Public campaigns for the Edo 2024 governorship election are in full swing and, as expected, candidates who have burnt the midnight oil, who have studiously looked at the key issues confronting the people, are traversing the length and breadth of the state meeting face to face with the electorate and telling them what they are bringing to the table should they get the mandate to be the next occupant of Osadebe House when Governor Godwin Obaseki’s tenure ends in November.
Some, however, who cannot read the signs of the time, who do not understand that the train has long left the terminal, who do not know there’s been a massive shift from analogue to digital way of doing things, with Edo leading the way as the first state in Nigeria to fully digitise its governance processes, are out there dwelling on inanities and throwing infantile jabs that add no value to their electoral prospect. One, the same one that “created boreholes” and changed “the narration”, is busy calling his opponents “baby politicians”, as if being a Methuselah in politics automatically imbues one with the right kind of experience. Well, the first set of people to throw sand during a fight are those who do not have the physical strength to slug it out in the arena. Similarly, the first set of people to descend into mudslinging during electioneering campaigns are those who lack the intellectual rigour to engage the issues.
But that is pretty sad, because in Edo State, focus has shifted from politics qua politics to good governance, and modern-day governance demands sound intellect. Plato talks about the philosopher-king.
Back to the matter of “baby politicians” and “Methuselah politicians”. Hasn’t it been proved time and again that many private sector people who have never held political positions come into politics infinitely better equipped than most of your run-of-the-mill politicians who have been running around the political track like relay racers since Adam and Eve were naked in Eden? These people just want to bring some of their private sector experience to drive efficiency in public service and deliver desirable progress to their people. And they want to do it quickly and exit. They are not layabouts who linger around the corridors of power after holding political office waiting for the next crumbs. Pundits have even gone further to distinguish between professional politicians and professionals in politics.
And speaking of professionals in politics, look at Abia. It may be too early to call, but if truly morning tells the day, then Alex Otti, a thoroughbred banker who exited Diamond Bank as Managing Director/CEO, is proving that God’s Own State, which had been groping in the dark since 1999 under bland, uninspiring leaders, can yet be rescued.
It was the same kind of inspiring leadership that Babatunde Raji Fashola brought to Lagos State between 2007 and 2015. It is similar to what the Governor Godwin Obaseki era that is nearing its end has done in Edo State in the past seven and a half years – building institutions that enhance good governance, sowing seeds for the future, attracting investments into the state, and transforming Edo from a civil service state to an industrial state.
The other puerile argument by those who have nothing to tell the people and so just want to obfuscate issues is this talk about wanting a homeboy for governor and not someone who cannot speak the local language. Well, I do not intend to diminish the importance of one being able to speak one’s mother tongue. It matters to be able to speak one’s mother tongue, but that’s not one of the criteria for good governance. In the final analysis, what are Edo people looking for? A coconut head who is able to rap in the mother tongue or a man of capacity, competence and integrity who is able to steer the ship of state to destinations that small minds never thought were possible?
There’s the other candidate who keeps talking about what the governor said, did or didn’t do. I’m seriously wondering how someone gets an opportunity to convince the electorate to vote for him and instead of shooting his shot, he’s busy having nightmares over the sitting governor.
Anyway, the threshing is on, and Edo people are separating the wheat from the chaff. Candidates still dwelling on inanities had better face the issues. Five months is not forever.
*Oluigbo is the Acting Editor of The Nigerian Observer. Opinions expressed here, however, are purely personal and do not represent the views of the newspaper.
