By Omotoso Okeya
In one of the books I read during my primary school days, Joke and Femi were siblings of the same parents. The duo of Joke and Femi were working with their father in a thick forest, Joke was the lucky one to pick a snail, and she exclaimed, “i have picked a snail”. The father said, keep the snail. Few minutes later, Femi, apparently to deceive and impress his father as a lucky one too, he announced that he has equally picked a snail without actually seeing any snail. Both Joke and Femi kept their snails as advised by the father, who later took a decision that both should take their snails as meal for that evening. With the father’s decision, one would likely go to bed with empty stomach.
It is not uncommon in politics that aspirants could be deceived by the supporters and associates for one reason or the other. But, a wise aspirant would usually measure his popularity and acceptability, using different methods and parameters without wholly relying on sycophantic analysis and report of the overzealous followers.
However, the aspirants that have the greatest and unsolvable problems are not the ones that are deceived by some of his followers but the ones that deceive themselves. Meanwhile, the trend of political events has clearly shown that some governorship aspirants most especially in the PDP are deceiving themselves vis-à-vis their self assessment and self acclaimed popularity, using different fictitious programmes to cajole the people.
Several programmes are being organised by the Ekiti governorship aspirants as a show of strength and popularity whereby the delegates and people loyal to individual aspirants are usually paraded to the admiration of their supporters.
In the book I referred to, Joke, who actually picked a snail could be likened to those governorship aspirants who are genuinely romancing and parading the eligible delegates who would vote during the party primaries. In the contrary, Femi is the aspirants, who are deceiving themselves, mobilising non partisan market women and Christian brothers and sisters as ones who would vote for them at the primary, just to impress and deceive the public.
An aspirant who could not boast of simple majority of the ward chairmen in his local government would still brag and project himself as the one to beat when actually the local government remains his only stronghold amongst the 16 local government areas of the state
The PDP as at today only constitutionally embrace the indirect mode of governorship primary in which only the automatic, statutory and ad-hoc delegates would vote to elect the governorship candidate. Hence, it’s only wise to measure the the strength of an aspirant by the number of delegates he controls across board
I must say, some aspirants who are only mobilising non partisan and non card-carrying members of the party ahead party primary are only playing politics of self-deception.
In a multi-party democracy, where independent candidacy is forbidden like Nigeria’s, it’s only wise and logical to mobilise the eligible delegates towards the party primary.
We shouldn’t forget that, Nigeria’s constitution only empowered the registered political parties to present candidates for the general election (see section 221 of the Nigeria 1999 Constitution).
Unfortunately, some PDP aspirants are behaving as if they are not contesting on the platform of a political party. People who do not understand how a political system works are the ones projecting them for victory.!
Ayo Fayose’s group have tenaciously adhered to those delegates loyal to them since the conclusion of ward, local government and state congresses without giving a breathing space. And, 85 per cent of the Ekiti delegates evidently supported Fayose’s cause during the last zonal congress in Osogbo.
The ability of the Fayose’s group to maintain a close affinity and good rapport with the party officers who have voting right has brightened the hope of Hon. Bisi Kolawole who was adopted by the Osoko Peoples Assembly.
May I say this again: with the experience of Ayo Fayose as a practical and tested political tactician, he wouldn’t allow the party officers he had laboured to install to be hijacked by any emergency aspirants. He has what it takes to maintain the delegates.
Precisely, on 28th July, 2021, there was a show of strength between the two groups of Ayo Fayose and Segun Oni vis-à-vis who becomes the PDP candidate next year. About 80 per cent of the Ekiti PDP delegates and leaders who are loyal to Fayose and Kolawole converged on their various local government headquarters with only the delegates wearing green ankara uniform. The delegates and party leaders loyal to Segun Oni also wore blue ankara uniform and met at the Eagle Hall, Ado, simultaneously.
Many people went round and glaringly saw the number of delegates loyal to the group of Fayose who only wore green ankara uniform in 14 local government headquarters.
Election of party officers is still pending in Gbonyin and Ekiti East local governments
The show of strength between the two groups of Fayose and Oni was regarded as a mini party primary by many analysts and political pundits. Fayose’s practically displayed a better preparation for the primaries unlike other groups who are romancing and parading non partisan people ahead party primaries.
Delegates loyal to Fayose were sighted in 14 local governments during the town hall meeting. The few delegates loyal to Segun Oni couldn’t even be identified at their venue because all the invitees from each local government wore blue ankara uniform.
Having seen the total number of delegates loyal to Bisi Kolawole in different locations, a simple linear arithmetic would reveal what’s left for others to share.
Funnily enough, some groups and their aspirants do not yet recognise the present excos of Ekiti PDP after their unsuccessful legal tussles to send them packing. Who knows may be their non-partisan street supporters, consisting of Christian brothers and sisters would partake of PDP primary. But, the party constitution has not been amended to accommodate non delegates to vote at the party primary.
Truly, three ad-hoc delegates would still be elected from each ward, but the popularity of the party structure on ground cannot but influence any party election.
Nobody would doubt Kolawole’s and Fayose’s grassroot mobilisation strategy. It’s just a matter of time. I think it’s wise to concentrate more on the eligible delegates at this stage. It’s only sensible and of course mandatory to complete the primary education before proceeding to the secondary. Some of these aspirants know this fact, but they are just being economical with the truth or perhaps wanting to cover their unpopularity and nakedness with just any crowd.
Undoubtedly, the social media aspirants are equally jesters. What can they achieve by sponsoring some social media rodents to promote them and attack others ?. Elections are not won on social media platforms. Relying solely on social media promotions as a means of wining party primary is purely an academic exercise. This is also a game of self-deception
And, the inherent danger is the fact that, aspirants who engaged in self-deceit would usually make reconciliation difficult after the primary. They are more likely to come up with various non existent complaints and allegations as excuses for their woeful performance in every election .
At the party primary, all aspirants, like Joke and Femi in that story book, would reap what they had sown.
Omotoso Okeya is a Journalist/Public Affairs Analyst.
