If I had any regrets of being in politics or lay claim to being a progressive, last week exercise in Ondo State and the purported conduct of the Ondo State Gubernatorial Primary gave me a jolt.
Ordinarily, I thought we had moved beyond this type of disgraceful and anti- democratic practice. I never knew that we have reversed back to the inpunitituos era of the past where might is right.
The basic tenets of a direct primary was set out by the party and handed over to the Ododo led Committee. All they needed to do was to allow the process to proceed based on their mandate while they find other means to satisfy their paymasters in Akure. Unfortunately, that never happened. The Ododo Committee was so crude and irresponsible to commit daylight robbery and attempt to force it down our throats.
On the eve of the election Senator Ovie Omo-Agege on behalf of Usman Ododo acting for the party asked electoral officers to come to Bon Hotel, Ijapo to collect materials for the election. He read out the materials and the names of those from the 203 wards who should come to represent their wards. However, when these people gathered at the designated Bon Hotel with representatives of the aspirants and some of the aspirants, Ododo told us that rather than the 7 am they gave to us they had distributed the materials earlier without telling us those they gave them to.
Not too long we heard that election had been concluded in many places against the rules that accreditation would start by ten in the morning and end by one in the afternoon when voting ( head count) would commence and end by two in the afternoon. Tolu Babaleye granted an interview to Adaba FM around nine o’clock in the morning in Akungba and informed the reporter they had finished election. While the same reporter spoke with Gbenga Edema around some minutes to ten where he was informed we were.yet to sight the documents for the election.
Another point to notice was the act of impunity of violence introduced in many of the polling centres where opposition elements and supporters of other aspirants were chased away or brutalized. The supporters of Ayedatiwa across the State usurped the role of INEC as observers and electoral officers.
Those charged with the responsibility of conducting the elections in the various wards never stepped out of their hotel rooms. They were scattered in various hotels in Akure where they were in company of women of easy virtue or sunbathing with them at the swimming pools.
I insist and posit very assuredly that this is the biggest disservice to our electoral fortune and a dagger to the heart of progressivism and democracy in our State. For some of us, ” my party is my party”. But to have openly and maniacally stabbed long suffering and hard working members of the APC at the back , portends real danger. I do not have power of clairvoyance, but I know as of a fact that a lot of our party members are unhappy. They feel betrayed, disappointed and scandalised.
I would have expected that the beneficiary of this fraud would have embarked on fence mending or pay visits to many of the leading aspirants. But rather than doing this, they have embarked on arm twisting tactics, blackmail, stonewalling and effusive arrogance of power. They have adopted we have done what we needed to do, the rest could go to hell. The celebrative mood is like the during the death of Aketi when ” e ku orire o” was the best that could be said to a people in mourning mood.
For some of us, we are going to see this through. But for many of our members, this is ” Lanlehin”.
I have always said that the support being shown to Ayedatiwa by PDP elements was not for nothing. I maintained they have a sinister agenda. If for any reason , the right person in PDP wins their primary today, it may be the beginning of a dead giant. It may be the fillip needed for it’s resurgence. If care is not taken, if a popular aspirant picks the ticket and he knows how to play his politics, the ripples that will surface in our beloved APC would be a Tsunami.
I hope I am wrong. For me, my party is my party. This may not be true for everyone and for all the time for everybody. Oro yi a lehin.
Whoever loves our party and want us to retain it under the progressive fold, should ask Lucky to embark on real fence mending rather than this false hope of ” bamu bamu ni a yo, awa o mo pe ebi npa enikokan”. Again, the Abuja “rambaram” of today is a waste of time and energy.
My party is my party, the truth must be told. That’s why I have said my own.
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