By Celsus Ohain
It’s another season of gubernatorial aspirations in Edo State and the league of aspirants is growing by the day, with each of the aspirants moving on with its own ‘Roman mob’.
This is not unusual in a democracy; it is perfectly normal and accords with the tenets of the game. However, certain anxieties and fears are emerging in certain corners which are not unrelated to the desired ‘fairness and equity’ to a particular Senatorial zone which some think should produce the next governor having lost out for the slot for too long.
There is also the perceived over-dominance of another senatorial zone over the years. It’s indeed a very dicey situation that is already upsetting previous political permutations, calculations and strategies by contending political forces.
The ‘Emilokan’ (It’s my turn) syndrome started playing out from the Edo Central Senatorial Zone, which felt it needed to get a fair share of the state’s star political prize. This is so, especially after the Appeal Court sacked the efforts of Prof. (now Senator) Osarheime Osunbor in 2008.
The zone’s last success was with late Prof. Ambrose Alli of the defunct UPN in 1979.
By this fact, therefore, many gubernatorial interests from the Edo South and Edo North senatorial zones had been muted for a while, apparently to test the waters but that is no more! The variables have changed as it looks now; it has become everybody’s and anybody’s game.
Politics, they say, is a game of numbers and in its practice here in this clime, moral consideration is a scarce virtue as the end justifies the means in their Machiavellian interpretation. The new godfathers, who were godsons only yesterday – are upping their game.
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The truth be told, different political parties are in contest and there really can be no uniformity in their zoning formulae as each operates its different constitution. The generality of the people may wish for a political direction but the party decision overrides, at least at the primaries level.
It would seem that Esanland in Edo Central Senatorial Zone has yet been unable to put its house in order. The zone has not been able to field a consensus candidate acceptable across the board.
And other gubernatorial gladiators from Edo South and Edo North zones who had been sheathing their swords have capitalised on this perceived weakness on the part of Esanland, watching events as they unfolded.
There is no stopping them now as every political bloc will always seek to maximise its inherent advantages. That’s the name of the game. Morality is in the domain of the ecclesia.
By the last counts, at least a dozen aspirants have emerged from each of the state’s three senatorial zones. And the different political parties. We are still counting!
The next few weeks promise to be interesting and eventful for all the political parties. This is as they separately move towards their party primaries. Without being pessimistic, the respective parties must watch out for post-primaries acrimonies.
These acrimonies may turn out to be their albatross. More so, when many of the aspirants’ political ancestry and antecedents are foggy and murky. Notwithstanding all these, Edo people think that nothing but the best is good for them in these troubled times.
Ohain is a veteran journalist, author and historian writes from Benin City.
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