Choices before the people of Ondo state in Saturday’s guber election
Oladimeji Daniels
The election to pick who gets to spend the next four years in the Alagbaka Government House is finally holding this Saturday, October the 10th, 2020.
From all indications, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC appears ready on its own end and has demonstrated enough that the loss of over five thousand smart card readers will not hinder its promise to conduct a credible poll.
The electoral body has since been meeting with stakeholders to fine-tune its preparations for the election, including having its national chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, in Ondo State to glean advice and suggestions from notable stakeholders.
This is the most crucial week, as it is the election week. The week will witness politicians making a lot of last-minute moves to woo voters and to make one another look like the devil all in a bid to win the hearts of the electorate.
During this week also, we may witness major supporters of some candidates ditching them in final horse trading, as we have already seen with the member representing Ondo West/Ondo East in the House of Representatives on the platform of the ADC, Abiola Makinde, who has decided to pitch his tent with another candidate other than that of his party.
Worthy of mention is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to rig election and INEC deserves commendation for this. Every politician who knows his onions understands that the polling unit is now the most important point in the process leading up to election results declaration, as results from polling units can now be viewed and monitored the world over as soon as it is uploaded.
This has helped check the hitherto unnecessary waste of time experienced in waiting for results from local governments and has also put paid to politicians’ unbridled thirst to rig elections.
Does this mean that politicians have backed down? Far from it. The seemingly single trick left in their pouch now, which is not a new trick anyway, is to heavily bribe voters to vote in favour of their party.
This is where the security agencies have got their job cut out for them by ensuring that voters are not allowed to raise their ballot papers to show party agents in the hope of compensation.
If there is any lesson from Edo’s recent gubernatorial election, it is that the electorate now have more power to decide the outcome of any election. The recent improvement from INEC has taken power back from unscrupulous politicians and handed same to the voters.
In spite of the expected vote-buying, the people of Ondo State must know that they can vote their conscience whether or not they choose to collect whatever politicians will dole out on the day of election.
There are already insinuations that the major political parties have money stored away for the election day for vote-buying. Voters must not allow this to sway their choice.
The popular saying that people deserve the kind of leader that they get cannot be truer at this time and in this instance, the people of Ondo State must realize that they would lie on their bed as they laid it.
There are obviously two choices before them in this election, to vote money or to vote their conscience.
