By Pius Alile
After about four years that we held the last primaries for the 2020 Edo State Governorship Election, which unfortunately, the APC lost to the PDP despite a very rigorous campaign, we are back to repeating the inevitable process for choosing the party’s candidate for the 2024 election.
Making a decision on the candidate fit for contest and with the potential for winning is ordinarily based on reports. These reports come in three forms – what the aspirants say about themselves; the common public reports and the reports from stakeholders’ observations and experiences with the respective aspirants.
Expectedly, aspirants, in their desperation to win primaries and the general election, make up stories about themselves to get support. They and their supporters spin and induce reports to deceive the electorate. In summary, most aspirants are not whom they profess they are. Ironically, we have had situations whereby despite our knowledge of the truth, we have settled on choices which cost us elections.
Choosing the next Governorship candidate of the APC should not just be predicated on what the aspirants claim about themselves. It should also not be based on the information from induced publicity. It should rather be about verifiable and verified historical track records of integrity, competence, patriotism and capacity to deliver.
These attributes cannot and must not be determined by what aspirants or their proxies say but by our personal and collective experiences of them concerning those aspiring to govern us.
If we are true to ourselves, despite what the aspirants claim about themselves, we know ourselves in this State. We know the track records of many of the aspirants, which have formed a collective perception within and outside the Party. The general public also have their perceptions about various aspirants that have indicated interest. And as members of the larger society, we are very much aware of these general public perceptions.
We must be wary of public perceptions. We must avoid those whom public perception about them is nothing to write about. As a party we risk the wrath of the people if we field any discredited element within our ranks. I want to reiterate that it is not about what the aspirants say; it is about what they have done in the past. Aspirants must be assessed based on their past records within and without the party. It is not about holding public office before or being a former this or a former that; it is about your record of past performance and integrity. If the name is mentioned what would be the opinion of the people? Would it be positive or negative? Public perception about past conducts is a necessary credential for assessing those that are fit for office.
By the way, as a political party, we must not reward bad behaviour, which has contributed to our electoral misfortunes. We must have zero tolerance for and must not give our ticket to anyone that has promoted political corruption within the party; anyone who has misappropriated and diverted party funds; and anyone who has promoted any form of corruption and caused the party to lose elections.
At our Political Conference themed Edo 2024: A must win for APC, which took place on the 27th October 2023, key speakers stressed so much on the nomination of a sellable candidate as key to winning the next governorship election in Edo state. One cannot but agree with them and emphasize the imperativeness of the impeccable nature of our candidate.
We cannot afford to lose the next election based on poor choice of candidate. Therefore, the leadership of the party must be courageous, fearless, decisive and patriotic in the choice of the next APC Governorship Candidate. We cannot afford to fail. We must remove personal sentiments and consider the overall party interest. In conclusion, it is my firm conviction that if we get our choice of candidate right, we shall win the next governorship election easily, clearly and squarely.
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /home/ruralurb/public_html/wp-content/themes/goodnews5/framework/functions/posts_share.php on line 66
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in /home/ruralurb/public_html/wp-content/themes/goodnews5/framework/functions/posts_share.php on line 82
