34 days and still too close to call

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Last week, I engaged a mini community of presumably Northerner artisans (since they could as well be Nigeriens, Chadians or even Sudanese, due to our perennial border woes) in political banters. I had gone there for an engagement and decided to gauge certain voting pattern presumptions with them. When I threw “who we dey vote for” to them, they appeared surprised that I asked, but quickly recovered and cracked into laughter while looking in the direction of the one whose English Language proficiency is best of the rest, though they all, could communicate in very meaningful pidgin, going by our earlier business chat. Motioning as if speaking on behalf of others, he mentioned a Northerner candidate. No dissension. That told me straightaway that retail politics, is still relevant. You want those folks’ votes, go through the unstructured leadership.

With a brief analysis, I successfully created doubt about the capacity of their Chosen One, to win. That also told me that with issue-based arguments, some voters, who appear Decided, can still be flipped, in the remaining 34 days to the very consequential poll. Unfortunately, what is dominating the information airways, is the noise of your-corruption-is-worse-than-mine.

Pivoting from their First Choice, their leader, using a plural noun of “we” named a Southerner candidate as their “Spare”. Both King Charles and his rebellious son, Prince Harry, have made the word and its original meaning, look horrible as torrid tales about the famous British Royal Family, keep tumbling from Harry’s tell-all. How can a father, even as a joke, refer to his second son as a spare, right from birth, simply because the first, is traditionally settled for kingship? No way, such a second, gonna love the first and pappy. Well, very likely then-Prince Charles dropped the bombshell of a joke, because he was well aware of Diana’s dalliance with Major James Hewitt, which she confessed to, before her death, to deliberately cast a paternity doubt on Harry, from birth.

If Harry then is indeed a ‘bastard’, trouble may as well just be warming up for the Royal Family. There is a Yoruba proverb that credits family amity to the bastard within, still an infant. This ‘Spare’ has come of age.

I asked about the second front-running Northerner candidate. What they said about him, can’t be printed here. I laughed. They knew what is being mainly said about him, which means they were also in possession of current political news. It means when their kind appear to believe campaign lies and twisting, which makes them look like easy buy-over, considering they are without western education, they may be inadvertently toeing the path of Proverbs 26:4 which admonishes thus; “do not answer a fool according to his folly or you yourself will be like him.”

I asked about the second Southerner candidate in the top four, they said his “people (meaning someone from his zone), don do am (has been President). I corrected the factual error in that assumption. They didn’t appear keen on voting him. The other Northerner apart from their first choice, is a no-no. They cracked my ribs aplenty with his alleged wrongdoings, before I sped away in my car.

My little experiment had also been carried out at filling station, trading shop, business centre and my neighbourhoods, with old and young of voting age of different tribes and diverse educational background.

While Lagos, despite having the highest number of registered voters, won’t solely determine who wins the election, its pre-eminence status, makes it a major predictive barometer, considering its mini-Nigeria blend. Though the claim may appear offensive to the camp of one of the leading presidential candidates, three of the top four candidates, can literally claim ‘home advantage’ in the state, which makes it unique. The situation may also hold true in a couple of other states, because it is beginning to look like structure won’t matter much in this race, considering how emotionally-involved the citizenry is.

As the poll draws near, the space is emerging like 2015-reenacted. The base of individual candidates, is energized, but the most fired-up, isn’t in doubt. In 2015, Candidate Buhari waltzed a Movement that trumped conventional political cells, known as Structure. Whenever people rise like they are doing, political structures hardly survive and stand no chance of stopping the people, except interests align. Since 1999, presidential contests haven’t been this fuzzy, added to a once-popular incumbent not being on the ballot for the first time in 20 years and five presidential runs. Then, the Third Force, for the first time, is showing its force and proving to be forceful. Bookies surely won’t be able to call this, until it is over, but may the righteous win. That is when the people can rejoice (Proverbs 29:2).

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Chief Niyi Akintola @64

Yesterday, January 21, Chief Adeniyi ‘Mike’ Akintola, SAN, was 64. Outspoken yet measured, he has been a friend of ANN Plc and a lifelong disciple of Chief Bola Ige.

To some, Chief is a controversial figure who stirs. His fierce radical posture on Yoruba nationalism even got him monikered ‘Niyiijogbon’ (Niyi, the embodiment of trouble) by some elders of the race, though he is perfectly at peace, with most of them and always quick to give due regard, regardless of opposing views on issues.

Considering how well God has endowed him with intelligence, brilliance and wisdom, there is no way he won’t be avant-garde. In our multiple years of affinity, I have found him a driven thinker, lawyer and politician. When he holds a view, you will need more than an inch of superior argument and indisputable facts, to make him shift. He can be that passionate. So, we regularly get into lengthy political discourse, especially on the future of Yoruba race within the Nigerian context, and as much as he wants you to agree with him, he is never offended that you disagree, unlike other ‘big’ men, who consider it a sacrilege, to query their indoctrinations. The much Chief will do is give you a nickname, to show his objection. Because his presidential candidate, isn’t mine, he got me a sobriquet, which I won’t tell.

With out-of-the-box ideas on how to transform Oyo State, especially in the area of skill acquisition, youth empowerment, revenue generation and the creation of new Ibadan city, you wonder what the Progressives were thinking bypassing him for the number one seat. Even NBA too!

But all is now in the past. He has become a Bar elder and won’t seek to lead it again. He also says he is quitting politics after the poll, but I believe politics will still find him, in the future.

May the Walking Encyclopedia enjoy greater health in years ahead. Cheers.

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