By Comrade Odusola WILLIAMS TAIWO
It is very easy to impose a candidate during a party primary, but it is impossible to impose votes during a general election. That is one of the biggest lessons the APC leadership must take away from its defeat in Osun State.
Political parties may have structures, godfathers and powerful leaders, but ultimately, the electorate remain the final authority. When party leaders become disconnected from the mood of the people and begin to believe that political influence automatically translates into electoral victory, they risk suffering a painful defeat at the polls.
In my view, His Excellency, Senator Iyiola Omisore, would have had a better outing than the candidate imposed by the camp of His Excellency, Gboyega Oyetola. Political calculations must go beyond personal loyalty and factional interests. A candidate must be someone who can genuinely connect with the electorate, mobilise the grassroots and inspire confidence among party members and voters.
Even more instructive was the reported loss of Oyetola’s own polling unit. When a major political figure cannot secure his immediate political base, it should compel the party leadership to pause and ask some very serious questions about its strategy, candidate selection and relationship with the grassroots.
The second major issue is the reported involvement of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in freezing the Osun State Government salary account shortly before the governorship election. If such an action was perceived by the electorate as politically motivated or deliberately timed to create hardship for civil servants and their families, then those responsible seriously underestimated the political consequences.
Rather than weakening the opposition, such actions can easily create sympathy for the very people the strategy was intended to hurt.
Civil servants are voters. Their families are voters. Pensioners are voters. The ordinary people who depend on their salaries are voters. When people believe that their livelihood is being threatened for political reasons, they may respond at the ballot box.
In that sense, those behind the timing or political use of the EFCC action, whether intended or not, may have inadvertently de-marketed the APC and strengthened the sympathy of the electorate for its opponents.
Politics should never become a contest of who can punish the people more effectively.
There must be a limit to impunity, arrogance and political manipulation. No political party should assume that because it controls certain institutions or possesses enormous political influence, it can do whatever it wants without consequences.
The Osun experience should therefore be studied carefully by the APC leadership at the national and state levels.
The party must learn to listen to its members. It must respect the grassroots. It must stop confusing political appointment with electoral popularity. It must understand that loyalty to a particular political godfather does not necessarily translate into loyalty from the electorate.
Most importantly, the people are bigger than the politicians.
A candidate may be imposed in a primary, but the voter cannot be imposed upon in the polling booth. A political leader may control the party structure, but the electorate control the ballot.
The APC must therefore return to the drawing board, review what went wrong in Osun and make the necessary corrections before the next major electoral contest.
Power belongs to the people, and every political party that forgets this does so at its own peril.
Final note on Osun election from this side
By Babatunde HABEEBLLAHI HAMZAT
“Tí a bá ń gé igi, a kì í gé ẹ̀ka tí a jókòó lé.” When cutting a tree, you don’t cut the branch you’re sitting on.
It is funny when I see some of you in Osun APC attacking Chief Omisore as if you can simply control a political heavyweight and expect no consequences.
You suspended him when the Governorship election was approaching, brought the Deputy Governorship candidate to his doorstep without properly carrying him along, and shared the Senate, Reps and Assembly slots without giving his faction meaningful consideration.
Then you expect his followers to sit down and work for APC to win? TUEH, (I pour una spit) Politics is about carrying people along. You cannot use people when you need their votes and ignore them when positions are being shared.
Omisore may remain in APC, but what about the people who follow him? They also have political interests and aspirations.
Bipartisan and coalition politics is here to stay. Don’t weaken the very political structure you may need tomorrow.
