National News
Edo 2024: Who the cap fits by Iyoha Darlington
The eligible Edo voters are on the match again to decide who calls the shots in the coming years at Denis Osadebey House in Benin City, the Edo State capital.
Today, we are caught in the web of frustration into which we are plunged by the governing All Progressives Congress. In the build-up to the 2015 general elections we awoke Nigerians to the ill-conceived plan by a confederacy of criminal gangs to hijack power knowing full well they have nothing to offer.
Bombings across the country were intensified via a jihadist insurgency to deceive Nigerians that the then-ruling party was but a leper that must be avoided. On the back of that security crises diabolically orchestrated by them they rode to power and that torn has remained in our flesh to this day.
It therefore remains ear-biting to hear the All Progressives Congress still field candidates for elections in Nigeria despite the mess the party has foisted on Nigerians. Our people are neither thoughtless morons nor mindless zombies to remain supporters of a party that has almost beaten the daylight out of our lives.
The immediate past government of President Muhammadu Buhari true to my warnings plunged our country to abysmal depths. In the build-up to the 2023 general elections, I sounded yet another warning that retaining the ruling would only amount to sounding the death knee to the generality of our people and as luck would have it our sufferings were compounded the very day President Tinubu took charge. The subsidy on fuel was diabolically removed and this in form and content was ill-timed thereby giving our people yet again the hangman’s noose!
As we race again to Edo State 2024 governorship election it will be an eyesore to see candidates expressing interest and desire to run on the platform of the All Progressives Congress. Their interest and desire are not revitalizing the ongoing decadent paralysis staring Nigerians in the face. Frankly, it is none other than an eyesore considering where we are today as a nation.
They have clung to federal power now for over eight calendar years with little or nothing to regenerate our country.
Philip Shaibu, a grassroots politician is the favourite become the next Edo State governor
Nigerians have been gagged and for the most part, our votes no longer count as figures at polling stations are often doctored and the less popular candidates are often declared winners. The so-called victory of President Tinubu over his major opponents in the 2023 federal elections is a case in point. The judiciary did not help matters either and the hopes of the common Nigerians were dashed and a like marriage was annulled and ultimately bastardized in a highly compromised judgment.
The problems plaguing the country for which that party was voted out en masse remain this time assuming an alarming crescendo. Inflation across the country has spiked triple digits with no solution in sight. Into what dark times we hopelessly are!
As the Edo governorship election comes up in no time we have no time to brood yet again over past mistakes without taking urgent steps now to correct them and plan for a better tomorrow. Every zonal arrangement must be cast overboard to stop the hyenas that the All Progressives Congress represents from coming to power. Following the so-called zonal arrangement or agreement under the existing circumstances will only lead the People’s Democratic Party to a disastrous end in Edo State.
A formidable candidate who knows the tricks of the trade MUST be fielded and supported by all if the PDP is to retain power in Edo State.
A grassrooted politician like the serving Deputy Governor of the state, Comrade Philip Shaibu readily comes to mind as the only one among the aspirants who could stand toe-to-toe with the devilish antics of the All Progressives Congress to red-card the PDP out of Denis Osadebey House in 2024.
Iyoha John Darlington (PhD), a former governorship candidate, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Edo State
