The campaigns for the July 14 governorship election in Edo state are reaching their crescendos. The election, coming at the heels of the shenanigans that characterise the campaigns, as most keen observers have observed, is between those who insist on returning the state to the epicentre of Nigerian politics and those who want to root the state inside progressive politics. This observation, to the extent that it highlights the way politics is conceived as an ideological binary, masks the constitutive elements of politics and the personalities that shape the governance environment.
The campaigns for the July 14 governorship election in Edo state are reaching their crescendos. The election, coming at the heels of the shenanigans that characterise the campaigns, as most keen observers have observed, is between those who insist on returning the state to the epicentre of Nigerian politics and those who want to root the state inside progressive politics. This observation, to the extent that it highlights the way politics is conceived as an ideological binary, masks the constitutive elements of politics and the personalities that shape the governance environment.
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In truth, the dominant parties in the state, Action Congress of Nigeria and the Peoples Democratic Party, are neither driven by progressive ideology, nor by any democratic ideals. Both parties, peopled by politicians who subscribe to the most decadent ideology of ‘chop and live’, and possibly die if peradventure they find themselves on the wrong side of power, invite ridicule. The notion of democracy as people-centred is lost to these politicians. At least, as it is still the case, both parties are deeply rooted in the culture of anything goes- so far that what goes bears the seals of approval of Anenih and Oshiomhole.
Though, the Action Congress of Nigeria, Edo state presents itself as a party, if not illusionary, that takes development as the core of governance. And with Oshiomhole as its driver, the governance ethos is shaped by his personal outlook rather than that of his party. Would Oshiomhole have taken the chance to place his government in the hands of these politicians? I don’t think so. Take Oshiomhole away from that party, it becomes the exact replica of the Peoples Democratic Party, or the New Peoples Democratic Party as it now calls itself. There is a finer point to be made here and it is that political parties are not be shaped by individuals, or left to the whims and caprices of individuals, no matter how mercurial they are as politicians.
The Action Congress of Nigeria, Edo state is an offshoot of the Peoples Democratic Party. Politicians who filched the resources of the state during Lucky Igbinedion’s years and made it the ground zero of underdevelopment are the founding members of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Edo state. The backbone of the party is formed by that amorphous cleavage, the Grace Group, led by Pastor Iyamu, a one-time Chief of Staff of the most corrupt civilian governor that the state has ever known, Lucky Igbinedion. And at the core of government are politicians who supported the ill-fated third term and adjudged by many as corrupt.
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Take Lucky James, the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, who was dropped by the State House of Assembly as a commissioner-designate when Oshiomhole first put his name forward in 2009, for instance. Recall that it was this same politician members of his own community alleged was corrupt and woeful during his tenure as council chairman in 2001.
Today, he sits pretty well as the commissioner superintending all revenues allocated to local councils in the state. What a joke. The difference between now and then is simply this: Oshiomhole reins in some of the most detestable politicians in his party and gets them leashed to where accesses to the resources of the state are negligible. Not that his government is immune to those transactions that take place in post-colonial governments, anyway.
So, the talk about the political gladiators returning the state to national and progressive politics is bunkum.
The campaigns are about power, the personalisation of power, and the challenges of political existence. The July 14 election, to borrow football pundits’ clichéd phrase, will be the sudden death. The loss of Chief Anthony Anenih, who is fighting the gubernatorial war by proxy, will invariably bring a political career that has spanned two decades, or more, to an inglorious end. The loss of Oshiomhole will surely signal the beginning of the end of his political career; and the loss, if any sense can be made out of the presidential forces, led by the Vice President, that are arrayed against him, will point to a long and hard time ahead. Don’t rule out the Timi Sylva’s treatment.
Oshiomhole stands on a seeming firmer ground. He has delivered and has taken the state from the ground zero of underdevelopment to some considerable developmental acclaim. Edo state is working. Same cannot be said for the Peoples Democratic Party and its ‘chop and live’ politics. The July 14 election is only a shout away. No re-run or fresh election has ever been won by the opposition parties under Professor Jega’s watch. I fear that the Edo state’s gubernatorial election will go the way of others before it. I hope I am wrong.
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