24th November, 2016
I have my doubt. Since the coming on board of APC\Muhammadu Buhari, the gains made on the road to free and fair elections have been eroded. The ruling party, despite that it is a beneficiary of credible election, is not averse to playing monkey games with the electoral process; it plays smart and tries to hide its hands. In Kogi and Edo, we have evidence that elections will not be free and fair under the Buhari administration; in Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross Rivers, etc. we have evidence that what APC cannot have, it will try to subvert. The late President Umaru Yar’Adua began to move this country away from the mindless rigging of elections that blighted the Olusegun Obasanjo years; now, we are returned full blast under Buhari\APC to the years of the locusts. It will, therefore, be a pleasant surprise to me if the Ondo election is free and fair. I will not be surprised at all if it ends up a charade.
Up to this point there is nothing cheery about the processes; the primaries of the leading political parties have been dogged by controversies. None of the leading candidates have come out clean.
The APC primaries were rigged; some big-wig party leaders decided who the flag bearer must be and worked their way “iwuru-wuru” to the answer. The losers complained only because they lost; not because they were better than those who outsmarted them. Someone said the Master of the game was caught at his own game this time around as the very tactics he used to use to have his way was what his acolytes-turned- traducers now employed against him to fall him down flat. In the case of the PDP, it had long been established that the crisis bedevilling that party was self-inflicted. Ali Modu Sheriff was on his own when some leaders of the party invited him to be their leader. Once in the saddle, Sheriff had his own plans different from those of his benefactors; some APC leaders, too, saw a window of opportunity in using Sheriff to scatter PDP. Ondo state Gov. Olusegun Mimiko, sly as ever, thought he could ride the storm. He sought to run with the hare while also hunting with the hound. He reportedly made overtures to Sheriff even as chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum backing Sheriff’s adversary, Makarfi. In the end, he has burnt his fingers. His godson, Eyitayo Jegede, is left as we speak dangling in the air. He may or may not contest the election.
Many of those who were thrashed by Mimiko on his way to imposing Jegede on his faction of the PDP are saying “serves him right” So also is the Labour Party, where he was the undisputed shining light but which he abandoned to become a miserable tenant in PDP, poking fun at him. Olusola Oke, who ran from PDP to APC before berthing in Alliance for Democracy, is said to be a grassroots person but his political prostitution is a minus any day. What do we say of the Sheriff faction’s own candidate, Jimoh Ibrahim? Here was a man who owed workers in his fleet of newspapers salaries for months and never bathed an eyelid. Workers are not better than slaves in his reckoning. I shudder to think what will become of Ondo state workers if this kind of a person becomes governor.
The situation in Ondo is not encouraging at all. I know no one is perfect but we should be making progress and not move backwards. I had thought we would be able to say that the candidates are all a shade better than the outgoing governor but I cannot be too sure if I can say so now in all honesty. A man who will rig primaries or allow processes to be compromised for him to get into office is dubious and will steal once he gets into office. A political prostitute out of government will be a proper harlot when he gets into office. The time has come when morality and politics should have a meeting point. Divorcing both will do us no good. As matters stand today in Ondo, the only redeeming grace left is to allow the voters go out there and make their pick.
All the products are tainted but choose one they must. The election must be free and fair. The people’s vote must count. INEC must not play any monkey game with the Ondo election. The rumour is everywhere of an “Ayoka” (remember Madam Ayoka of Ekiti INEC?) at the Abuja headquarters of INEC who is muzzling the Commission and compelling everyone to do the bidding of the powers-that-be. Tell her to sheath her sword concerning the Ondo election. Ondo\Ekiti, both of which made up the old Ondo state, are the graveyards of election riggers. If the Ondo elections are rigged, it may sound the death knell not only of the APC\Buhari administration but also of our renascent democracy. Let the people choose their leaders. The shenanigans that played out in the Edo election must not be imported into Ondo state. We are a different kettle of fish.
I wish the candidates the best of luck. I advice that they appraise themselves of the history of the state they are angling to lead – 1964\65 and 1983 especially. For the voters, I repeat the words of the late Ooni Okunade Sijuwade: E jade k’e lo try best yin”.
Bola Bolawole
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