Kogiflame
By Simon Obochi
For Benue citizens, 2023 is about making the right choice and with choice comes responsibility.We face critical decisions on many issues that would definite our future as a state and as citizens.
The most obvious consequences of this choice is the gubernatorial election. The guber election is the zenith of this elections and it’s significance has far-reaching consequences for our state.On it’s face value unlike prior guber elections where we have to contend with two real options,we have today in the state many options in this one but which can also be grouped into two for easy understanding.
At a closer look,you would see the practical applications of American psychologist,Barry Schwarz’s paradox of choice theory.The paradox of choice stipulates that while we may believe that being presented with multiple choices makes it easier for us to choose one that we are happy with and this increases citizens satisfaction.
Having an abundance of possibilities requires more efforts to decide and this can leave us feeling unsatisfied with our choices.Many of our citizens thinks the options before us makes us feel more frustrated and less happier overall.
Today, three or four candidates are of note among the candidates seeking the office of the governor of Benue state, depending on your perspective and depth of understanding of the Benue political landscape.
This candidates that are considered as Frontline candidates in the guber race are:Hon.Titus Uba,of the PDP, Rev.Fr.Hycinth Alia of the APC, Hon.Hembe of the LP and not the least, Professor Been Angwe, of the NNPP.Eech possesses unique attributes and shortcomings.
Candidates may only embodies some of our aspirations and reflects some of the values as humans,we wants to see in our state’s future governor.However,it is still our responsibilities to analyse all the informations presented to us and choose a candidate we are convinced will lead our state as Governor for the next four years to set us on the course of economic,social and political growth.
The choice before our people in Benue state in March,2023 is not essentially about candidates but about the outcomes of the socio-political and economic realities that we would like to see post-2023 elections.The contest this time around is more about the unity of the state verses the triumph of ethnicity,security verses insecurity, and unbridled corruption verses good governance.
Each of these guber candidates represents a shade of this but I can tell you that three are the same but only one embodies all the positions. Herein lies our hope, Professor Been Angwe.
We have historical precedents to rely on to unravel this dilemma of our choice.History they say is replete with examples because it provides a few lessons that sheds lights on how we dealt with similar situations,what outcomes we had,and how they affects our past and the present.
In the present guber race, each candidate represents a distinctive offerings.Hon.Titus Uba who is presently the speaker of the Benue state House of assembly and the guber candidate of the PDP, Rev.Fr.Hyancinth Alia of the APC, and the guber candidate of the Labour party(LP), share some certain similarities because they based on their personal involvements or as members of the failed establishment parties represents today the vestiges of the failures of the past which this election is about consigning them to retirements and Proffessor Bem Angwe of the NNPP whom many sees as an advocate of the new type of politics dispensation which this election seeks to entrench in the state, apro-masses, pan-sociaoist and anti-establishment politician who believed that government should do good to the largest number of citizens hence his pursuit of free education and health care for all.
A symbol of the welfare state or socio-democrats of his party. It is true that our people voted in both the APC and the PDP severally to govern the state since the return of democracy and lived with the consequences of those choices till today because all of those elected into office by these mentioned political parties which we considered the establishment parties in the state did not produce the best results.
Previous elections dispensations in the state of 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 followed the binary options of the state, where we had two dominant candidates and parties of either the APC or the PDP,to choose from and they cannot live in denial that they failed.
However, these options were only binary in the sense of having two different candidates of the failed establishment parties but not in ideology or leadership approach in solving the state’s socio-economic challenges.In these two cases, the options before our people had nothing to do with policy or ideas but about personalities and protecting only the interests of their godfathers.
The next guber elections in the state presents a unique settings-we had today many candidates but two options and fewer ideas and values to choose from.Ordinarily,the assumptions is that as the numbers of options increases,so also will citizens utility from voting also increases but this is not true today in the state.
However we have options of personalities and only one with ideology,value propositions or ideas on how to move the state forward and solve the hydra-headed challenges confronting the state and he is Professor Been Angwe of the NNPP.
The reasons are simple.The candidates of the PDP, APC and the LP today represents the pro-establishment tendencies with no new strings of promises that is enough to inject fresh ideas to build a better Benue state.
Professor Bem Angwe on the other hand represents a different shades ofanti-establishment, pro-masses and social democracy-capable tendencies with a committment to disrupt the existing system.
This is because the other parties candidates are all products of the establishment and beneficiaries of pseudo-capitalist order in the state having served at one time as members of the legislature in the state, member of the HOR under the PDP and the APC, and for Rev.Fr.Hyacinth Alia he was sponsored by the establishment to be the APC candidate so he is a product of the business as usual politics.
Hon.Hembe, the LP candidate is no different as he is portraying himself to be because he is now running under a different platform, portraying how bad the dominant parties are and how they have destroyed the state and in the process portraying himself as a repentant former PDP and APC member who have seen the light and now adopted a Messianic triumphanlism in rescuing Benue state from the claws of the PDP and the APC.
His situation sounds hypocritical even though it resonates with some people who are disgruntled and discontented with the existing orthodoxy. The choices are that they now know that come March,2023, either we vote for an establishment guber candidate to emerge the winner or an anti-establishment candidate as represented by the candidate of the NNPP, Professor Bem Angwe who would have his job cut out to transform and reengineer the state path to developments.We are living in an unprecedented time in our history.
We are facing an economic crisis of a magnitude never seen before: unemployment, non-payment of workers salary for months, mention among different ethnic groups,and insecurity which is alarming.The entire country is watching to see if we will succeed or fall off the cliff.
This unique era of elections makes it imperative on us to rise to the occasion as citizens to deliberate in getting our fellow citizens to understand the importance of our choices come 2023.If we get it wrong this time around,we will come from socio-economic purgatory to socio-economic limbo in a relatively short period of time.
But the message of the NNPP candidate, Professor Bem Angwe seems the most genuine.He seems to have successfully appropriated the masses of Benue state whom are dissatisfied with the candidates of the three other political parties due to past failures and have now taken advantage of the masses anger against a system they feel has stronghold on their necks.
It is time we sincerely examined and interrogate the policies, projects and activities of the candidates and their manifestoes, the character and the personality of each candidate and their professional experience to ensure that the candidates fits the person’s specifications as Governor of Benue state.
It is time that we do not allow the financial gratifications to influence the candidate we choose. The consequences of doing the business as usual are too dire to comtenplate.This juncture is critical and constitutes an elite dilemma.
Benue masses must look for red flags among the candidates and let their knowledge of the candidates guide their vote choice.If a candidate do not have the track records of outstanding performances in previous work or profession, we must expect them to stay same when elected governor.
The broadly unenlightened masses all share the same concerns;mass poverty, ethnicity and hunger Unfortunately, some people seems not to care about the long term outcome of the election process.It is the duty of enlightened and patroitic Benue people to engage continuously so that the ordinary citizens appreciated that there are consequences for whatever choices we make this year.
A critical factor that determines economic growth in a democracy is the competence,capacity and commitments of elected Representatives.The quality of our governors voted into office seems to be degenerating with each circle of election.
In this coming elections we have multiple choices but essentially only one better option for the seat of the governor of Benue state and it is no other than Professor Bem Angwe of the NNPP.This is because he has the knowledge and passion, no godfather except we the people.
He would rather serve the state instead of the vested interests and greed of the corrupt establishment politicians that have stolen the destiny of the state.
He would tackle the poor infrastructures and the many developmental issues from education, healthcare and land administration to agricultural needs of the people of the state.Vote wisely, vote the NNPP candidate.
Simon Obochi
Sec NNPP
Oturkpo LGA