The outcome of the just concluded elections certainly reveals that a king has lost some of his territories, and more regretfully a notable amount of the loyal subjects switched allegiance. Questions have been ranging as a seesaw.
Why was it easy for the subjects to be captured when some acclaimed APC field commanders were present at the voting turf ? What weapons did the opponents take to the battlefield that the APC lacked? Did the captured subjects willingly offer themselves for a better treatment by the opponents?
Putting it in a more definitive term, why did people prefer to swell the PDP camp with their votes and thereby giving its presidential candidate a lead over the APC’s in Edo State? While we are confounded with providing answers to these questions, the fact remains that Gov. Oshiomhole’s winning streak has been broken. And the issue currently at stake is how did a grade “A” student tether towards the “C” grade? But as the saying goes ‘A husband is usually the last person to know what is already a public gist of his wife’s promiscuity with men in the neighbourhood’ and therefore, Gov. Oshiomhole could not have imagined before the Presidential Election that the Edo State people, and more especially Edo-South who had overwhelming supported him through his political strife would be parting ways with him in so short a time and for the reason he could not have fathomed.
Even before the 2015 Presidential Election, it was still believed in Edo State that Gov. Oshiomhole has propelled his political profile to the point that if he accompanied the devil on a political campaign, the angels of God would be moved to vote for the devil. This feat was not achieved only through the sweetness of his oratory, but more because of his antecedence of exhibiting a resolve to always align with the masses which he further capped with the developmental achievements that are in sharp contrast from the intolerably low output of immediate past regimes. For these reasons Gov. Oshiomhole became the most sought political collaborator.
When he ever had a reason not to offer any person his political support and did as much as to let Edo people know where he stands, the unfavoured would easily become exiled in somewhere like a political Siberia, and those with tall political ambition did not only consider an association with such a reject as an anathema, but did the needful in exhibiting to all fellow political-fortune-hunters that they have made the master’s preference their personal creed. For now however, the essence of this piece is not about how fate has equipped Gov. Oshiomhole with an enviable political acumen, but I am hoping that I can use the opportunity to steer our reflections towards the sanctity of abiding by one’s calling.
Thankfully when Gov. Oshiomhole embarked on the assignment of driving Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s political ambition in Edo State, all that the opponents were doing to present Buhari as a monster was instantaneously eclipsed by the opponent’s inability to provide the needed alternative that would dissuade Nigerians from running to Buhari, who was loud with his rescue message and trustworthy enough as a liberator.
As PDP’s failings were adequate to curry sympathy for APC, appreciatively too, Gov. Oshiomhole was exhibiting a ‘we can do’ spirit and according APC the texture that portrayed a uniformity of purpose. Also, Nigerians were vividly chocking from unrestrained corruption of the PDP led federal government while Buhari was fast becoming an outstanding idol of the moment with a growing believe in his singular capacity to fight corruption.
And in disdainful mockery of Nigerians, President Goodluck’s campaigners were doling out comic reliefs and clearly abusive innuendos in place of the much expected workable solutions to crippling problems that are daily slamming Nigerians. So, to a large extent, APC ought to be victory bound in Edo State. As an excuse for the reverse which saw PDP coming tops, some have said that the amount of war chest deployed by Edo PDP to induce people at the voting centres could diffuse even a saint’s power of refusal. However, I still believe it is the failing of government to provide the alternative succour or economic welfare that would lift the majority of our people out of abject poverty which conscript their conscience to such debauchery
