In the last few days, the social media have been washed with baseless and unfounded stories of happenings in Constituency 2 of Akoko North-West Local Government as they relate to the aspiration of Hon. Ifeoluwa Ehindero in the forth-coming by-election expected to hold in Akoko North East/North West Federal Constituency of Ondo State.
The dastardly project which was badly executed by invertebrate fifth-columnists was borne out of the fear of the rising profile of the main hero, Hon. Ifeoluwa Ehindero, who is a frontline aspirant in the exercise.I have it on good authority that certain political jobbers were the sponsors of this naive, archaic, primitive, and old-fashioned method of demeaning an opponent with intimidating rising profile.
The truth is that this unfruitful effort has rather promoted and projected Hon. Ife Ehindero and not otherwise.More worrisome was the choice of the vocabulary employed – disenfranchise – in the various piece reporting the said development. How can a group of beer parlour political miscreants disenfranchise an aspirant in a democratic process?
Where are the faces or signatures (Not digital) of those who endorsed their preferred aspirant? This question is important especially in this season of forged signatures. The piece announcing the kangaroo endorsement defied all logic, was devoid of grammatical concord and lacked any touch of professionalism.In addition, certain responses to this development have rather not helped the matter.
The choice of words like ‘dump’, ‘disqualifying’, and the likes are inappropriate to describe the event in discourse. Hon. Ife Ehindero was never disenfranchised, neither dumped nor disqualified, as the actors involved do not have such power.
What actually happened was that a written script designed to throw an evil spanner into the wheel of Ehindero’s political progress was badly interpreted and unprofessionally acted by some faceless cap in hand politicians. Unfortunately for them, their plans were botched and of no consequence but giving verve to Ife’s political machine.
In this era of digital political campaign where attention is more on the use of technology and intellectual engagement, strategies have shifted from cutting corners and spewing of bare-faced lies to gain mileages.
Total reliance on crude and crass retrogressive tendencies will only help in unveiling the personalities behind evil masquerades stalking Ife Ehindero and his company of well-wishers of Akoko North Federal Constituency.
In the overall, political pundits, and analysts have come up with certain projections and pontifications in the coming by-election. One of such is that Hon. Ifeoluwa Ehindero, by all known political permutations, remains an aspirant to beat.
Some folks went further to tip him as the standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress at the bye-election polls and that he would be contesting with candidates of weak opposition parties at the general election.
If these are their fears, as they truly are, the constituents of the federal constituency should be more determined and resolute going to cast their support and their votes for Ife Ehindero on the day of election.
The reason is that our federal constituency needs an ebullient representation at the lower chamber of the National Assembly who possesses sterling qualities and traits which will ensure that quality dividends of democracy would not elude our federal constituency and her constituents.
We should be mindful of the fact that any player on the pitch of football who is targeted by the opposing team members has what it takes to win the trophy for his team. The same gifted player earns the total attention of his or her contemporary.
My appeal to other aspirants is that they should retrace their footsteps and cease treading the old paths of political shenanigans which are not only out-dated but are non-effective in modern day politics.
They should allow the ‘man wey know road’ – Ife Ehindero – to fly the flag of APC through the bye-election to the House of Representatives. Serious political aspirants and his/her supporters should be working on how to swell his/her horde of supporters and not looking for how to concoct lies and be courting unholy ways to ‘grab’ that which he/she does not deserve.
Our ways should be amended and the murky description given to the waters of politics should be reversed by political players’ thought processes and lifestyles.
Olumide Obadele is of Akunu Akoko extraction and he is the Convener of One Million Man March for BTO
