PDP Still Not an Option in Edo

Iradia Osadolor gives reasons why Edo State should never go the way of the Peoples Democratic Party

FFor the first time in the last 16 years, there is a new realignment in the country’s political system. It is the first time control would be wrested from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It is less than two weeks since this ‘change’ happened and the development, already, has started affecting the political behaviour of people, as seen in recent defections.

Funny enough, there could be states where the APC might not grow bigger because it is the party at the centre. For peculiar reasons, Edo State might be one of such.

In the past eight years, minus a year or so when Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor held a stolen mandate, Edo has played the part of the opposition. For a political system that is as patronising as ours, you do not gain much from belonging to the opposition, except of course, the feeling that you are on the side of the people.

As an individual player on the opposition turf, you might only lose personal benefits. But for a state, such stand could result in monumental loss, manifest in lack of attention and being bereft of basic amenities. The mathematics is obvious: projects, at state and federal levels, are allocated on the basis of political consideration rather than need.

States usually do not get what they deserve but what they can efficiently demand for. The sad implication is that we could continue this way until we hit a point of development where the formula would change to distribution of resources based on equity. What appears to be the norm now is that too many mouths have to be filled; hence, attention is given to the loudest voice.

We can also view this from the standpoint of the growth of our democratic experience. To be honest, we have not experienced much growth in the past 16 years. And for a democracy yet to attain maturity, favouritism and individual influences are among the crude methods that determine who gets what.

Of course, the meeting point is lobbying. If lobbying, which is a give-and-take thing still commands a place in the politics of the United States, you can imagine what goes on in Abuja. Over the years, states have been marginalised because there were no strong voices to speak for them. As crucial as Lagos is to the national economy, it has had its share of the challenge of not having a voice. Many people still attribute the infrastructural problems it has faced to weak political link between Alausa and Aso Rock. In Rivers, we have seen the bitter relationship between federal and state government played out with hash consequences on the masses.

Unfortunately, there are already signs the old warlords are making serious efforts to reclaim the state. At the Presidential and National Assembly polls, the PDP swept the entire Edo South and Central senatorial zones. This outcome implies that the state will be playing the opposition in the National Assembly in the next four years. That is bad enough.

The governorship/state legislature polls hold on Saturday. Analysts expect the outcome of the presidential poll to swing votes but we also know that politics is a matter of conviction. Should Edo voters choose PDP candidates as lawmakers, it will further prove their inclination to oppose in the new dispensation.

Interestingly, aggrieved APC members constitute the bulwark of the now opposition PDP. It is time those people return to their first love. And everybody must play his role: the governor, on the one hand, must accept his mistakes; the aggrieved individuals, on the other hand, must accept a ceasefire. We cannot afford to work to nurture a party for close to a decade just to abandon it for an opposition after it has attained power. Edo people are not cursed.

We must prevent Edo from slipping into the hands of the opposition, after working so hard in the past nine years to nurture the APC. The party needs a rigorous campaign to appease the people before Saturday’s polls. With success, there will be a new momentum to build on towards securing the victory of the APC at the 2016 governorship election.

There may be sentiments against Oshiomhole. But we cannot afford to throw away the child with the bathwater. He needs the support we all can give, to ensure a transition that meets the developmental challenges facing the state. The past eight years would have been rosier, had the state been led by the ruling party. Today, there are environmental and infrastructural challenges that are quite above the strength of the state government.

In the course attempting to refocus the government to prevent the state from collapse, the governor might have stepped on toes. But one thing is sure: he took those decisions in the best interest of the state. It is too late a time, after playing the opposition for seven years, to allow personal interests and sentiments into an opposition again.

While we should respect the ambition of an individual, it is important to note that an individual can only survive in a functional system. When an individual loses a political race, the hurt is meagre. The pain, however, becomes intolerable when an entire political entity loses out. This we must guard against, as we go to the polls.

There is no absolute individuality in any democratic process. We should not be scared to market our ideas in the most compelling way. We should be bold enough to embark on a re-democratisation and de-democratisation, to find the right curve. Our common future is too dear to our hearts to be sacrificed on the altar of personal interest. The entire state is the common future and the ruling APC is its most certain path.

The recent elections pointed to deepening ethnic political grouping. We must be bold to confront the reality that we are one people who share the same pains. We must rise beyond ethnic politics, clannish cleansing, and embrace the path to a happier future.