By Abiola Akintunde
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most adaptable to change”- Charles Darwin.
Change and adaptation have been a survival factor for Nigeria citizens, irrespective of what we’re faced with in the Nigerian state, we’ve been able to change and adapt to the excruciating policies of our Government which is why many Nigerian are very conscious and active in the electioneering process of the 2023 General election, we still believe in the Nigeria of our dream and all of these are evident in the participation and statements made in the process of the recently concluded Presidential election.
However, The Nigerian state and her political cinematography have left citizens with questions of trust in the electioneering process, the result of the Presidential election was not well received by many Nigerians because they feel the result had been jeopardized by INEC officials in what they call rigging. Agitations and protests followed suit across the country to air their displeasure towards the results of the Presidential election but in the end, nothing happened. And if individuals are not permitted to express their unease, they may remain silent when they’re in perilous situations but it now looks as though the Nigeria citizens have lost trust in the electioneering process because of the outcome of the Presidential election and many decided to never vote again because it doesn’t worth the time and effort and it was evident yesterday as there was a low turn out of voters in the gubernatorial race across the country. Not only was there alleged rigging but there are also claims of disenfranchisement by political thugs who are deployed to attack innocent citizens who aren’t voting in favour of their party, all of these summed together are enough reasons for political apathy within the polity.
If the right of franchise is met with brutality, oppression and dishonesty, it only decreases the level of political participation within the polity and we may be having a fractional government that’s not accepted by the people.
Even at the Gubernatorial election yesterday, there were a lot of casualties, not fewer than 20 people were recorded dead according to Vanguard newspaper, as violence, suppression of voters and apathy took the upper hand in most areas across the country in the governorship and state assembly election yesterday. A lot of other irregularities from the INEC officials cum malfunctioning of BVAS, and refusal to upload election results to the INEC Result reviewing portal, an incident of snatching of ballot boxes and vote buying also made spotlight yesterday, while a lot of other abysmal things too were recorded, it was reported also that some INEC ad-hoc staff were attacked, and you will want to again question the presence of security personnel deployed to each polling unit, to the credibility of the result of such election, that if they begin to dig deeper into this irregularities, you’d be only left with curses in your mouth and conclusions that the Nigerian state can never be better.
In place of all of these, it should be noteworthy that the Politics of emotions should be critically interrogated in the Nigerian state, this may not sit down well but it’s a fact, the politics of emotions has more credence than the politics of reason in Nigeria. Lagosians are guilty of this because it played out in their electioneering process because of the land that was at stake, the Yoruba sector in Lagos was so emotional that they didn’t have the time to question the Success of the government of the day in respect to the agitation of the masses. Lagos state has been a hell of a place for many lagosian before this election, a lot have forgotten the #endsars protest, police brutality and extortion within the polity and other things that don’t sit well with welfarism but were quick to say Lagos is our father’s land because it is facing a Threat from some alleged Igbos. These Politics of Tribalism abetted the politics of emotions in Lagos state that they couldn’t decipher if it was change they wanted or Stability.
Oyo state is also not left out of this allegation, Seyi Makinde effectively deployed the politics of Emotions which negates the ideals of developmental politics. Makinde’s style of Populism isn’t too healthy but you must appeal to emotions in a polity like Oyo. In Oyo politics, you have to speak to emotions than reason which isn’t a requirement for statehood.
Attention has also been drawn to the new reality in Oyo state, the evolutionary politics in Oyo state has changed the political dynamism, the new political class is having more political vitality than the old political class but the old political class is only enjoying Political deference, they can’t be totally displaced but their political vitality and rigidity will naturally diminish.
One big lesson learnt in this election is the power of political fidelity, when a political lion becomes a political infidel because of some political misgivings, such a political lion will become a political mosquito and that can be clearly seen in how some big political actor lost their political stronghold in Oyo state. Political infidelity diminishes the clout of many political actors, some call it political prostitution, and the fact is that what took you away from APC will definitely take you away from PDP, and any other political party, your constant political transition will affect your political career and also kill your political career.
Oloye Bayo Adelabu should return home, he should leave his political Noah’s ark, and he should start the race to 2027 early and create consistent visibility and traction. He should be more political and strategic. He should build bridges. Makinde’s political clout can’t last, Adelabu should leverage it. Oyo APC should adopt Lai’s style of political communication in Pre-2015 which isn’t erroneous but was fault finding. The fault lines in the Oyo PDP should be their strength but OYO PDP has good image makers, they control the narrative. But all political actors need to understand that they can get away with bad politics but they can’t get away with bad governance, there’s a difference and you can also get governance right and get politics wrong, Politics precedes governance and many Nigerians are now aware of this.
