I resolved to watch the coming elections with a sense of detachment from my party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), especially from supporting its candidate for several reasons. There is nothing to be excited about with the APC in Edo State and its candidate, Monday Okpebholo—the man whose police officer died in his war and several others are still struggling to survive in the hospital.
The political mood in the state is depressed, driven by none other than the struggling power brokers in the party, including the candidate. This uninspiring, dour, and colorless candidate inspires no confidence in anyone, not even himself. To worsen matters, he is surrounded by comical people who have little understanding of how to appear sober and temperate, especially when his own bodyguard was allegedly murdered. They should have called off all scheduled activities to honor the dead, but they didn’t.
Nobody appears to be responsible for the leadership of the party, which is glaringly on course to hit a reef any time now, buffeted by pirate ships and dangerous waves. It’s only a matter of time before these strange bedfellows reveal their true selves, particularly their insufferable hypocrisies in their ranks. They are more interested in exploiting the poor candidate than in the development of the state.
The candidate who lacks personal conviction to the point where he makes statements that have today become albatrosses around his neck has damaged himself irreparably in the eyes of a significant chunk of Edo people. He has not sparked, let alone kindled, the fire of the true Edo spirit—you simply can’t die for him.
According to Dele Farotimi, ‘Do not die in their war’, because they don’t have you in mind. In this case, his policeman died in his war, yet not a minute of silence or a day of mourning was declared without campaigns.
Remember how 14 members of the state House of Assembly ‘died’ in their war, but today, they are the losers while the gladiators unite again for the spoils.
On a bike, he chased his father from Jattu to his village in Iyamho, ready to combat him, but today, they call it a reunion of father and son. It’s not a bad idea for father and son to reconcile, but everything is bad for father and son to engage other people’s children to fight their unnecessary war.
They almost set Benin City on fire when the son warned the father never to step foot into the ancient city without permission. He waged war with him from the airport to the streets of Benin City when the father arrived in town—vehicles were vandalized, supporters injured, and people ‘died’ in that war.
They have positioned their children and close relatives in their areas of careers for progress, contracts, and juicy appointments but left you in the streets singing their praises. The contracts and the lucrative parts of politics go to them and their families, but you won’t see them on social media or on the streets fighting their perceived enemies.
After all the insults on his father such as, ‘he needs a psychiatric test’, among other unprintable names, he has returned home as a prodigal son. ‘He’s my father’, he claims. ‘He taught me everything I’m doing today, but he needs to examine his head,’ he told Nigerians on national TV. And here we are, trying to die in their war!
He was instrumental in the dramatic removal of his father as National Chairman of the APC. He bruised his ego the most. He inflicted pains on him. The bruises, am not sure would be healed in the immediate future.
It is important to make this point because, yet again, he is up to his usual games, and in his latest adventure, he has found allies in usual but hitherto disguised places. Common cause has occasioned strange alliances, and the darkening clouds demand this alarm. Again, the father must watch his back. Enough said on that!
I implore Edo people, please, do not die in their war. Resist all invitations to violence. If you have your voter’s card, please vote. Vote wisely, and not for those same people you have always died in their battles.
I beseech you; do not die in their wars. Today they are in the APC; if the PDP assumes office tomorrow, they will move; and if PDP and Asue win, they will remember their PDP genes. Do not die in their war.
Am sure you all remembered when the father told the son that APC wasn’t a rehabilitation center last year and that he wasn’t welcome; we clapped for him and insulted the son. But today, they say it is a reunion. He knelt down, and the father hugged and ushered him into the rehab home, and we also clapped for them. Again, don’t die in their war! I won’t die in their war!!
