By Igbotako Nowinta
I see a revolution coming closer to what we have seen in Edo State, only if the people of Nigeria, the brutalized, who have been made the dregs of the society, can team up with an ideologically clear headed political leader with paradigmatic shifting intensions. The next revolution in 2023 in Nigeria is abundantly possible. In doing this we must begin to stridently clamor for genuine electoral voting system in Nigeria, we must profusely and energetically prevail on the National Assembly to do the needful. They should alter the present artificial clauses about our present stagnated electoral rules, to embrace candid electronic voting, such as is available in the United States, Europe and other civilized climes in the world. The Nigerian people should be able to make a statement in 2023, because this country has been led astray by some political criminals pretending to be jolly good fellows. We must do something quite unusual. There was a semblance of ideological inclination during the First Republic in Nigeria. What do we have now? Ideological leaning has collapsed. What is ideological about the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) or the All Progressives Congress (AP) for instance? If the two dominant political parties are conscientious or guided by any ideology to deliver quality democratic dividends to the Nigerian people, the likes of Adams Oshiomhole could not have succeeded to the extent he got before he was crushed out of the chairmanship of the ruling All Progressives Party (APC).
The people of Edo State recently took a very drastic measure against architects of political barbarism and retrogression by giving a big hard knock to some tiny fringe of individuals, who felt they were smarter and wiser than the people.
In casting their votes overwhelmingly for the incumbent Governor, Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki, the electorate wildly surprised themselves, like what the animals did in George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm.’
And they succeeded incredibly to curb the political excesses of one inconsiderate, uncultured, arrogant, dictatorial and desperate individual, known as Comrade Adams Aliu Oshiomhole, the former two-term Governor of Edo State.
Quite unfortunately for Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, who genuinely meant well for the people of Edo State, but his greatest undoing was allowing himself to be used unconsciously, as a dirty pawn in the despicable hands of ex-Governor, Adams Oshiomhole.
Never before have a people refused a sinister ploy by an individual to have his pound of flesh against a former godson, in Godwin Obaseki, like the way and manner they poured out their ‘protest votes,’ against ‘Adams Oshiomhole’ and his undemocratic gang of godfathers on September 19, 2020, during Edo State gubernatorial election.
Really, the political battle was between Adams Oshiomhole and Godwin Obaseki, certainly not between the man being identified with the cassock, who mistakenly and unknowingly came to help collect the “damaging political arrows and bullets’ meant for the ‘malevolent godfather.”
Adams Oshiomhole who came to political power with pomp and pageantry in November 2008, after winning a landslide election victory against Professor Osariemen Osunbor, of the then People’s Democratic Party (PDP); an election that was dragged to the bloody turf of law Court, where he was eventually declared the undisputed winner of the 2007 Edo State Governorship Election.
It is most pathetic that after serving eight meritorious years as Governor of Edo State in 2016, he deliberately squandered his greatest good will, by allowing his success to enter his head, and in the process consciously stepped into the garment of godfatherism, which he vehemently fought to climb to political relevance.
Agreed that Godwin Obaseki dealt with him treacherously, by stabbing him in the back, along with the army of political henchmen that enabled him to emerge as Governor in November 2016, Adams Oshiomhole imprisoned himself with personal grudges.
He beclouded his sense of political calculations and reason with extreme acrimony; he elevated political vendetta to an intoxicating ruthlessness, and in the process he has stupidly shot himself in the foot.
What we see today is terribly ironic, a man who marvelously shot down a political godfather, in the late Chief Tony Anenih, in 2008, has been mercilessly dethroned twelve years later, by his own hand-picked successor, his own former godson-Godwin Obaseki.
There is this common saying that: there is no morality in politics. Truly, if there is any morality in politics, a Godwin Obaseki would not have done what he did to Adams Oshiomhole, and Adams Oshiomhole would never have gone in search of lunatic vengeance against his erstwhile godson?
In all of the above, the lesson to be learnt here is simply that: no matter the level of success, any political tactician must have recorded on the political battle, the wishes and aspirations of the main custodians of electoral power – the people, must never be undermined or relegated to the background.
Adams Oshiomhole reminds me of Ex-President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, who fought with everything to obtain independence for his people in March 1957.
Kwame Nkrumah with his Convention People’s Party (CPP) in Ghana became political demi-gods, as the aroma of political power sank deep into his brain; he took the nick name of: ‘Osagyefo (Savior).
The Osagyefo of Ghana lost control and started to feast on his political rivals as prey; in graduating into a political beast Kwame Nkrumah upgraded himself as a minus for democratic governance and an error in the game of civilized party politics, it was only the military coup of 1966 that knocked him out of power for good.
