2018 Guber: APC’s Forlorn Hope In Ekiti State
The Oasis Reporters
April 30, 2018
By Olufemi Alonge (Alonso)
The first President of the United States of America, George Washington once said, “where there is no vision, there is no hope”.
Hope is the last thing that a man planning to survive or make history in life must not lose.
However, what I don’t cherish in our brothers is their ability to be hopeful on impossibilities. If simple analyses are what will make some bragging members of Ekiti State All Progressives Congress (APC) know that they can only rig where they are popular, I’m here with some facts.
It is not by pride, but the little knowledge of mine in politics and governance is enough to give an accurate account of the past elections in the country since 1999.
For better understanding, permit me to begin my narratives with 2014 gubernatorial election in Ekiti. Then, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was the ruling party in Nigeria while APC was the ruling party in Ekiti. But PDP was fully on ground and the general acceptability cum popularity of the former governor who was the flag bearer of the party, Dr. Ayodele Fayose made the election a walkover for the PDP.
On the other hand, there was a governorship election too in Osun State in 2014 where Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola of the APC handsomely defeated Otunba Iyiola Omisore of the PDP.
Which means that “federal might” failed in Osun State in 2014.
Despite the “federal might” of the PDP in 2003, Lagos State was the only state in the Southwest and in Nigeria that was governed by the Alliance for Democracy (AD). The then governor of the state, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu got a return ticket, yet he was not on the same page with President Olusegun Obasanjo throughout his tenure. He later became a cynosure of all eyes as the main voice of the opposition just the way the only PDP governor in the SW, Chief Ayodele Fayose is known as the notable opposition leader in Nigeria.
Let me say this: As Lagos state was difficult for the PDP government to tamper with, the same thing is applicable in Ekiti State today.
It is obvious that the international community will be highly interested in the July 14 election in Ekiti State because of the incessant criticisms of Fayose on President Muhammadu Buhari’s government and his interest in the ambition of his deputy.
It is pertinent to let our brothers in the APC know that federal might failed in the recently conducted election in Anambra State.The election was freely won by the ruling party in the state.
Meanwhile, the thought that Ekiti election will be a replica of what happened Ondo State which was won by the APC should not be heard from any rational thinker, because all the factors that led to PDP’s defeat in the election are known and none of the reasons behind that defeat is happening here in Ekiti State.
Still on the factors that militated against the PDP in Ondo State in the era of Ali Modu Sheriff, the destroyer is gone in the PDP. Everybody knows that Fayose’s style of politics is not the same as the outdated style of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko who hijacked and destroyed the formidable structure of the PDP in Ondo state immediately he joined the party from the Labour Party.
Since Mimiko failed to deliver his state for the PDP in 2015 general election, every man with political dexterity knew PDP would be defeated during the governorship election in the state.
As dicey as Ekiti State politics is, by this time in year 2014, those who were good at political calculations had known the winner of June 21 election and so it is now.
The way the game is in Ekiti, there is no way PDP will not record another electoral success in the state, because when PDP members across the sixteen local government areas of the state were mobilising people for Voter Registration, our APC brothers were busy boasting of using federal power on the day of election.
Prof. Kolapo Olubunmi Olusola who is the most educated and a leading aspirant amongst the political parties in the state is contesting under the PDP and the chief supporter of the best aspirant is a governor who knows a lot in the game of politics. I’m very sure that the people of the state will never allow or think of voting in those who put the state into financial mess. Therefore, the hope that APC can wrest power from PDP in Ekiti is a forlorn hope because federal might which they rely on will definitely disappoint them.
Written by Alonge Olufemi Alonso.
He writes from Ekiti.
