The next governorship election in Edo State is some 3 weeks away, making it obvious that politicians and their political parties in the state have had at least 4 months beginning from April 24, 2024 to officially engage in public electioneering campaigns. For the first time since 1999, we have about 4 strong candidates in their own rights representing the All Progressives Congress APC, the All Progressive Grand Alliance APGA, the Labour Party LP and the Peoples Democratic Party PDP.

One would have thought that with such an increase in the number of parties that have nationwide presence as well as the visible strength of the credentials of their flagbearers, the electioneering campaigns would be vibrant and articulate. But that has not been the case; instead, the campaigns have been largely pedestrian and in some cases boring as well as bereft of substantive governance issues.

One irritating element in the campaigns is the unending refusal of members of ruling political parties across Nigeria to differentiate their parties from the government of the day. In Edo State, media reports did reveal efforts by some officials of the PDP – the ruling party in the state to deprive other parties from holding campaigns in public spaces like schools.

For this reason, some APC leaders felt they too could stop the PDP from accessing anywhere through the federal roads supposedly owned by the federal government. Apart from the fact that it is nauseating to claim ownership of dilapidated federal roads in the state, all public institutions and structures – schools, roads, stadia etc. belong to the people and not to any ruling political party. Anyone approaching electioneering campaigns with that puerile mind-set is not likely to articulate issue-oriented messages for the electorate.

Indeed, political campaigns in Edo State have so far, depicted too many superficial and outdated issues. We are told for example that one of the candidates cannot be voted for by his people because he never showed care for them by establishing one branch of his previous enterprise in his own village. In 2024, is Edo State still looking forward to the old inclination of governors focusing more on developing their personal villages?

Of course, all Edo villages deserve to be developed and constantly improved upon. It is against the same background that those who argued at length that it was time for a governor to be an indigene of their senatorial district patronised a weak argument. Accordingly, the attack on a candidate that reportedly cannot speak his own dialect is a non-issue as none of the candidates has a goal of becoming the governor of his village or ethnic group. If all that a governor can do is to speak his own language, how does he, as the governor of all, relate with citizens of other villages?

A few weeks ago in Abuja, when I had an opportunity of speaking with the APC candidate, he sounded quite coherent and different from how he is now portrayed in the media. I suspect that his party leaders are the ones inadvertently disorganizing his thought-process. Considering that the young man is the candidate, he should be allowed to be the major speaker at any rally. To start with, if the party wins the election, he is the one to serve as governor.

It is therefore important for the voters to hear from the proverbial horse’s mouth. For as long as party stalwarts are stealing the show from him at every rally, for that long would the party be misfiring. The point to be made is that the so called ‘orators’ who at every rally suddenly dictate topics/ideas that are different from what the candidate had prepared to discuss are the ones unconsciously provoking attacks on the candidate.

Another candidate that has been a victim of attacks is that of the Labour Party. On entry into the race, many voters may have been excited over a candidate who had held the prestigious office of President of the Nigerian Bar Association NBA. Other parties perhaps out of fear for his personality have since been using fake news and or hate speech to diminish his person. At first, it was reported that he was a PDP mole and that the state governor to whom he was allegedly close brought him to disparage the main opponent of the ruling PDP. He was beginning to come out of it when a new rumour dominating the social media said he has now sold out to the ruling party at the centre. The report had LIVE pictures of his alleged meeting with Femi Gbajabiamila, the chief of staff to the President where the deal was reportedly sealed.

The candidate has since shown that the pictures are old ones taken when as President of the NBA he met with Gbajabiamila who was then the Speaker of the House of Representatives. While some people might see the strategy as tactical because it is capable of destroying an individual, we need to restate here that tactical destruction of an opponent based on falsehood is not part of the approved rules for determining the winner of an election. Bearing in mind that it is the electorate that has the sole mandate to make the determination, we ought to allow the public to hear out every candidate for the purposes of making informed electoral choices. Those who win through the illegal process of undermining others are likely to use same strategies to outwit the people during governance. Consequently, society should not encourage scammers to surreptitiously crawl into office.

Godwin Obaseki, the out-going governor is another person that political party chieftains attack at rallies. It is wrong because rallies are not occasions for intemperate criticisms that can lead to crisis. In other climes, the current campaigns would not dwell on an outgoing governor but on the capacity of each candidate seeking to come to office. We have heard enough of how the last 8 years of Obaseki have been characterised by ‘ineffectual’ Memorandum of Understanding MoU which they suspect he might handover to his preferred candidate. 

What we want to hear next in clear terms is what those they want us to vote for plan to do and more importantly how they intend to implement such plans. We hope and fervently pray that the next administration will not attempt to resurrect the obnoxious practice of ‘yesteryears’ when public funds were shared among party leaders which is the main trait by which great Nigerian politicians are known.

Quite often, those who criticize Governor Obaseki forget that they are talking to citizens who have personally watched his performance over the years and therefore have their own individual feelings about the governor. Based on that, I suggest that those seeking office in Edo State should stop taking the people for granted by seeking to think for them. Instead, they should focus on and publicise their determination to do what the outgoing governor failed to do or could not complete.

Edo State led the nation in increasing the minimum wage. Do those seeking office now intend to improve on it or at least sustain it? To get into office before telling us how difficult it is to pay N70, 000 that a predecessor seemed to have paid with relative ease would be a disaster. There is no better time than this period of electioneering to deal with such issues through public enlightenment.

This is why the government of the day must allow a level playing field for all candidates to copiously brief our voters. To do differently is to short-change the people. The coming election must be free, fair and above all transparent like that of 2020 when the people’s choice prevailed. We do not want the 2016 type when several ballot papers were destroyed while the security operatives employed to secure the process turned a blind eye.

We also deprecate the other aspect of that election where some of its segments were postponed by unknown powers and forces without the knowledge and consent of an electoral body that is supposed to be always independent. Edo voters must ignore violent politicians and reject political parties that send their experts in rigging to manipulate the election process in any part of the nation where election is holding. God bless Edo State, the heartbeat of Nigeria and the cradle of African civilization.