June 23, 2014
NewsRescue
by Debo Adeniyi
I want to start my piece by congratulating the newly elected Governor of Ekiti State, Gov Ayo Fayose the (man of the people) as he is rightly called, honestly, this really mean well for our democracy as the word democracy reflects the word “people” in its definition three(3) times.
I also want to hail the federal Government for her achievement in successfully conducting one of the freest and the fairest election in Nigeria, at last, the will of the people finally supersedes the will of some few powerful elements or leaders.
Now to the main business, Ekiti election’s result is a strong signal that should make our APC leaders to change their ways and allow absolute democracy to prevail in their party activities. In as much as I am an APC card carrying member, I will never be a party to irregularities and misconducts in the party, The Vote in Ekiti election is not a vote against the former Governor Fayemi (who performed brilliantly during his reign) but against the monopoly and the selfish/self-centered ideology of our APC leaderships. A situation where only one man wants to be an Island, where only one man wants to dictate who will be the party’s flag bearers in all political positions across the south-west region, a situation where only one man will determine or bag all the key contracts like construction, taxation, finance etc of all APC controlled states, a situation where all affairs and governances activities in the APC states will not be independent of one man, a bogus situations where party structures are taken away from the people who started and built the party with their hard earned money and given it away to the Governors and the minority because of money and power( A good example is Ogun state where party Excos and structure was given to Gov Amosu of the defunct ANPP at the expense of Chief Osoba of ACN), another bogus situation where only one man decided to adopt the winner takes all politics by playing out the CPC and ANPP in the merger arrangement at the South-west region where 99% of the party executives at the state, Local Government and Ward levels are occupied and controlled by only ACN members, a bogus situation where we have an arranged and engineered party’s convention in Abuja where only the candidates of their choices emerged as party’s executives, a situation when only one man is promoting the Muslim/Muslim ticket for his personal gains and interest, a situation where only one man has Lagos state( The economic hub of Nigeria) in his personal pocket, a situation where only one man will determine who will be the king makers, the king, the baales, the Iya loja, etc.
It is therefore a despicable fact that people are already tired of the following:
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Imposition politics (imposing candidates against the will of the people)
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Godfatherism politics ( A situation where only one man dictates for all)
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Gangsterism politics (Politics of the area fathers and boys, thuggery, snatching of ballot boxes, killing, and destruction of properties)
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Money bag politics ( Politics of the rich against the poor and sharing of money for people to sell their votes)
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Politics of the Elites (expensive houses, roads and bridges and still places toll charges on them, increasing government institution fees that the poor cannot afford)
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Draconian policies and so on
What the people really want from our leaders in All Progressives Congress are:
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They should allow absolute democracy to reign in the party
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They should allow the party manifesto and constitution to be supreme
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They should provide level playing ground for all the aspirants
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They should promote equality among the party members and aspirants
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They should allow people to choose their leaderships
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The APC governors should bring policies that put food on the table of the people and money in the pocket of the common man as planting flowers, construction of roads and bridges alone cannot win election anymore.
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The interest of the people should be protected not the interest of the leaders
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Above all, they should play transparent, truthful and incorruptible politics within and outside the party.
Conclusively, I want to once again commend the INEC, the federal government and the security operatives for ensuring that the people can now have hope in freely and fairly choosing their leaderships without any casualty recorded the election that I can term the freest and the fairest.
I advice all of us to shine our eyes in the next election, vote for our consciences and continue to preach and advocate to our leaders to give us true and absolute democracy, as what we have today is not the type of democracy Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief MKO Abiola, Chief Anthony Enahoro, etc laid down their lives for.
Debo Adeniyi
08181027128
Sunday, June 22, 2014