#EKITI 2018: The litmus test for Prof Mahmood Yakubu ahead of 2019, Ekiti peoples' vote must be allowed to count
As another election year approaches starting with Ekiti people whoever votes for any candidate on the platform of APC would either be seen as a cannibal or blood-sucking demon feeding daily on the flesh and drinking the blood of Nigerians being killed daily. That appears the only reason to identify yourself with that demonic party.
Imagine a president that compares the number of people that were killed in the previous government with his? APC has no reason to be in Nigeria's political space considering the hardship in the land and I wonder why our people remain blind to the atrocities being increasingly committed under this iniquitous regime of President Buhari.
If you say Boko Haram killed under the previous regime but have you forgotten Buhari raised and led a hue and cry in the north against the killing of Boko Haram fighters by Nigeria's military thus emboldening the insurgents? And how can Buhari ever extricate himself from the ongoing bloody insurgency in the northeast? No matter how he tries to put on an act, he cannot convince sane Nigerians enough. This without any iota of doubt is a quod erat demonstrandum and by no means a reductio ad absurdem if we need reminding.
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is demonic and evil, if you ask me and does not qualify for a political party anywhere in the civilized world all things considered.
In civilized societies you seek tenure elongation based on your achievements but today the ruling party has nothing on the ground to show for their three years of misrule apart from bloodshed, hunger, frustration and economic stagnation resulting from visionless policies which have taken a deadly toll on the citizenry.
Any sane person needs not be reminded that the party has failed woefully on all fronts. Is it on the economy? The economy has been shattered, insecurity of lives and property is on the ascending order of magnitude that has resulted in unprecedented deaths and bloodshed.
The economy has sunk and this has resulted in huge unemployment figures which has triggered an upsurge in crimes of varying degrees particularly violent ones.
If the Buhari government is genuinely fighting corruption as it claims the fight should have been all-inclusive and not selected as one who is pursuing a vendetta against perceived enemies particularly against members of the main opposition.
Once you defect from the PDP to the ruling party all your sins are swept under the carpet. Good! So there is every reason right now to believe that the people who are left in the reformed PDP have no skeletons in their cupboards as the questionable characters among them have all taken a methodical exit from the party to All Progressives Congress thereby making the ruling party a cesspool of corruption which must be done away with at all levels in subsequent elections.
If Buhari is genuinely prosecuting an anti-graft war, I wonder what the likes of former Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, Adams Oshiomhonle, Babatunde Fashola to mention but a few are doing in his government in spite of the overwhelming evidence of massive looting against the above-named trio and many others in the mainstream APC.
The Rivers State Government made shocking discoveries in the not to distant past by raising the alarm about the massive looting of Rivers State coffers under Rotimi Amaechi but Governor Wike's cries with his overwhelming evidence fell on deaf ears. So also is the immediate past governor of Edo State and the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Comrade Adams Oshiomhonle.
For naysayers and cult-like supporters of the ruling party, could they please ask Mr. Oshiomhonle where he got the money to build that sprawling mansion in his hometown in Edo State which runs into several billions of naira? How much was this man's salary if one may ask?
For pity's sake let us put on our thinking caps and stop being moronic. This is our common patrimony that is being plundered! The irony is that whoever criticizes the ruling party he is often looked upon like a bush rodent and descended upon by a pack of wolves who constitute, in fact the bulk of their cult-like supporters swiftly label you 'PDPig' or 'wailing wailer' in their own parlance. And these are people who have been hard hit by the visionless policies of the Buhari-led Federal Government and do not have enough to eat either to keep their bodies and souls together. This, I dare say, is very disheartening!
To set records straight here the writer is not a reactionary but a firm progressive and revolutionist who believes in the enlightenment of the mind and improvement of the character geared towards regenerating our fatherland which he is doing on the platform of the Green Party of Nigeria (GPN) in his capacity as the international media correspondent.
Only about three days ago, the attention of the Buhari government was called to a criminal case of forgery by his Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, after an exclusive report published on the PREMIUM TIMES went viral on the social media which was adapted and syndicated by many other online media outlets but no action has been taken to call Mrs Kemi Adeosun to account which is another case of gross infidelity to the rule of law.
Only today July 9, 2018, part 2 of that episode was released by the same PREMIUM TIMES titled: ''Kemi Adeosun’s Alleged Fake NYSC Certificate, Credentials Released''. Is this credential forgery scandal not a crying shame for a government that supposedly prosecuting an anti-graft war?
There is no denying the fact that sin would again go unpunished but one thing I would like to remind these people of, put differently, is ''the impending emergence of a king that is unknown to Joseph'' if not now but certainly later who will call all of them to account for their wicked misdeeds against the Nigerian state.
The man at the helm is not more Nigerian than you and I nor his life superior to yours for every man is born free and, therefore, equal in right and dignity. He is entitled to one vote so also are you and I. Hence, I see no reason why I should allow him to rule over me with a caprice or allow him to buy my conscience with peanuts and have me conquered and kept under a permanent subjugation. I say NO with all the emphasis at my regal command!
The fight to regenerate our fatherland must start from today and this, in fact, remains our bounden duty. Rulers are not demi or tin gods. Must you, therefore, perpetually eat from the crumbles that fall from their tables by allowing your voting power - the only thing you are left with to reshape your future - be bought with peanuts like we all witnessed in the last Edo State gubernatorial election when N2000 freely changed hands at polling centres in return for votes?
The Independent National Electoral Commission under Mahmood Yakubu has a role a play in Saturday's Ekiti elections. Professor Yakubu must allow the votes of Ekiti people to count and should not under any guise allow doctored results from the State House in Abuja to subvert the sovereign will of Ekiti people. The nation will be set on a raging fire if he does that.
Great minds, if they need reminding, are no nuisance. The people of that great state are very enlightened, in fact, there is no denying the fact that Ekiti State parades some of the best intellects in Nigeria and, therefore. know how the country has been and, of course, the marvelous things that have occurred over the years. I am not sure any sane person would not like to jump out of the frying pan into the fire. Again, I hereby sound a note of finality to Professor Mahmood Yakubu to allow the votes of Ekiti people to count by avoiding a repeat of the scenario that unfolded in the Edo and Ondo States' gubernatorial elections for that would be his litmus test for 2019 federal elections.
*Iyoha John Darlington is Edo-born Nigerian, a social activist, political analyst, expert in conflict management and resolution, a public commentator on national and global issues and until recently the International Media Correspondent of the Green Party of Nigeria (GPN).