Towards Ekiti Guber Election – A Stitch in Time || By Lanre ARIBISALA

I must quickly put a caveat here before I am misunderstood.

What you’re about to read will be laced with ageless valued proverbs and garnished with some strong Ekiti dialect, if not outright argots.

Above decision is both deliberate and necessary. Deliberate since the rule in today’s communication parlance is “there are no more rules” and necessary as I intend to address more aboriginals who are likely to be more directly affected by the subject in focus.

At creation; everything was perfect, at least, so we were told. Imagine how our lost milk teeth were replaced and trimed finger-nails grew back. Wounds, even on plants healed, branches from another tree grafted by mere contacts and so on and so forth.

Those were the nature-established and time-tested healing and organised divine arrangements that required NO human interference. Unfortunately, not any more. Common family disagreements and marital squabbles today end in fisticuffs, divorce and that’s where the couples are not at daggar/pistol drawn.

Politics appear to be worst hit! Dog eat dog is the name of the game and ‘boo ba o pa, boo ba koo buu lese’ has become the norm. Betrayal, deceits, bigotry, inordinate ambition amongst others have combined to create serial irreconciliable acrimony.

On my mind here is #ekitidecide2018 and the main opposition Party in the State, the All Progressives Congress (APC). Things look fell apart with the ‘once upon a time’ ruling Party, the centre doesn’t seem holding and concluding it’s no longer at ease won’t be an exaggeration. Why and how it lost the 2014 election has been over-flogged, the rest, as they say, is history but the ‘how’, particularly, the much-hipped 16:0 result will remain a subject of political research for a log time to come.

All Progressives Congress (APC) came out of that election battered and there is NOTHING, absolutely nothing, strange in that. What’s strange is how the party, instead of healing internally, is imploding and heading for self -destruct, God forbids.

In place of taking the advantage of having produced three (3) Ex-governors and build on that goodwill, the supposed assets are fast becoming the albatross on the party and its chance of ousting the current occupant of Oke Ayoba House, as the State’s seat of power is called, is becoming more slippery.

Apart from grassroot mobilisation popularly known as ‘street credibility’ that the incumbent, Governor Ayodele Fayose has used to his advantage, he has since named his deputy as the standard bearer and successor to the guber seat. What we have with APC is her three supposed statesmen throwing their hats in the ring for the governorship contest.

Oni meta a yoo duro li meji-meji? One of them had actually declared last week or thereabout, another may unveil his intention to run before the month expires and while the three ex-governors are trying to stand in twos, elders of our clime would tell you that “oluja iseta”. It’s believed that where and when three people quarrel, one must be seen to be “unduly” supporting either of the other two just as the third ex-governor has been fingered.

Above development, if you ask me, is an ill wind that will blow NO ONE any good. Not any of the said ex-governors, not the Party and very definitely, not the State. This is where I expect all concerned, indigenes and residents, (ateru atomo) ka ba aro atodofin ikun wa soro. We all must speak to ourselves to ensure we successfully exit the quagmire we and the State have found ourselves.

While I am and many of us at home and in the dispora are weighed down by the level of notoriety our State have acquired, the new names we address by and the fact that someone with integrity deficit, intellectual poverty and moral bankruptcy has become the barometre, the yard-stick by which Ekiti people are being measured, I hear we’ve been bitten by the zoning bug! We are now divided along the compass line. East and West, North and South have now became our new-found love and rave of the moment.

I was having a political discussion with my father sometimes. Considering which candidate (s) to align with and what should influence such choices, I boldly told him that should I be sufficiently informed that an Igbira man that contests same position with him will perform better, I will NOT hesitate, not to talk of holding anything back, to vote the Igbira. He didn’t like it but that is the truth.

In like manner, I would be expecting us to put our BEST foot forward, parade our “1st eleven” considering less of where a contestant comes from but what benefit (s) should accrue therefrom. “Aileeja ni won o bimi nileyi, ojule Baba eni kii gbija eni”. How much has the ones we have elected from our kith and kin impacted us as individuals and communities? This isn’t an argument against equal representations and participation but a vote for anyone among all the equals and qualified.

The issue of external influence bother me too. The All Progressives Congress (APC) has enough challenges at the center and in several States to grapple with than to allow her interference with issues as zoning, ‘Abuja/Lagos preferred candidacy’, ‘financial colonisation’ among others in the next Ekiti ‘make or mar’ election. Needless I remind you of the devastating blow all of the mentioned issues dealt a one time self-acclaimed biggest party in Africa.

If the APC is desirous of returning to Oke Ayoba in October this year, it must, as a matter of urgency, resolve all internal skirmishes, persuade the ‘heavy – weights’ to eat the humble pie, come down from those high horses, live out the Statesmen in them and support new, fresh and younger candidates and we have loads of them.

The Party must also, from among those new, fresh and young contestant, choose the one with pedigree, proven antecedents and visible track records, not just good enough to win elections but sufficient to make some contestants unattractive to the delegates at primary and the electorate during general elections.

Ogun asotele kii paro, to baa gbon ni o. To be forewarned is to be forearmed!

Lanre ARIBISALA writes from Ado Ekiti