While I was on vacation in Europe, I read about the departure from our camp of some of our low quality members. They were reported to have ported to our noisy neighbours, the promoters and distributors of modern propaganda. While their departure shocked a number of our people, I was neither shocked nor perturbed. I could not be moved when low quality people with horrible level of intellect live up to their billings.
Odolaye Aremu that popular dadakuada musician from Ilorin released a long playing album in 1991 where he sang about people of low intellect as follows:
eni o gbon m’eni o gbon
eni o go ni o mo ra won
beyan si so fun eni to go pe o go
yio d’ija
The wise and intelligent people know each other, but the idiots don’t know themselves and if you tell them they are idiots, it will resort to a fracas.
Every person of quality with reasonable intellect will understand the fact that the opposing camp is being brought down by internal strife leading to structural defects arising from its inability to allow internal democracy which affected them in 2019 and 2023.
The reconciliation they advertised with pomp and pageantry has become clay footed, ineffective and a total mirage. The implosion is already happening as a number of their members have joined the Makinde train of political success.
With such an understanding of the structural defect of the opposition party, no reasonable person will jump from APM to that dead end. However, I am reminded that politics is about interest. As a political sociologist, I have conceptualised political interest to be of 2 variants: personal interest and public/community interest. In the past 7 years and 2 months, Governor Seyi Makinde through his governance structure and framework, has redefined political interest to be primarily concerned with the pursuit of the public good resulting in prompt payment of salaries of workers of all categories, payment of pensions and gratuities, and leave bonuses all leading to the injection of billions of naira into the local economy on a monthly basis. It is also concerned with infrastructural development and total upgrading of the various sectors of our political economy.
When you subscribe to such a political ideology as espoused by the APM Presidential flag bearer, you will not find the other camp where conscience is being bought with slush funds attractive.
People of low intellect and quality always find it difficult to appreciate the good things done for them. I have been made to understand that many of them were actually gifted houses, land, overseas travel, heavy political appointments because they carry big titles even far more than highly intelligent and loyal members, yet they cry of marginalization. People with entitlement mentality are difficult to please.
Let me appeal to all our members to rededicate themselves to the vision and mission of our camp. I particularly appeal to our students and youths, the next government is to be headed by young people. Our governorship candidate and his deputy are 53 years old and our presidential candidate is the youngest of all presidential candidates.
The battle ahead is for us to win. Let us preserve the legacy of good governance which Governor Makinde has laid down. Let us remain one indivisible entity under God as we march forward in our bid to retain power at the state level and win at the federal level Let me remind us as wise men and women that our strength lies in our ability to deploy the tools of science and data in our political strategy and tactics. Let us remind our friends on the other side that of popular song of Baba Legba, Yusuff Olatunji which goes this way
O di gbehin k’ogbon to pa won o x2
Egungun to ba dubu ologbojo
O di gbehin o
Ko ma nipe ko ni jina
K’ogbon to pa won
Morohunkola Thomas is a political strategist based in Ibadan.
