The September 19 Edo gubernatorial election has come and gone but reactions to its outcome will linger for some time for obvious reasons. It was one election the incumbent governor, Godwin Obaseki, was not given a chance of being reelected having been driven out of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by his estranged godfather and ex-national chairman of the ruling party, Adams Oshiomhole. The pundits did not reckon that Obaseki, who defected to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) after being ejected from the APC, a platform through which he came to power four years ago, could win overwhelmingly at the poll.
Also, many analysts did not believe that Obaseki, an underdog, can battle his godfather, the strongman, to a standstill and possibly retire him politically. Not many people could agree that Obaseki will survive the Akinwunmi Ambode treatment. Obaseki’s victory is a big blow to godfatherism in Edo politics and by extension Nigerian politics, and especially in those states that still have strongmen who dictate how the power pendulum swings and who gets what in every election cycle. This aberration to constitutional democracy must be discarded.
The significance of Obaseki’s victory is that with peoples will and determination, the godfather has no place in Nigerian politics. The godfather can only exist where there are willing and pliant supporters to carry out his extra-constitutional biddings. Obaseki won the election because the voters saw him as a victim of power play. They saw him as a defender of the people from over-bearing godfathers. Besides, the people could not understand Oshiomhole’s contradictory rhetoric on whom to vote between APC’s Osagie Ize-Iyamu and PDP’s Godwin Obaseki.
In 2016 when the going was good the incumbent governor was the best candidate in terms of experience and qualification. He was indeed the perfect man for the position while his then opponent, Ize-Iyamu was clearly painted in bad colours and called unprintable names to the extent that those ugly words could not be taken back no matter how Oshiomhole tried with his rhetoric to persuade Edo people to the contrary.
Oshiomhole’s contradictory rhetoric haunted the APC in the just concluded Edo poll. The voters did not vote against Pastor Ize-Iyamu per se, they voted against the godfather and what he stands for in Edo politics. The godfather baggage affected so much the chances of Ize-Iyamu in the poll. They also voted against Tinubu’s last minute interference in the poll hence the chant, ‘Edo no be Lagos.’ Edo people resented being dictated from outside whom to vote.
They believe that election is about freedom to choose and not to be dictated to. It is about informed choice and not imposition. Democracy is not a demonstration of impunity or dictatorship which some godfathers have made it to look like. That is why Edo people spoke resoundingly with their votes and their votes were made to count by the federal government, the INEC, security agents and others because Aso Rock was not bothered about the outcome.
The APC stakeholders are aware that the party entered the exercise from crisis and was deeply divided. The APC primaries in Edo that literally bulldozed Obaseki out of the party did not go down well with many APC members both in Edo and outside the state. The APC in Edo through the instrumentality of Oshiomhole, did not treat Obaseki fairly. He was treated as a political orphan and outcast. APC lost the election after that primaries that failed to give Obaseki the chance of first refusal. What APC lost because of that political brigandage and miscalculation the PDP gained.
While it is good to commend President Muhammadu Buhari, the electoral umpire and the security agencies for not interfering in Edo poll, we urge them to do the same in the forthcoming Ondo State governorship poll slated for October 10. The outcome of our polls should stop being determined by what has become known as federal might, a euphemism for compromised electoral process. The history of Nigerian politics is one of compromised electoral outcomes by our so-called strongmen in power from independence to the present.
The perfidy is why many concerned Nigerians have called for electoral reforms, especially one that will make it possible for electronic voting and simultaneous transmission of election results from the polling booths instead of waiting for a centralized manual collation centres where rigging allegedly takes place. At 60 years of age, free, fair and credible election in Nigeria should be taken as given. It is not something we should be praying for those in authority to do or commend them when it is done.
It is the duty of the electoral umpire and other stakeholders to ensure that our poll is credible. The nation’s democracy can only be sustained if our electoral process is transparent and credible. Now that Edo poll is over and the winner extended the olive branch to his opponents including his former godfather, he should concern himself more with fulfilling his electoral promises to the people. He must build bridges of friendships across political divides so that they can work together to move Edo forward. Let him not betray the trust of Edo people because they gave their all to ensure that he was reelected.
Although the election has been hailed as free, fair and credible by local and international observers, it witnessed some infractions such as vote buying, ballot snatching, shooting incidents, harassment of voters, malfunctioning card readers and late arrival of electoral materials. All the same, Edo election was a great improvement on the 2019 poll and the gubernatorial polls in Kogi and Bayelsa states. Ours cannot be said to be perfect yet but we hope to get there one day if we allow strong institutions to thrive in our polity instead of allowing the impunity of the strongmen to hold sway.
Since the APC has congratulated Obaseki on his victory, there will be nothing wrong if Pastor Ize-Iyamu does the same in the spirit of sportsmanship and let bygone be bygone. Without doubt, Ize-Iyamu is a good person as attested by the voters who said they did not hate him or voted against him. They voted against those supporting him. They voted against godfatherism and their message is loud and clear.
This is one of the lessons of Edo poll. Another lesson is that nobody, no matter how influential, can arrogate to himself the power to dictate what the people should do. Politicians should watch their comments and stop saying things that they can’t easily take back. As our people say, rain can only wash away footprints but not bitter utterances. For Ize-Iyamu, there is life after politics, there is life after electoral setback.
Our leaders, especially the politicians must learn how to be humble and stop playing God. Let them desist from speaking in absolute terms and in a military fashion that reminds us of dark-goggled dictators of yore. Let our politicians take courses in leadership and understand that political leadership is a call to serve the people and not to be served by the people as it is the case in our country. A politician can also serve the people in other spheres other than holding political office, which many abuse in our land today.