Ekiti 2022: Who is afraid of delegates in PDP?

The election is not an event but a process in sequential order. The race to 2022 Ekiti governorship election had started long before now.

In the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the calculations and strategies towards 2022 governorship notably gathered momentum during the party Congresses early this year when the master strategist, Ayo Fayose, showed his political supremacy over his opponents and political adversaries. You know, Fayose thinks and takes decisive actions ahead of his rivals.

Chief Ayo Fayose’s group captured nearly all the delegates and eligible voters in the governorship primary during the Congresses when the majority of the present 17 guber aspirants in the PDP had neither conceived nor dreamt of any ambition.

The few opposing leaders who realised the strategic importance of Fayose’s achievement fought tooth and nail to upturn the Congresses but failed to achieve the objective.

There is no gainsaying that the absolute majority of the delegates are members of the Osoko Political Assembly (OPA) and supporters of Fayose and his chosen aspirant, Bisi Kolawole.

Who should then be afraid of delegates? Only the emergency and experimental aspirants and their non-delegate supporters could be shivering in fear.

No doubts, a pseudo and mercenary writer who has just been compelled to choose one of his numerous principals may be afraid of the delegates, making diversionary insinuations and wanting to hurriedly make an impact for recognition. Who knows, perhaps, he would now stay with one aspirant.

In the PDP, there is no delegate in bondage. They all have the absolute freedom and liberty to freely elect the candidate of the party. The man, Ayo Fayose, who has spent his money and dissipated energy to sponsor and ensure the success of the delegates cannot obviously constitute a  threat to them. Fayose remains their leader and benefactor who actually identified them for good and has not desisted from being nice to them.

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Only the rabble-rousers and experimental aspirants could constitute a nuisance to delegates through their coercive and compulsive lobbying mechanism.

Little wonder, some aspirants were duped with the list of fake delegates, which was possible because they didn’t have any acquaintance with them ab initio.

Fayose and Bisi Kolawole are the original initiators of monthly meetings with the delegates, where they usually interact with them.

Nevertheless, it’s not bad that the good initiative has been embraced by many aspirants who unfortunately have been parading fake and improvised delegates during their meetings.

Unlike many utopian essayists, I do make realistic assertions. The usual practice of giving money to party members and delegates for transportation and light refreshment during meetings has become part and parcel of the Nigerian political order.

Hence, if the idea is conceived as “inducement” by any deceitful writer,  every political leader and contestant must be guilty of it across all the political parties in Nigeria.

Amendment to section 87 of the 1999 Nigeria Constitution concerning the mode of direct primary, may not become a law or enforceable before the PDP primary considering the huddles before it. Nevertheless, with direct or indirect methods, Bisi Kolawole is well-positioned to win the party primary and the general election.

In conclusion, the latecomers, unpopular and social media aspirants are more likely to deploy intimidation, coercion, and compulsion as methods of gaining support among the PDP delegates, not a crop of political erudite and generalissimos like Fayose and Bisi Kolawole, who are well-grounded in the business of politicking.

Omotoso Okeya, a journalist and political analyst.

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