road. In July, I was
in Lagos on vacation. Traveling on Abesan Road to see a friend who lives
at Jakande Estate, I noticed a sign post on the road with detailed
information publicizing the contract for the construction of the road.
I asked my nephew who was driving to stop so I could read the info
on the sign post. According to the info, the contract for the road was
awarded as far back as July 2011.
To my utter chagrin no trace of any construction activity ever took
place after one year since the contract was awarded. The closest thing
to construction on the road was the abandoned heap of sand and stone
that could be taken for desert dunes waiting to be blown away by the
wind any time.
Seventy per cent of the sand and stone materials had been washed
away by rain making the road more hazardous for motorists and other
commuters.
Lest we forget, the right to vote is the most important and dramatic emblem of representative democracy.
Every effort was deployed by the godfather to adulterate the
electoral process and the right of Ondo State people to choose who would
preside over the affairs of their state for the next four years.
As part of the political war game, it was rumored that godfather spent between 13 and 33 billion Naira to unseat Iroko.
The advocates of unreason from the ACN believed that there is a better chance of profitably deceiving the people of Ondo State.
The restraint of foresight lured the ACN to the false faith that
frenzied monetary exploitation would dethrone the LP party in Ondo
State. Now the godfather and party stalwarts know better.
The re-election of Iroko breathed the much needed air of portentous
and conclusive wisdom of the triumph of democracy – the will of the
people.
First, in a democracy, ultimate power to change a government belongs
to the people. If the people of Ondo State approved the performance or
non-performance of their governor so be it. And needless to say,
they’ll live by it for the next four years.
Second, more than anything else, the woeful defeat of ACN signifies
the beginning of the end of political godfathers in the southwest in
particular and in Nigeria in general.
Third, that the Ondo State people are smart enough to determine
their own fate. For them the four years of Iroko was a record good
enough to run on. They don’t need any god father to sell them oranges
and call them apples.
Fourth, “Ondo people will not serve a foreign god.”
And so for yet another time, Iroko has weathered the storm. He’s
known to have taken cliff edge political risks and survived them all.
He began his political career nearly 30 years ago. In 2002 as
commissioner for health in Adebayo Adefarati’s administration, Iroko
resigned and decamped to PDP and teamed with Segun Agagu PDP’s flag
bearer in Ondo State.
After helping Agagu to power, once again he resigned from the
administration. On the platform of little known LP, he contested the
gubernatorial election with Agagu and won.
Tinubu had successfully sent three PDP governments in the southwest -
Osun and Ekiti in 2010, and Oyo in 2011 - to political oblivion.
But last Saturday, Iroko saved Ondo State from being overrun by
stopping the ACN juggernaut. Tinubu the god father is the huge
collateral damage under the victory train of Iroko.
Saharareporters
