Few hours from now, the much-anticipated Edo State Governorship Election in Nigeria will finally take place, precisely on Saturday September 21, 2024, across the 18 local government areas of the state.
For a state popularly nicknamed ‘the heartbeat’ of the nation, it is one of the most crucial or important states sitting on a strategic location in the South-South geo-political zone of Nigeria,
A relatively homogenous state, Edo is well endowed with human and natural resources, hence so much is expected and anticipated from this election.
Expectedly, the leading political parties fielding candidates for this almighty election, like the nation’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the Labour Party (LP) and the State ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have been doing everything within their powers of conviction or propaganda to sway voters in their favor.
Monday Okpobholo of the APC; Asue Ighodalo of the PDP and Olumide Akpata of the LP, as leading candidates in this election, have left no strategy untouched or needle inactivated in their campaign dashboards to win the race.
Alltimepost.com believes that it is in the ultimate interest and aspirations of Edo state electorates, and by extension, Nigerians in general to canvas uncompromisingly for a free, fair and credible election that will meet the best standards or practices of democratic norms in ensuring that the actual will of the people prevails at the end of the day.
In the realm of democratic governance, it is very important for voters to know that the choice they make will have a lasting impact on their futures either negatively or positively, and as such they must vote wisely.
Also, it is one thing to vote for their choice, and another is to defend their votes and resist the temptation of succumbing to accepting pecuniary benefits in any shape or form and mortgage their conscience. Edo people must choose the latter.
In an era when greed, dishonesty, injustice, corruption, vote buying, voter intimidation, collective moral cum political failures have continued to characterize elections and governance in Nigeria, the people of Edo State must wake up to the challenges of rescuing their state.
We have seen corrupt politicians introduced, sponsored and rigged into and sustained in power by political godfathers, while the very democratic institutions that formed the basis of their election suffer at the expense of the masses.
We have seen political bandits and criminals that occupy many of the State Houses in Nigeria translating into splendid disasters; and consciously engaged in disastrous and catastrophic dictatorships in the name of democratic governance.
For the sanity and respect of voters’ rights at the polling booths across the 18 local government areas of Edo state during this gubernatorial election, we passionately urge the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, to prevail heavily on the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Edo state, to create a level playing field for all political parties fielding candidates in this crucial election.
This appeal is against the backdrop of the facts that the REC has allegedly been accused of having a record of political bias in favor of the ruling party in Nigeria. We make bold to say that INEC should see Edo election as a great opportunity to salvage its heavily tainted image, dating back to many years.
The assurance of a peaceful election, free of interference by the Nigerian authorities, including the federal government and its Agencies such as the police, armed forces and paramilitary organizations must be truly practical and be seen to be so.
Fascists disguised as democrats, foot soldiers of professional election riggers and sponsors of political thuggery and mayhem, must not be allowed to have their ways in this election.
Also, candidates that are bound to increase their selfish egocentric material prosperity, while deepening mass misery and poverty, must not be allowed to be smuggled into the highest political office in the state.
It is very important to emphasize that Federal Authorities shouldn’t and mustn’t use the so called ‘Federal Might’ to favor any candidate or turn the process of voting into a breeding ground for manipulations, intimidations of political rivals and falsification of results.
Edo people must resist barbarous acts of violence, any acts of coercion and intimidation.
Therefore, for the people of Edo state to forge a new beginning on September 21, 2024, in the name of true and transparent democratic governance, all hands must be on deck to play symbolic and potentially significant role, during accreditation of voters, actual voting and process of counting of votes, so that the will of the people will prevail at the end of the day.
After all, Tom Stoppards had enunciated correctly in his iconic work that: “It is not the voting that’s democracy; it is the counting”. Any lapse and compromise with the counting process must be resisted by any means necessary on Saturday September 21, 2024.
The will of Edo people must prevail!
