Edo Election: A Fair Game !! Morufu Smith

Edo Election: A Fair Game !! Morufu Smith .

Edo Election: A Fair Game!

Edo has been lost and won! What happened in the state must teach us few things about our brand of politics. It was Obaseki (APC) against Ize Iyamu (PDP) in 2016 and APC won. Then, political shenanigans afflicted political actors in Edo and their supporters outside the state, and there was a reversal of 2016 episodes. Today, Obaseki (PDP) has been declared tentatively victorious against Ize Iyamu (APC). The PDP supporters who bemoaned their loss to Obaseki and actually disliked him for it in 2016 are now hailing the same Obaseki while they’re mocking Ize Iyamu whom they pitied in 2016 for losing to Obaseki in 2016. I enjoy the situational ironies and it’s a lesson in political analysis for scholars and students of political game.

Let me console APC and her members; I am a member of the party. You can’t win in life always. When you win always, check yourself; graver challenges are in the offing. The mechanism through which we appreciate that life isn’t ours alone is by winning now and losing later. We may gloat and mourn that certain missteps by our party led to Edo loss, but I say this that missteps have led to winning and losing elections. The same missteps that led to loss today may lead to victory tomorrow. In political game, you can’t be strategic enough, especially when there are unconsidered factors that may conspire to swing election victory to the other divide. If Edo loss had been against PDP, same way the members of the party would heap blames on missteps is exactly what runs in the minds of the majority of APC members.

However, this is not to say that APC must not retrace her missteps leading to Edo loss. The earlier APC realises that politics is about the people and their welfare the better. My party has been pretending to be progressive but it’s high time she must be truly progressive and be seen to be.

I remain unshaken as a member of APC and I don’t want to dwell on who does what wrong. I congratulate PDP in Edo and in the South West. This victory is theirs to savour and dance and drink but they must not drink to stupor and dance tipsy into a well.