A Teachable Moment for Tinubu, El Rufai and the APC Vanguard

Published on Thursday, 26 June 2014 13:20
By Ogbuefi Blogs

In my widely celebrated article, ' Fayemi Lost Ekiti State to Tinubu' ofSunday, 22 June 2014, I stated that now that Ekiti is out of the stranglehold of the political fiefdom of Bola Ahmed Tinubu
- the self-proclaimed and stupendously rich Awoist who dines with the devil and manipulates his people in order to gain a foothold on Aso Rock - My crystal ball now sees Osun and Lagos falling out of the hands of the opposition if theywill never learn vital lessons from the Ekiti election.
Alas, it appears that "with acute ignorance mixed with some baseless arrogance, they are afflicted with some of the most hazardous self-inflicted" inability to imbibe that teachable moment.
Now that Osun election is around the corner, APC seems to have started their baseless propaganda that leads to nowhere.
I read below this afternoon from one of their facebook pundits showing their completely failed to grasp the Ekiti lessons.
Soni Akoji propaganda ran thus:
"Buruji Kashamu the co-ordinator of the South - West PDP mobilization committee speaks:Hear him:"They accused me of drug money; I shall use the money to feed the poor Nigerians and kick APC out of Nigeria."- Buruji Kashamu
"It will be recalled that the PDP Chieftain who is at dagger drawn with Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, promised to spend N1 billion during the electioneering campaign in Ekiti state to kick out APC and get Fayose of the PDP elected. He was the financier of the Fayose branded rice that was distributed to the electorate.
"He has promised to do it again in a grand style by spending N2 billion of his personal fund in the forth coming gubernatorial election in Osun state in a bid to kick Ogbeni Rauf out and get Iyiola Omisore of the PDP elected as the next governor in the August 9th election. Can he repeat the same in Osun? All these osusu he is sharing, what is his pay-off? I hope we won't witness another Ngige and Chris Uba brouhaha when the governors whose election he financed can no longer keep faith with their agreed sharing formula of the state's monthly allocation from Abuja?
"We are indeed sitting on a keg of gunpowder if we see nothing wrong with an individual spending money as if it is going into extinction, just to get his candidate elected into public office." - END
To Tinubu, Elrufai and these APC Vanguards, I recommend Ayokunle Odekunle's 'Dear APC Twitterati, Elections Are Not Won On Twitter'.
EXCERPTS:
"Whenever any election approaches, they are almost always cocksure their candidate will emerge victorious; even when such candidate has little or no political pedigree. This is borne out of arrogance. They presume that they are the best human beings ever to exist and so their candidates just have to emerge as winner in any election as they are a rare breed of progressives- specially ordained by God. They do three things pursuant to the elections to wit:
2. Malign the candidate of the other parties
After successfully hyping their own candidate, they then set about maligning and damaging the character of the other candidates; especially the strongest challenger of the candidates. In the case of Ekiti, they called Ayo Fayose a thug, a wizard, a murderer and a thief. You call him a thief, which court has convicted him of corruption? You call him a murderer, mention one person you have seen him kill and the name of the competent Court that convicted him of either murder or manslaughter?
These people won’t be deterred. Few days to the election, they began tweeting aggressively, admonishing and cursing people who would dare vote for that thug known as Ayo Fayose. Then I wondered aloud: What is your own business? Why are people hiding under the anonymity that Twitter provides to malign the image of other people?
The APC Twitter activists were not done. They posted pictures of Ayo Fayose sharing bags of rice to Ekiti people, ostensibly to canvass for votes. Trust their PDP counterparts; they dug up pictures of Fayemi sharing jollof rice to aged people. Beaten to their game, the APC people then kept quiet because as it seemed, both parties had both risen to the occasion by sharing rice.

Continuation....
THE EKITI ELECTION LESSON
I feel heart-broken that some online celebrities have been insulting the good people of Ekiti for voting Fayose over the educated Fayemi. They have being using words like hungry, stomach infrastructure to describe those very educated and sophisticated people. I think it is selfish of these bloggers to begrudge the Ekiti people for receiving rice from Fayose when they had themselves gotten N50,000 from the governor during a so-called tour.
Come to think of it, winning in 16 local governments out of 16 is no fluke. Fine, if they insist Fayose won because he enticed people with rice, that means he must have shared rice to over 203,000 people which is a near impossibility Have these people forgotten that winning elections is about acceptability and doing your homework well? This is something Fayose did. For one, I have always known Fayose to be immensely popular in Ekiti State. His people love him to bits. A man who identifies with the people will be looked up to as a hero by the people. It is simple. Describing Ekiti people as hungry because they refused to vote for Fayemi is fundamentally wrong and rude. You cannot stay in Katsina, Kano, or Crimea and decide for the people of Ekiti.
Amadioha cannot leave Enugu and assume jurisdiction in Igbo-Ora in Oyo State. Check the case of Madukola V. Ndkedilim.
ISSUE OF GIFT SHARING
You see, a lot of APC Twitter Overlords only see that which they want to see. It is common knowledge that almost every politician in Nigeria indulges in sharing of gifts before elections so as to induce voters. It happened in 1993 (Abiola Rice), Obasanjo did it in 1999, Fashola did it in 2011, Akeredolu did it in 2012, Fayemi did it in 2014, Fayose did it in 2014, Aregbesola is doing it now. Tainting Fayose’s victory because of that is demonic and uncharitable.
With the little experience I have had with the electoral process in Nigeria, people will take your gifts and vote for or against you irrespective of your attempt at inducing them. As student at the University of Ibadan, I saw people take former governor Alao-Akala’s wads of cash and yet voted for the now defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Alao-Akala even got a brand new Plasma television for my Hall (The Great Independence Hall, UI). We appreciated the gift but yet, he lost in the hall of residence when elections were conducted.
In 2003 when it was glaring that Gbenga Daniel would oust Aremo Olusegun Osoba from office as Ogun State Governor, Osoba shared lots of money to artisans and market women. He shared bread sandwiched with money to kids. Yet, that did not stop him from suffering defeat in the hands of Gbenga Daniel. I can go on and on.
The message here is simple; Fayose won not because he shared rice. He won because he is the choice of the Ekiti people. That must be respected.
PARTING SHOT TO APC
The Anambra, Ondo and Ekiti elections should act as learning curves for the APC toy soldiers; that is if they are ready to learn and are ready to come down from their high plastic horses. Winning elections go beyond ranting on Twitter, spreading propaganda, talking down on other people or hyping people. Serious people who want to win elections go to the grassroots and identify with the voters; people who have no smartphones and do not know neither do they care of the existence of Twitter. Elections are won by meeting real people and not artificial and fake people.
The APC people can keep up with their Twitter Act. I, however, hope they know they should forget any fantasies of winning the Presidential elections next year and should instead focus on not allowing their party crumble after the selection of a presidential candidate. They have failed litmus tests in Anambra, Ekiti and Ondo so far. The APC is not a serious political party, they’re in the political business to party.--------------------Ayokunle Odekunle

that's attributes of the supporters of APC

supporters of APC

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