By John Legbedion
Beyond the credibility or otherwise of the contestants and what they bring to the table, the Edo 2024 gubernatorial election, by a significant measure, may be considered a referendum on the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and not least, the incumbent governor, His Excellency Godwin Obaseki.
Seething from the abjection, agony, and privation that pervade the lives of millions of Nigerians, enforced by nine years of an insensitive and senseless APC rule at the federal level, convincing the average Edo voter to thumb-ink the party’s logo at the state’s guber poll would be a Herculean task.
As if the misrule of the APC at the top wasn’t bad enough, the party’s candidate is the one with the most baggage. Akpakomiza, as Senator Monday Okpebholo is popularly called, is entering a contest that will impact the fate of Edolites in Nigeria and the diaspora as, unarguably, the most unprepared and unqualified flagbearer among the frontrunners. Even the APC knows this and deliberately shields him from public scrutiny because any time he attempts to publicly malign Obaseki, he ends up exposing his shortcomings and lack of intelligence.
Unsurprisingly, his listless misspeaks and gaffes are a stark reflection of a similar ineptitude at the federal level that has inflicted upon citizens the worst levels of inflation ever experienced in post-military Nigeria.
Any Nigerian that can afford a bag of rice at almost N90,000 will hold the days of the PDP rule in nostalgia when it was sold for less than N10,000. From 1999 to 2015, when the PDP were at the helm in Aso Villa, there was, at the very least, a semblance of development and progress, which stands in stark contrast to the brutally harsh realities being experienced thereafter.
From the rising cost of goods to insecurity and corruption, everything that Nigerians felt was bad under the PDP has gotten astronomically worse under the APC.
It is the same propaganda and deceptive tactics that the APC apparatchiks resorted to when they deceived Nigerians with the promise of ‘CHANGE’ that they are repeating in Edo. Each day, Edo people are fed one misinformation or another to discredit Obaseki, his administration, and the PDP.
When Obaseki promised to increase the minimum wage for civil servants from N40,000 to N70,000, they discredited it as mere political propaganda, claiming that the governor would never live up to his promise. Their claim has been proven false, and Edo civil servants have been rewarded with a pay package that will cushion the effects of the APC-led federal government’s mismanagement of Nigeria’s economy.
The APC had the impudence to drag the revered Oba of Benin into their smear campaign by lying that Obaseki’s government had taken the Benin Traditional Council to court, only for people to discover that, like the Palace, the government was also a defendant in the concerned legal dispute.
Even in the case of the deplorable condition of federal roads that traverse the length and breadth of the state, which statutorily should be the sole responsibility of the FG, they have tried to nail Obaseki to the stake for it. Now that the state government is rising to the challenge by commencing palliative work on the federal arterial roads while strengthening the network of connector routes, that narrative will gradually die a natural death.
Thankfully, Edo people are innately independent thinkers and happen to be among the most informed in the country.
Come September 21, 2024, when they throng to their polling units in droves, they will remember a governor who rid the state of barbaric ‘lions and tigers,’ oppressive Community Development Associations (CDAs), and restored sanity within the polity. They will remember a governor who improved learning outcomes for over 400,000 Edo children with his Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (EdoBEST) programme and made them globally competitive.
Edo people will remember a governor who made the state Secretariat Complex the best, most equipped and most digitized in Nigeria and ensured the workers are the highest paid in the country.
They will not forget in a hurry, the governor who revitalized healthcare and brought Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) to their localities. A governor who made healthcare more accessible and affordable with the Edo Health Insurance Scheme (EdoHIS), going as far as paying premiums and making it free for pensioners and vigilante operatives.
No one will expect Edo people to forget a governor who created platforms for youths and creatives in the state to fulfill their dreams with the construction of the Victor Uwaifo Creative Hub and Sound Stage, the Edo State International Film Festival (ESIFF), Edo Gospel Music Festival (EdoGOF), among several other initiatives to harness the creative potential of our vibrant young population.
As emphasised in local pidgin English colloquialism, ‘No be who first go police dey win case.’ The APC’s penchant for being quick to run to the court of public opinion with falsehoods and propaganda is no guarantee that their narrative will have the upper hand after the dust settles. People may be fooled initially by their trickery and shenanigans once, but not twice. Eventually, people get wise and APC’s strategy will surely backfire.
Amidst the policy somersaults and misadventures of the APC’s federal government that have made Nigeria a tottering giant and left Nigerians groaning in misery, only a party that is positioned to elevate the fortunes of the Edo people above and beyond the developmental progress achieved under Governor Obaseki’s administration is worthy of consideration.
The only party with such a track record is the Peoples Democratic Party, and its candidate is Dr. Asue Ighodalo, an achiever of proven capacity, character, and competence.
Legbedion, a social critic writes from Benin City
