With 72 hours to the governorship election in Edo State, Hendrix Oliomogbe captures the suspense, anxiety and projections as the die is cast in the state.
THE stakes are at their zenith and the actors in the Edo State political landscape are locked in a super struggle for survival. With so much on the line that whoever goes down on Saturday may as well kiss bye-bye to politics and seek salvation elsewhere. As the clock ticks slowly away, Saturday is just around the corner. The actors are holding their breath, putting finishing touches to last minute strategies that will ensure victory, knowing fully well the implications of losing.
With the pockets of violence, allegations and counter-allegations of rigging plans, the Edo political atmosphere is tense. It is a bitter battle to the end for the soul of the state. None of the feuding factions is ready to give an inch. In the run up to the September 19 polls, the main antagonists have been baying at each other and there seems to be let down.
For the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has been in the opposition in the last 12 years, losing the election in the Heart Beat State means losing it all. In the dog-eat-dog world of Nigerian politics, only the fittest survive in the jungle while the opposition is like an orphan. Of course, everybody loves a winner who has it all while the loser is avoided like a plague.
When the gladiators first met in 2016, a total of 66, 310 separated the winner from the loser. Governor Godwin Obaseki, who contested on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), bested Pastor OsagieIze-Iyamu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with 319, 483 while his main opponent scored 253, 173 votes.
Four years later, things seem to have dramatically changed as Governor Obaseki has now pitched tent with the PDP after falling out with his mentor, the former national chairman of of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, while Ize-Iyamu who made up with Oshiomhole returned to the APC where he was a foundation member and rose to the enviable height of South South-zonal vice-chairman is now the party’s candidate for the Saturday September 19 election.
Again, the political arithmetic also changed when another of Oshiomhole’s acolyte, deputy governor, Philip Shaibu, a kinsman, kept faith with Governor Obaseki and defected to the PDP where he was picked as his running mate.
Another two-horse race
When the going was good in 2016, Governor Obaseki easily won all the six local government areas that make up Edo North senatorial district while out of the five local government areas of Edo Central, it lost only Esan South East local government area and coasted home to victory in all the seven local government areas of Edo South except Orhionmwon, the home turf of Ize-Iyamu.
With 14 parties running, the ballot paper will no doubt be very long but from the reality of the situation, majority of Edo voters will be looking forward to cast their vote for the two major parties when they stay on the line on Saturday September 19.
Past records
At stake will be the 1,726,466 potential voters who have so far managed to collect their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) out of the 2,210,534 registered voters.
In 2016, only a paltry 572, 656, about a quarter out of the almost two million voters then, were the determiner in 2016. Chances are that the figure may not be too different in 2020.The fear of violence going by the shootings and intolerance notwithstanding the peace parley brokered between the two main parties by the revered Oba of Benin, OmoN’Oba Ewuarell and voter apathy may turn out to be the albatross that keep voters from leaving their castles.
The election will, no doubt, make and unmake some of the actors currently on the stage. Oshiomhole will be wounded politically in the event of APC losing out to the PDP, while the duo of Obaseki and Shaibu who styled himself as the leaders of Edo North, where the immediate past governor also hails from, might as well kiss bye-bye to their political careers should the returning officer holds that Ize-Iyamu is the governor-elect.
When Obaseki and Ize-Iyamu, a pastor at the Redeemed Christian Church of God met on Sunday in a television debate organised by one of the stations, the governor attempted to sell his achievements in the last four years while his resolute opponents tried to paint the government as wasteful and corrupt.In line with the old adage that truth is always the first casualty in any contest, their supporters especially on social media emphatically declared their candidate as the winner.
Security buildup
In politics it is always the duty of independent pollsters to conduct opinion polls ahead of election but controversial opinion polls which from the look of things were conducted by image makers, immediately after the debate which lasted for about two hours and ended at 9pm, had their respective candidate as the winner.
In a way, the atmosphere is charged considering the series of shootings and thuggery, a situation which made Oba Ewuarell to declare that there has never been an election that has generated so much tensions in the state during a visit by the Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu. Consequently, the authorities are leaving no stone unturned to guarantee the safety of lives and property before, during and after the historic election. Necessary logistics are being deployed to fortify the state against any form of threats to peace and security, just the electoral body says it is conscious of general public expectations thus its collaboration with all law enforcement agencies on arrangements to ensure a peaceful and credible poll. .
Determined to ensure that the situation does not degenerate to anarchy, the inspector general off police flew into the Edo State capital of Benin on Monday to personally assess the security situation and preparation ahead of the election. Adamu said that the police has deployed 31,000 security personnel to maintain peace during the election
Speaking shortly after a meeting with the Oba of Benin, OmoN’Oba Ewuarell in his palace, the police boss remarked that the peace pact between the two rival political parties in the state yielded results.The IGP assured that security personnel will be deployed to the various polling units across the state to monitor the election and ensure that peace reigns even after the election.He said: “There is no cause for alarm at all in the aspect of the security. As I told you, during the campaign, we have some issues, violence here and there and the Oba intervened and the violence went down and because we don’t want such things to be repeated, we have increased the number of security personnel that are coming for this election.
“We have about 31,000 police officers that will be deployed.They will be deployed to the polling units, they will be deployed to the collation centres, they will be deployed to INEC facilities and to some critical infrastructure to make sure that nobody disturbs the election.”
He explained that he was in the palace to appeal to the monarch to help talk to the political gladiators in the state to sheathe their swords, noting that his earlier peace parley with the two leading political actors has yielded positive impact in the state.Adamusaid: “”We requested the palace, as he did before, talk to the political gladiators, that is the contestants in the Saturday election to speak to them again to be law abiding because the first time he spoke to them, there was result, all the violence went down.
“We asked the palace again to increase the tempo by talking to them again. And before then, we met with all the political parties and the contestants in the gubernatorial election and we spoke to them, we explained to them the security arrangements we have put in place and the INEC chairman also told them the arrangement that has been made.He added: “We asked them to partner with us for free and fair election and they have assured us that they will abide by the Electoral Laws as it is provided by the laws and by the grace of God, we shall have free and fair election.”
Deeply concerned by the threats of violence which may mar the election, Oba Ewuare II pleaded with the different security agencies in the state to ensure a peaceful poll.Save for the negative campaigns by some of the actors and the violence, majority of Edo people are no doubt upbeat and waiting anxiously to go cast their vote for the candidate of their choice.
Pride is at stake as nobody wants to be defeated in a contest. On the campaign stumps throughout the state, the candidates strove to show how strong and popular they are with the people. The actors are girded for battle knowing fully well that whoever loses will be forced fed the bitter pill of defeat. The die is cast.
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