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League of Concerned Edo Youths | Benin City
Our attention has been drawn to agitations by some persons over threats been hurled on political parties in Edo if party tickets are not given to aspirants from a particular area in Edo State, particularly as we approach 2024 when the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki will hand over the mantle of governance to a successor; whereas act(s) of perceived bully over Governorship ticket is alien to Edo politics, it is even more disturbing and antithetical to contemporary politics to hear people dictate who should be given party ticket in a functional democracy as ours.
It becomes instructive in the face of such strange entitlement and turn-by-turn arrangement to inform perceived regional champions, propagandists that the Edo of our fathers is not known for ethnic, regional politics and has not been seen to propagate any ethnic or sectional agenda over and above the collective will of Edo people, particularly since the advent of our current democracy in 1999; it is totally strange to see a section of people attempt to commandeer party ticket(s) to a particular region even when a government is still in place.
While we appreciate political players who have indicated interest to succeed the performing Governor Godwin Obaseki in 2024, we however wish to remind those agitating for ticket to go to a particular region, to realize that every political party has its internal rules and procedures in electing a candidate to the ballot; what we expect of these seeming ethnic or regional champions is to see how they can establish ways to help the Obaseki-led government finish well and strong November 2024.
Moreover, Governor Godwin Obaseki has set very high and unconventional standards in our political lexicography, it will require more than the ethnic or regional card to preserve and build on the developmental foundations the Governor has established; to continue to box the collective sensibility of Edo people, party organs over party ticket is the height of disregard for party's internal rules, capable of stiring up strong, uncontrollable emotions amongst other regions pre-2024.
Such alien, strange and undemocratic act even downplays the opportunity of getting governorship ticket eventually.
Edo, being a multiethnic, multilingual society consisting of 3 Senatorial districts, 18 Local Government Areas, 192 Wards and various tribes and clans, political parties must beam their searchlight around the length and breath of our State; parties must also consider capacity, competence, character and popularity, not tribe and region, in chosing Obaseki's possible successor; our brothers and sisters now consciously or unconsciously playing the ethnic card must beware not to reduce our fast-growing State and fragile political system to a mere piece of regional hotspot where competence, capacity, character and popularity is slaughtered on the altar of regional, tribal, rotational politics.
It is however our unalloyed believe and desire that anyone who must succeed Godwin Obaseki must possess very sufficient knowledge of the Governor's developmental agenda; he must be one who, like Obaseki, acknowledges and appreciates excellence, to take education beyond Obaseki's admirable height via top-notch innovations like EDOBEST, revamp community policing beyond Obaseki's foresight via initiatives like Edo Security Network, build capacity and confidence in the civil and public service beyond Obaseki's interventions via regular trainings, restrainings and give the workplace environment the desired face-lift.
As a pro-development group, it is our irreversible commitment that Obaseki's successor must be free of, and eschew thuggery and violence in his political chronology, while focusing more on strengthening the institutions of development as established by the Obaseki-led administration, and even building more for the wholistic development of Edo State.
He must also be one, who, like Obaseki has an untainted record of electoral victories, possessing the popularity and clout to win his Unit, Ward, Local Government Area and State in an election, with an admirable acceptability level within and outside his constituency.
Consequent upon the foregoing, the League of Concerned Edo Youths, a socio-political and cultural group, wish to seize this avenue to admonish the "Esan Agenda" proponents to possibly revert back to the drawing board and exercise their strategic lobbying skill, rather than exhibiting what looks like ethnic and regional crusade; they should also allow political parties exercise their fundamental disposition before, during and after party primaries, as Edo is not known and cannot be boxed into the notorious corner of ethnic and regional politics in our collective desire to build a virile and self-sustaining economy.
We do however, advise political parties and their internal organs across the board to uphold transparency, objectivism and be dispassionate in their various primary elections and ensure that all districts within Edo viz: Edo South, North and Central are carried along sufficiently in the build-up to a successive administration next year.
Roy Osariemen
Convener, League of Concerned Edo Youths
Friday 21 April, 2023
Eseosa Ewere
Co-convener
Osunde Osaigbovo Massy
Co-convener
Jona Pee Osigbemhe
Co-convener
Monday Lawani
Co-convener
Ehitare Augustine Odia
Co-convener
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