EKITI 2014: A Harbinger to 2015?

The outcome of last Saturday’s gubernatorial elections in Ekiti is the talking point today. In far-flung Abuja from where I write, the excitement the election has generated, has for the moment eclipsed the #BBOG and the Fifa World Cup 2014 put together.  The media, (in main & social streams) is awashed with reasons ranging from the possible, the plausible as well as the very ludicrous of the how and why the election was won and lost.

No Nigerian can possibly be exempted from commenting on the election (and any other elections before next year) as it is seen by many as the  harbinger of things to come in 2015. And as expected the winning party is basking in the euphoria of its victory, the losers on the other hand in a 180 degree turn from their normal hell-and-brimstone stance, have chosen a rather self-effacing position with little or nothing heard form their quarters save of course the post-election speech of the incumbent Governor. Explanations to the loud reticence of the opposition will be the subject of many analyses. This blog will however allow others the honour to do that.

Far from being a post-mortem of the Ekiti elections, a distillation of the incumbent Governor's now famous If-This-is-the-will-of-the-people post-election speech and public responses re the elections, makes glaring the following facts. Without doubt the APC has been outfoxed in Ekiti. Its cries and rantings against an inept government (or rather the  ‘clueless’ one) turns out to be nothing but a fundamental attribution error. While it blames the party in power for Nigeria’s woes and situates the reason for this to the inherent flaw in the nature of the PDP, it has failed (and that woefully) at giving Nigerians at the grassroots any reason to believe it has anything better to offer.  

At about the time the legacy units of the opposition party were in merger talks, I remarked at a forum in my office that ‘associations - political, cultural, religious or social, DO NOT grow from the top-down. Parties that last the longest and impact people most have a bottom-up growth trajectory’. Ekiti 2014 has given proof to that. The grassroots won.

As 2015 beckons, it becomes only pertinent that the 'political overlords' realise that Nigerians at the  grassroots are sick and tired of the divisive gerrymandering of the few Ogas at the top - clueless or first-class, and that come the general elections the mass and indeed Nigeria will continue the celebrations that has begun in Ekiti.

Congratulations to the good people of Ekiti who stood for what they want.

Congratulations to Fayose who won the elections. 

Honour to Fayemi whose rare display of maturity and sportsmanship won my heart.