Olaolu Adesina
Osun is in distress.
Aregbesola is doing his best. While some commend him, some others condemn him. However, whether praised or blamed, his tenure is running to an end.
Osun must look for a worthy successor to Aregbesola. But, less than six months to the elections, the political horizon is still cloudy.
To come out of its current economic mess, the state must elect wisely. Therefore, economic revival should be the focus of Osun people in electing their next governor.
Rebuilding the state should be a collective effort of everyone in the state. It must not be left in the hands of the politicians alone.
Because Nigerian politics has not recognised independent candidature, Osun people will still have to look towards the existing political parties for whom to vote for.
Does it then mean that the people are helpless? Does it mean that the people do not have any choice than to vote for whomever are presented by the political parties, no matter how dull or unprepared?
No! The people have a role to play. They can resolve to vote for candidates not because of the bigness of the parties presenting them, but because of the soundness and workability of the programmes presented by the candidates.
A party that will not conduct primaries in choosing its candidates is not democratic. And, an undemocratic party does not deserve the votes of a people who want to be governed democratically. If the people condone a faulty foundation, they should not complain if they later have a decrepit structure.
To democratically choose a candidate, party delegates are the deciders. The delegates are not outsiders or visitors but also parts of the state. If the state is misgoverned, they and their families will also reap the fruits. Therefore, the first role of ensuring that the state is rebuilt is that of the delegates across all the political parties.
While some of the aspirants are currently telling the party delegates how they plan to govern the state into prosperity, some aspirants across the party lines do not bother to tell anybody what they will do because, they do not think it is necessary, and because they believe that the delegates are robots that do not have any minds of their own, and who can be commanded to vote anyhow at the 11th hour.
Everyone is waiting to see if truly the delegates are zombies who do not have any brains of their own; who do not have the future of their own children to protect too; who are ready to sell their future for an amount that cannot last a month; who are not ready to also contribute their own quota in saving the state; and who want to make themselves available to be used and dumped until the next election.
This is a time when no one of voting age in Osun should feel less concerned. The elite have always formed the bulk of the non-voting majority. They rather stay indoors on election days and monitor the goings-on on radio and television. But when the chips are down, they complain the loudest.
Osun is now in a critical condition that needs everyone’s surgical attention. This time, it should not be about the party, but about the contestants.
The APC should not present an unprepared candidate and hope for a walk-over because of the seemingly intractable wrangling within the PDP. Similarly, the PDP should not make a mistake of presenting a weakling, thinking that the sitting government’s current travails will serve as a launching pad for ‘whoever’ is presented by the opposition. In the same vein, the other parties should not be self-defeating by thinking that it is a straight fight between the APC and the PDP. The people can be mobilised to look beyond the two titans.
This is the time when the populace and the delegates should work in synergy, in the ultimate interest of the state. Elections will come and go, but the state will remain for everyone to live in. Its economy will also be there for all to contend with. So, choosing wisely is the answer.
Olaolu Adesina, a doctoral student of political science hails from Iwo, Osun West Senatorial District of Osun State
