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There’s been no
shortage of text messages in a bid to sway us one way or another; many
forward these messages as if their lives depended on them. Maybe! So,
should one cut off one’s nose to spite one’s face? In wanting
something, should one deprive oneself of even more benefits for the
sake of what one seeks to achieve? And this is so crucial to the
overall success of the elections, including its overall aim, which is
to bring development to the people via the combined effort of all arms
of government.

Are we forgetting
that this is participatory democracy? How effective will the governor
of any state be, if he is the only one elected from his party without
other party members getting any elective office? What type of
government would that governor form? Would he always be able to call
the bluff of hostile non-party members of his administration? Or can we
hope as we have recently seen, that once elections are done and won,
all other elected members of government who are not of the same party
as the governor, will defect to the party of the ruling governor, to
make everyone’s life easier in the state and truly develop the state?
This logic is warped.

Don’t forget that
there are three arms of government; none can be efficient without the
other. Will a governor get co-operation from a hostile State House of
Assembly for instance? Have we not witnessed how a state’s legislature
can hold any governor to ransom, just to fulfill some inordinate
desires? Have we not seen a State House of Assembly closed for so many
months in a state where both the executive and legislators were/are of
the same party? What manner of relationship could we then hope for
where legislators and executors are from opposing camps?

Nevertheless, one
totally understands why these people are jittery: they rationalise that
since a party’s leadership decided to ‘impose’ candidates and
admittedly so, then the people also have a right to NOT vote for those
seemingly selected and imposed. The illogical argument conveniently
forgets that Babatunde Fashola himself was imposed ab initio by this
same party; so why are they now insisting on backing this old “imposed”
and not the new? If it is because they feel Governor Fashola has
‘performed’ so well to justify a second term, how do they know that the
new set of people imposed by the same party, won’t do as well or
better? After all, if the party got it right with Mr.Fashola, why can’t
the party also get it right for the leader’s wife, son or in-law? Is
one less efficient because one is related to the boss?

I suppose that is
why Mr. Fashola’s fans are behaving as if he is an independent
candidate. They even recommend what party to vote for in place of ACN.
But think about how this democracy works for a minute: ours is not
built on the collective will of the elected to do good things or
deliver dividends, as we say locally. How will Mr. Fashola push his
manifesto without his party’s elected? Ours is not an environment where
politicking stops and governance begins; the difference is blurred. Our
politicians NEVER allow the politics to end, never mind beginning the
process of governing. In fact, if a party’s candidate is elected as
governor, after displacing an incumbent whose party has majority seats
in the State Assembly, the new governor will know no peace.

Assemblymen often
see it as their duty to rile the chief executive of a state, especially
if he is not from their party. And the truth is, if they have a good
relationship with the governor, people will say they’ve been bought
over; If they don’t, the governor’s camp will say members of the
Assembly don’t want progress for the state, and are ‘only’ being
selfishly hostile to the executive because they want some goodies.

We’ve even seen states where the governor’s opponents from within
his party, don’t want him to achieve anything even if it affects their
party’s fortunes in providing deliverables. If a governor and president
for that matter can be so opposed from within their own camps, is it
another party that will embrace them more? If one votes Mr. Fashola
alone from the ACN, then members of other political parties to the
National and State Assemblies, will the governor enjoy support
unhindered by party differences? Will they all look beyond party
affiliation and agree to Mr. Fashola’s ideas especially if the ideas
are good? Or will they choose, after winning, to play politics with
people’s lives?