By Osagie Imasogie
Ahead of the September 21 governorship election in Edo State, the All Progressives Congress, members reportedly met with President Bola Tinubu, and appealed for financial assistance for its gubernatorial election in Edo State.
The president, it was learnt, expressed shock because he was told the gubernatorial candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo, would be able to fund his campaigns himself as a so-called IT guru.
The president, it was further learnt, registered his disappointment during the appeal-for-fund meeting and all those who went left the meeting dejected.
Today, APC in Edo State is in a serious shambolic situation. On the other hand, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in its wisdom fielded a very sellable candidate, Dr Asue Ighodalo, who is greatly admired by the president himself.
The APC is still running electioneering as if we are in the 80s by deliberately being absent from the social media basically because it has a candidate that is press shy, and having a very ineffective media team. Most notable members of the team had left to join PDP because they find it difficult to market what is not sellable.
The APC’s excuse is that the Edo State Government, through its agencies, is denying them the chance to erect billboads in the state. Let us assume that is true. What happens to branding private vehicles, taxis and cabs? Will the government also stop these? What about hats , shirts and umbrellas?
In 2020, one could easily see POI’s hats conspicously everywhere in Benin City. Four years later we cannot see anyone wearing the APC caps with Okpebholo on it. The amount of AIO2 hats in the metropolis of Benin City in my estimation would be more than the entire members of APC and Labour Party, LP, in the state. Everywhere you go in Edo State, people are adorning the caps proudly, which shows solidarity with the candidate and his deputy, Barr. Osarodion Ogie. Women in the markets have the aprons too.
The truth is, Edo State citizens are ashamed to be associated with APC that have inflicted them with penury, and are more ashamed to be associated with the gubernatorial candidate that should not have risen beyond being a foreman in a yam farm.
The APC have nothing going for them except some few who are hell-bent on vendetta against the outgoing governor. We all know vendetta does not translate to good governance. The people are ready to allow bygone be bygone in as much as their commonwealth is going to be effectively managed and not shared to several godfathers.
The electorates have decided to defeat the APC in the election because they cannot allow the affliction the party has brought to Nigeria to be visited on them in Edo State. The policies of the Federal Government have brought widespread hunger and poverty, the people are very aware of this situation, and are in dispair. They now see APC as another name for pain, sorrow, poverty, penury…and they are not ready to gamble their state with the failed party.
APC in Edo State cannot campaign; they have nothing to campaign with. The people are too sophisticated to be sold and bought to sophistry. The party is walking towards its eventual political demise in the state.
Osagie Imasogie writes from Benin City.
