Editor’s note: The forthcoming election in Ondo state on November 26 may become a test for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In two weeks the electorate will decide between Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) of the PDP and Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) of the APC. NAIJ.com Editor-in-Chief, Mr Bayo Olupohunda, in this opinion piece writes about the upcoming polls advising politicians not to set the state on fire as in 1983.
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it …..George Santayana
When on Friday, October 28, people took to the streets in Ondo state to protest the emergence of Mr. Jiimoh Ibrahim as the governorship candidate of a factional group of the Peoples Democratic Party in the scheduled November 26 governorship election; I suddenly had a sense of déjà vu. Indeed, the political impasse in the Sunshine state and the violent protests evoke frightening memories of the same tragic event thirty-three years ago when the two rival political parties of the Second Republic, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN ) and Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) threw the state into chaos, violence and bloodshed. This writer was barely a teenager then, but the barbarity of that era was too vivid to be forgotten. The tragic event that engulfed the state may have happened more than three decades ago, the current political situation in the state can provoke the same reaction. Ondo must not be allowed to travel down its bloody, sad road again. The state has always been the hot bed of political restiveness. A study of Nigeria’s turbulent political history would also reveal how political crises engineered by politicians would ultimately spin out of control and consume the entire country. On two occasions, political crises and other transgressions of politicians led to the collapse of the First and Second Republic. Fortuitously, crisis in the then Western Region in 1964-1965 and Ondo state in 1983 played a role in aborting a nascent democracy. The present crisis in the state poses a potential danger for the nation’s democracy. The political impasse in Ondo has historical precedent and must be viewed with the same lenses as other crises. READ ALSO: How poor leadership has kept Nigerians in poverty As a province of the Western region, the state was the scene of violent politics that led to the crisis which engulfed the region in what is now infamously referred to as the Wild Wild West crisis. The Western region erupted into violence when the loyalists of Obafemi and Awolowo and Akintola engaged in bloody feud over the disputed 1965 election. The violence, which had led to a declaration of a state of emergency in the Western Union, followed a disagreement between the Chiefs Akintola and Awolowo. Historians have written about how the worst violence in Nigeria’s political history contributed largely to the fall of the First Republic when the military struck in the first coup of 1966. The fall out of the Western region crisis also led to a series of tragic events: the counter-coup, the pogrom that led to slaughter of thirty thousand Igbos in the north and the eventual civil war that led to the loss of millions of lives. Today, the crises of our nationhood can be traced back to the tragic twist of the first republic. Eighteen years later, another political crisis reminiscent of the First Republic played out again. The Second Republic which was barely four years and three months old was truncated when the military struck in December of 1983 to bring to an end another corrupt and violent civilian regime. Once again, Ondo state which had been carved out of the old western region as one of the five states created by former military ruler Yakubu Gowon erupted into an orgy of violence during the election of that year. One of Obafemi Awolowo’s proteges, Adekunle Ajasin was contesting re-election under the umbrella of the Unity Party of Nigeria. His deputy, Akin Omoboriowo who had also fancied his chances had decamped to the ruling National Party of Nigeria. He was backed by the federal might of the Shehu Shagari led government. At the election, Adekunle Ajasin had a clear lead, but the NPN, intent on taking state from the UPN had put Omoboriowo in clear lead as the result was being announced. Then the inevitable happened. The widespread protests that followed the announcement of Omoboriowo turned violent and the state became a war front. Political thugs and supporters of both parties turned the state into a theatre of war. There was fear and apprehension as people loyal to one of the parties were targeted and killed. Houses were torched. The security agencies were powerless in to rein in the perpetrators of the violence. In the end, Akin Omoboriowo was driven out of the state and spent of it in exile. The 1983 violence was a repeat of the Western region crisis. The effect of the violence was instant. It provided a further excuse for the military to put an end to a Second Republic that was already wracked by monumental corruption. I have gone this far to provide a background to the current crisis because it has the possibility of spiraling out of control like the previous ones with their attendant consequences. READ ALSO: How Minister Amaechi set another test for Buhari’s anti-corruption war On October 28, Nigerians saw how a crooked process by politicians could lead to a predictable end – violence. Obviously, the situation in the state has not been handled with equity and justice by the two political parties at the center of the impasse. On one hand is the Peoples Democratic Party which has been the ruling party in the state since 2003. They have not being able to put their house in order. After years of inept leadership, the party has become so polarized that it has started to implode from within. With a few days to go to the election, it remains to be seen how the crisis that hangs over the state like a sword of Damocles would be resolved. Already the Court of Appeal has constituted a panel to look into the impasse. As it is the panel has to seat and resolve the crisis before the election holds on November 26. Already the parties are talking tough. But the PDP has itself to blame even if the party has been promoting the conspiracy theory that the APC is behind the crisis so it benefit from the crisis going into the election. Even APC is not free from its own internal crisis. The party is going into the election a divided entity while presenting the façade of being united. The crisis generated by the emergence of primary Rotimi Akeredolu over the allgedy ‘favoured’ Olusegun Abraham is still a sore point for the party. Both crises from the two leading parties are capable of throwing the state into chaos. Indeed, another worry going into the election is the conduct of the election itself. The pre-election violence is predictive of what may happen on Election Day and when the votes are eventually counted and winners announced. As expected both factions are talking tough. A spokesman for governor Mimiko has spoken about how the people of Ondo can defend themselves. That to me sounds like a call to arm. On the other hand, the APC has vowed to take the state back from PDP by all means necessary. These veiled threats are recipes for violence. But politicians in Ondo must tread carefully. One also hopes that the crisis is resolved by the Appeal Court panel so that the people can have two recognized candidates going into the election. All agencies involved in the election must also play fair as Ondo cannot afford another violent circle.
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