By Jude Ndukwe
September 10, 2016, is epochal in the history of the great Edo State. It is a date when life beckons on the people to embark on a game-changing and life-amending venture; a time when the people are called out by the Benevolent, the God of second chance, to right the wrong they elevated to a position of authority and immense responsibility eight years ago. That day is the day when Edo people will finally extricate themselves from the shackles of a searing chain fresh from the hissing fires of a renowned blacksmith and etched in the back of the people with a heart that chooses to be deliberately unmindful of the people’s sufferings.
That APC, by the virtue of their worsening abysmal performances everywhere they go, both at the federal and state levels, has since grown into that monstrous party not fitting to replace itself in any election in the name of continuity, is no longer news. What is news is that they still have the temerity to present themselves for election after all they have done to Nigeria just within one year! Nobody, not even the good people of Edo State would want a continuity of suffering, of human degradation, infrastructural decay, ethnic discrimination and general underdevelopment.
These are some of the ‘natural’ traits of the All Progressives Congress which are well known not only to Nigerians but also to the whole world. In other climes, where service to the people is a priority and the elevation of their standard of living is government’s main focus, the party would not be going about insulting the sensibilities of Nigerians by wildly gyrating with so much brazenness as we saw the president’s delegation do in APC’s grand rally in Edo recently.
It is only a government without shame for its widely acknowledged failures and a party without human sympathy for the mega-sufferings it has visited on the people that would embark on such a banal celebration of the destruction of a people and their nation without restraint in so short a time.
Since APC took charge of governance, the people can barely live and hardly survive. The hunger in the land is real and the frustration palpable. Nigeria, right under the nose of President Buhari and his gyrators, has slid into its worst recession in history. Millions have lost their jobs as companies after companies, both local and international, keep closing shops due to the economic hardship. Yet, the price of foodstuff keeps rising while the naira has been adjudged the worst performing currency in the whole wide world after Suriname and Venezuela. What a story!
This is after all the grandiose promises of turning the moon into sunlight for Nigerians and creating a state of Eldorado and Utopia for them. However, the Nigerian state has since become the legendary Hobbesian State where life is not only nasty and short but also brutish under the watch of APC. With the free rein of death in the hands of terrorist Fulani herdsmen all over the country, the extra-judicial murders and endless incarceration of citizens even against court orders by state agents, the descent of Nigeria into the Hobbesian state of anomie is confirmed.
A nation that, just over a year ago, used to be the pride of Africa and the bride of investors competitively courted by the discerning international business community has suddenly become a sorry state of its recent past glory.
Rather than deliver on its campaign promises, the All Progressives Congress has spent its entire life in government delivering excuses to the people to the extent that even the party’s core supporters and followers have since abandoned it to its lonely fate.
Now to get the votes of Edo people, the APC train has revived its old machinery of mendacity, revved its engine of casuistry and embarked on its familiar campaign of sophistry wrapped in oratorical sophistication. Like they did at the federal level, they are promising the people heaven on earth. A party that cannot achieve any of its myriad of promises, not even one, at the federal level despite the vast and enormous resources at its disposal cannot achieve anything in a state known for its peace, industry and rich culture.
The people of Edo must not fall for the antics of the antiques, beautiful outside but full of deceit inside. With the benefit of hindsight, Nigerians have come to conclude, and rightly so, that they made a huge mistake by handing something as weighty as their destiny to Buhari and his battery of APC disciples. The regret is loud and resounding, from Abuja to Katsina, from Imo to Ondo, from Plateau to Enugu, from Kano to Osun, the story is the same.
The days of ignorance will be forgiven, but will Edo people make the same mistake Nigeria made on March 28, 2015, the day they purportedly voted APC into power out of ignorance? Doing so now that the party’s gross incompetence and deceit are well documented would amount to committing an error of unpardonable consequences.
It is the utmost desire of Nigerians to take their destiny back in their own hands, retrace their steps and start correcting the mistake that APC has been. There is no other divinely set opportunity for such rectification other than the Edo governorship election. Whether Nigerians have learnt their lessons or not will be determined by the people of Edo on Saturday.
A “change” that has brought nothing but chains to the people deserves to be changed urgently. Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu is the one on whose shoulders Providence has placed the unenviable but noble task of rescuing the good people of Edo. With his SIMPLE agenda, and the huge support he has enjoyed among all Edolites and Nigerians, he is obviously the people’s saving choice!
jrndukwe@yahoo.co.uk; Twitter: @Stjudendukwe; Facebook: Jude Chijioke Ndukwe
