As the governorship election in Edo State 2024 draws ever closer, all the ills of electioneering in Nigeria are once again rearing their heads. The candidates and parties taking part in the election have wholeheartedly embraced the politics of bitterness and abuse. It has degenerated to a stage where serious discussions on economic and social policies have been jettisoned and candidates and their supporters preoccupy themselves with rummaging around for scandals to attach to their opponents. Rather than issue-based political rallies, candidates concentrate on repeating unbecoming utterances and unsavoury attacks on the personal lives of their opponents, while their supporters concentrate on, political rascality, violence, and killings.
Perhaps in the hope that voters will switch off their brains and vote based upon emotions, electioneering in Edo State is more about insults and insinuations than presenting concrete manifestoes. To be fair and give them their credit, the candidates themselves have tried to maintain a degree of decorum when referring to each other, but are unrestrained in their insults of those who support their opponents. People’s Democratic Party (PDP) stalwarts routinely insult the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Senator Okpebholo the APC candidate by referring to him as “unmarried”, “incompetent” or even “illiterate”.
There can be no denying that Okpebholo is challenged in expressing himself in English, but then his supporters claim that fluency in English language is not necessarily a sign of either intelligence or good intentions! As for Ighodalo the PDP candidate, APC supporters claim he is an “interloper” and “carpetbagger” who has never lived in Edo State, cannot speak any Edo language and has only just registered to vote in Edo simply because he wants to be a governor!
As for Akpata the Labour Party candidate, despite growing support for him, both the APC and PDP insult him as a “political neophyte” and “non-starter novice” who should first go and groom himself properly into politics. Other uncouth allegations concerning education, marital status, children, or ability to tell the truth, and are too foul-mouthed to be reproduced here, and merely indicate the level to which electioneering has deteriorated.
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Added to the mix is the fact that all candidates claim that they will win if the election is free and fair! Indeed, none of them has expressed confidence in the ability of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct free and fair elections. There is general consensus that any result declared by INEC will be challenged and at the end of the day, it’s the Supreme Court that will tell Edo voters who their next governor will be!
Regrettably, electioneering has degenerated into “show business” where candidates climb stages in order to dance and share giveaway items while freely engaging in slandering, libelling, and defaming their opponents while promising to do what they have no intention of doing! In the process, all standards of civility and decency are thrown out of the window. Rather than being a forum for serious discussions election rallies in Edo and Nigeria at large highlight a character deficiency in our political class.
Regrettably, whenever elections are around the corner, modern-day Nigerian politicians keep following the modern trend. Campaigning for Edo 2024 has revealed that the main problem with Nigerian politicians is their lack of interest in the truth. It is trite that a person with knowledge knows what to do, a person with skill knows how to do it, while a person with wisdom knows when to do it, or whether or not it should be done all. While the Nigerian political class has illustrated that they possess the necessary knowledge and skills for the job, it’s also evident that they suffer from a deficit of empathy and wisdom.
This is why the nation is bereft of any serious development commensurate with our wealth and the world has left nations like Nigeria behind. There is widespread distrust of the sincerity of politicians and to a large extent this distrust is justified. Electioneering lies are not just tolerated, they have become the default approach because far too many “successful” politicians occupying political office are simply reaping the rewards of spreading falsehoods that are accepted as truths.
Surprisingly, for reasons best known to him, the outgoing Governor Godwin Obaseki believes he was a success. In the light of unresolved critical issues such as lack of basic amenities like water and electricity, and the high level of insecurity which restrains farmers from attending to their fields and crops this is far from the truth.
To his credit the Ighodalo, the PDP candidate, has admitted that Obaseki’s governance fell short of expectations. However, this candid honesty has enabled opponents to query how he can be trusted to fix the economic malaise of Edo State, which he helped to create as a member of Obaseki’s Economic Management Team!
Also, unfortunately for PDP’s Ighodalo, he lost some support from the “common man” by inappropriately referring to Senator Adams Oshimhole as a “common tailor” who should not be compared to him a “Board Chairman”. This derogatory statement came at a time when the government is urging graduates and unemployed youths to learn handwork in order to gain self-respect! However, despite the widespread use of abuse as a campaign tool, and widespread dissatisfaction with the performance of the outgoing PDP administration, the APC-led federal government’s insensitivity towards the increased suffering they have inflicted upon Nigerians should mean that either PDP or Labour should win .
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