Ex-President Andrew Jackson being a national war hero and member of Congress spearheaded the birth of the Democratic Party in United States in 1828.The Democratic Party was founded based on support for individual liberty; it was supported by factory workers, professionals, Norther Protestants, rich farmers etc.
The party stood for philosophy of modern liberalism, social equality, support for mixed economy, and notion of civil liberty, etc. When Andrew Jackson left the presidency in 1837, he had made the executive arm of government at par with the Parliament.
How did the Republican Party or the Grand Old Party (GOP), come into existence in the United States?
Using a ruthless campaign against extension of slavery into the heart of America, ex-President Abraham Lincoln emerged as the first Republican President and banned slavery in 1865.
It is worthy of note that the Republican Party was founded in a school compound in 1854, and today it is mostly associated with the philosophy of lower taxes, free market capitalism, increased military spending, deregulation and restriction on labor etc.
Coming to the larger political stage in Nigeria, nothing stops the progressives from coming together to form a new party or step into one of the existing political parties and prove a drastic point. The template displayed by the electorate in Edo State should be seen and used as a magical tonic.
The electoral revolution we see in Edo State today can be replicated in the presidential election coming up about three years from now.
I see a revolution coming closer to what we have seen in Edo State, only if the people of Nigeria, the brutalized, who have been made the dregs of the society, can team up with an ideologically clear headed political leader with paradigmatic shifting intensions.
The next revolution in 2023 in Nigeria is abundantly possible. In doing this we must begin to stridently clamor for genuine electoral voting system in Nigeria, we must profusely and energetically prevail on the National Assembly to do the needful.
They should alter the present artificial clauses about our present stagnated electoral rules, to embrace candid electronic voting, such as is available in the United States, Europe and other civilized climes in the world.
The Nigerian people should be able to make a statement in 2023, because this country has been led astray by some political criminals pretending to be jolly good fellows.
We must do something quite unusual. There was a semblance of ideological inclination during the First Republic in Nigeria. What do we have now? Ideological leaning has collapsed. What is ideological about the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) or the All Progressives Congress (AP) for instance?
If the two dominant political parties are conscientious or guided by any ideology to deliver quality democratic dividends to the Nigerian people, the likes of Adams Oshiomhole could not have succeeded to the extent he got before he was crushed out of the chairmanship of the ruling All Progressives Party
(APC).
The electoral revolution in Edo State has shown that an absolutely determined Nigerian people can knock out the enemies of our nation during the 2023 presidential election; the candidates of either of the two present dominant political parties (PDP or APC) could be knocked down by a popular candidate of a new party come 2023.
If the present resentment against the government at the center persists till 2023, a situation where the masses are angry and hungry; where conditions are deteriorating daily and being compounded by Covid 19 realities in such a way that our people are becoming nostalgic about the past, because of mass poverty created by the prevailing system, then surely a revolution is coming our way.
60 years after Independence, it is a dirty slap on our faces that we are being governed by political parties that have demonstrated ideological hollowness, especially since 1999.
How long are we going to watch akimbo, and continuously being imprisoned and trapped by political operators that are simply dancing round the corners of social, political and economic stagnation?
Those of us in Nigeria, who have made a mark in our own professional and social callings in defense and promotion of people-driven values must come under one canopy, to challenge those who have been retarding Nigeria’s development over the years.
Before 2023, we must be able to seek out fellow committed intellectual of the same hue across the country, to offer alternative solutions against the continued agenda of re-colonization, democratic strangulation, electoral banditry, primitive and exploitative economic policies, social injustice and asphyxiating dictatorship, to guarantee equitable distribution of Nigeria’s resources.
Year in and year out the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), in Nigeria are perennially at loggerheads with government about addressing the miserable state of Nigerian Universities, because of lack of adequate funding; ditto for other sectors like health, labor. Meanwhile, billions of naira that would have been channeled to salvage various sectors, to oil the engine of accelerated development and human capital, are being shamelessly embezzled in broad day light, by some public officials cum politicians.
To make matters worse a chunk of the present leaders of the Nigerian Labor Congress (NLC) have not only being arm-chair comrades, but hopeless robots in the hands of the Federal Government, that could be remotely controlled at their beck and call.
Sadly, our country has been turned into a dungeon of pains and constant torture, while the ruling political party has reversed itself into a factory breeding hardened political criminals and ideological nincompoops.
We must resolve all things in favor of the interest of the masses of Nigeria, the strategic elite must develop courage and consistent organizational integrity. This requires learning, studying and researching the truth.
We must liberate our people from the destructive power of fear, by pointing the way to the goal of rehabilitation of self-confidence and the ability to shape the future.
Nowinta wrote Where We Are: A call for democratic revolution In Nigeria
