By Brian Ajayi Jatto

On the surface, the late-minute postponement of the Edo State governorship election earlier scheduled for Saturday, September 10, 2016, presents a picture of a patriotic group of security brass-hats who, after a painstaking analyses of the situation in Edo State, came to the inevitable conclusion that the election had to be shifted by 18 days to save innocent lives. So it seemed. A scratch below the thin vinyl of the actual scenario will reveal that the real motive of those who shifted the date goes beyond the issue of security being breached wholesale, if the scheduled date was left as it is. They did not leave it so.
The reluctant posture of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to play along at the commencement of the postponement saga, coupled with the initial act of the Nigeria Police and the Department of State Services (DSS), which connived to address a joint press conference rather than relay their observations to INEC, smacks of a well-choreographed display that did not jell with the electoral body.  It is pertinent to note that INEC was not informed officially until 48 hours later and cajoled to play along in the clear Drama of the Absurd.
Another mystifying factor was that President Muhammadu Buhari visited Benin City to attend the All Progressives Congress (APC) rally 48 hours before the police and the DSS raised the alarm that Edo State’s security has been breached and no election can take place.  Why were the all-knowing security apparati impotent prior to the political visit of the President and suddenly found its voice to pronounce Edo State as not conducive for any election scheduled for September 10, 2016?
Though some vague and unrelated picture of the possible invasion of some bomb-wielding insurgents was painted by the two security agencies of government, the bigger one was cleverly shielded from the larger public because Edolites were rather primed for a peaceful and well-contested election, not the violent prototype sold by the Police and the DSS in their joint press statement, which did not actually convey the true state of things in a pre-election setting that prevailing before the raised the false alarm.
Given that the APC made an overkill in deploying thousands of mini-banner boards, posters of different hues and messages and fliers proclaiming variegated messianic statements about their candidate’s superhuman make-up and his innate ability to mend Edo State’s myriad problems and challenges, the “tension” mode was not about smoking guns of black eyes as souvenirs of politicking turned awry, but the normal strident propaganda on the electronic and print media that projected “fake” certificates, workable agenda and past attempts at strategic manipulations of the state’s economy that rendered some market women and commercial drivers prostrate financially. All these and more were the staple of the electioneering period.
Those who conjured up the invasion of “militants” were simply ingenious and overtly creative in their quest to find a suitable and credible excuse to gain some days of grace as the political barometer had indicated that only a miracle would have saved the APC from humiliation, if the September 10, 2016 election date had not been shifted by 18 days.  The spin doctors of the ruling party are gravely aware of the twin fact that Edo State is the home state of the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun and the only one controlled by the party in the South South geopolitical zone, for that matter. For them, it is A-list.
The thinking among the lot that conceived the time-buying ploy was that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was so cash-strapped that an extension of the campaign period will covertly deplete the party’s meagre resources in relation to that available to the APC, which has the state and federal financial backing to swim in and turn the tide in its favour. So it thought.
The direction of the postponement can be gleaned from the reception the two main parties (APC and PDP) gave to the news.  APC welcomed it wholesale, while PDP rejected the action as deceptive and self-serving.
It is now left for the voting public to decide whether the 18-day extension has truly assuaged the harsh economic climate and the attendant taxation and imposition of countless levies and rates that the citizens of the state have the golden opportunity of jettisoning by voting en masse for the redemptive PDP.
Rather than reduce the exit poll lead the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has over the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the rescheduled election, the act itself has turned the tide more in favour of the PDP that is seen as being oppressed with federal might through agencies such as the police, the DSS, the INEC, EFCC etc. This is moreso given that two of the organisations, the police and the DSS, virtually threw all decency and caution by the wayside in their rush and desperation to abort the September 10, 2016 date and give the APC more time to re-strategise and change the looming defeat that the earlier date had portended into victory. So it seems.
What is glaring is that everyone has made up his or her mind who to vote for on the rescheduled date, federal might or no federal might.
Edo people are desirous of a government that will be run on a people-friendly corporate governance that is founded on global best practices of due diligence, financial prudence and accountability, not one that has bled the people white through mindless and draconian taxation, over-priced programmes, projects and policies and a debt-burden that has become Edo State’s common patrimony.
Postponement or no postponement, Edo will change the change, for the better.

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• Jatto, a political analyst, wrote in from Lagos.