LESSON FROM EKITI ELECTION: PROMPT AND TIMELY WARNING TO CROSS RIVERIANS Significant lessons must be learned from the results of the gubernatorial elections in Ekiti State. It is not important in this brief piece that Fayose won. The more significant point to note is that Fayemi lost. This is where the lessons from Ekiti can be found! And hopefully learned. A deeper sociology of the Ekiti elections would reveal far more important signals of the strength of the peoples power and authority over the process of determining who governs over them and their affairs in their own space. It will also reveal that incumbency is no longer a relevant factor in defining succession in democratic polities. It would show, above all else, that individuals who are currently perceived as the locus of power and influence within their political parties and within the ruling government are of no real significance and authority over the exercise of the popular will of the people. The Ekiti results have also demonstrated that incumbent men of power and influence have failed to influence the Ekiti electorate. In this failure, the point has been established, beyond reproach, that the people are no longer impressed by their money, their high-sounding sound bytes, their sirens and their claims to performance under any guise. The people of Ekiti came out in their numbers and, together, they bade farewell to incumbency!!! We, the people of cross river state and of the PDP in Cross River must be careful to avoid this public farewell. We must draw important lessons from the Ekiti polls. Cross riverians must learn now, as Fayemi and APC have learned to their complete chagrin, that incumbency will not be a factor in defining succession in our state. Cross Rivers current leadership must learn that the power of the people must never again be taken for granted. Cross Riverians must learn that the right of the people to freely elect their Governor is immutable. But perhaps more than anything else, Cross Riverians must learn that while the power of incumbency may be sufficient to impose a successor, it will be insufficient to elect him to office. Only the free choice of the people, freely exercised at the polls, will put the peoples choice in office. Therefore, we, Cross Riverians and PDP in Cross River State must not delude ourselves into a jaundiced belief that our party is so deeply rooted and so firmly entrenched in the state that we can impose anybody on the people and hope to secure victory at the polls. We must promote honest, free and open contest as our greatest safeguard against the peoples wrath. We must forever perish the thought that a few of you who are privileged to be in power, at cost to the people, are now wiser than the people and must impose our wish and our will on over 2.2 million Cross Riverians. This will amount to extreme myopic, foolish, insane prone and such a folly is guaranteed to yield the same results as Fayemi and APC have earned in Ekiti.
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 08:45:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015