They are ubiquitous. Yes, give it to them. And in an apparent show of strength and superiority, they filed out en-masse, last Thursday, to announce to Nigerians and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, that change was imminent.

By Levinus Nwabughiogu

Venue was Samuel Ogbumudia Stadium, Benin-City and the event was the presidential campaign rally of the All Progressives Congress, APC, that sprawled to Edo state. Ordinarily, nothing would have made the rally flashy as the mammoth crowd, which defined it, has become a phenomenon since the political campaigns came on stream almost a month ago. Yet the Benin event was different. Why? Obviously, the crowd there was not a rented one. It was a willful act by a people who have natural inclination for change.

This was observed by the writer who walked the streets of Benin in the early hours of Thursday. The event, billed to commence by 11 am, started gathering momentum as early as 7am and, amid the traffic jam that characterised the morning period, people surged on towards the stadium such that the popular Ekenwan Road almost became impassable.

The sun was scorching. But the people defied it and emptied themselves  into the stadium. On their lips came the words “sai Buhari”. This, alone, could stamp an appreciable impression that PDP was either dead or not on the ground in the state.

Edo is an APC state. But it used to be PDP. Adams Oshiomhole, a former leader of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, and an APC chieftain, became governor in 2008 after a long post-election legal voyage that kicked PDP’s Oserhimen Osunbor out  of office. Since then, superior argument has continued to place the legacies of Oshiomhole in the lead to the admiration of the residents of the state. And so, Thursday was the day to “flex” their muscles.

This, perhaps, informed the cheers that greeted the governor when he was called up to the podium to make his speech.

Dignitaries

Like every other rally of the APC, the dignitaries that graced the occasion towered. Amongst them were APC presidential candidate, General Mohammadu Buhari; vice presidential candidate of the party, Professor Yemi Osinbajo; National Chairman of the party, Chief John Oyegun; National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu; a former governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi; deputy governor of Edo State, Dr. Pius Odubu; a former Minister of State for Works, Engr. Chris Ogienwonyi; and APC candidates in the state. Those earmarked for speeches were handy and, in their separate presentations, urged the people to reject the PDP and embrace APC both at the state and of course, the national levels. To them, PDP has underdeveloped the country while 16 years of its rule has been a waste. The nation has not had it so rough: infrastructural decay, high rate of unemployment, poor education, corruption, drastic drop in electricity generation are all the outcomes of the PDP government, they reasoned.

But, according to them, here comes the morning. They begged the people for their votes. Below were the presentations.

Ameachi was the first to speak. He came hard on the PDP. He submitted that the PDP government has failed the South-south as, according to him, was admitted by President Goodluck Jonathan during his campaign rally in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.

“The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from the South-south admitted that he has done nothing  for the South-south. So, do we trust him to do anything? I have told you before that any development you see in the South-south was done by the Hausa/ Fulani. Our President has spent six years but was unable to do anything”, the Rivers governor said.

“Our President, who is our son has failed for six years and has done nothing. All he has done was to enrich himself and others and our responsibility is to get a good President who will do good for us and for Nigeria. “He said ‘I have done nothing and if you vote for me I will do something’ while in my campaign in Rivers State, I said I have done this and that. I never said I will do if you vote for me. Is that not the right thing? Anywhere he goes after six years, he would say ‘I will do if you vote for me’ instead of saying “I have done.” So we will vote out I-will-do-President. If we said we would do something, we stand by that.

“Any government that is campaigning on failed promises will be voted out because as the government is seeking for a second term, you must show us what you did before. You cannot continue to lead on promises.”

Jonathan is not our brother—Oshiomhole

Oshiomhole spoke so passionately about the development of his state. According to him, the era of godfatherism is gone.

His words: “We are so excited that you are here to speak directly to your people the message of change and Edo is an example of the story of Nigeria. Six years ago, after ten years of PDP misrule, this state was like an abandoned misused vehicle: No tyre, no tube, no engine . Our people were told that the state is a civil service state, that, we are not a major oil producing state and that it is not anybody’s fault.

“The godfathers ensured that the winners were declared losers both at primary and the main elections. Our people told me only one man was in charge. And, indeed, he was in charge. I brought a message of hope along with a few of my colleagues who were convinced that anything that is evil in the eyes of God and in the eyes of decent men and women cannot stand for ever. But it can stand only to the extent that people give up hope. And I said, from my trade union training, the oppressor is in trouble when the oppressed get organized and stop agonizing; the oppressor will go. I told them the vote could count and that we could liquidate the godfathers and banish them from the land. And they said I was not a politician, that they will teach me a lesson today, we are their lecturers. They failed the test of one man, one vote. And once we liquidated their rigging machine, they now behaved like over cooked vegetable. They have lost their voice and, as we speak, they live on political oxygen provided by forces outside this state. “The way Edo has changed, that is how Nigeria will change when General Muhammadu becomes the President of the Federal Republic. This afternoon, I speak only to two or three issues.

“The first issue. There is something different about this year’s election. It is not a choice really between parties. It is a choice between those who can do it and those who have shown that they can’t do it. 16 years ago when PDP captured power in Abuja, I was the President of the NLC and I speak with authority that the level of power supply was about 50% out and 50% in. We were told that were generating 4,000 megawatts of electricity. The promise was that in six months, PDP will fix it. But they thought tomorrow was far. It is 16 years now. As at this morning, power generation has dropped to about 2,600 megawatts. But even this one is only for statisticians.

“For the great people of the great Benin Kingdom, there is no light. The people of this state are being compelled to pay for light that is not delivered. They call it fixed charge which is paid with fixed darkness. They auctioned national assets including investments made by Edo State government in power supply in the procurement of transformers for extension of electricity to the rural communities. They insist they must extort money from the people. Even the palace of the Benin Kingdom is running on generator. You are paying bills for darkness. For 16 years in this  state, the only thing we have after we have harassed them is that they started surface dressing the Benin highway, the road that was constructed by military government. No new road.

“In this state, there were no schools. Our children were being taught in classrooms without roof. Today we have built schools. We have restored light to Benin. We have built six lanes across the city. We have death decisively with the problem of flooding and erosion in this city.

“We asked the PDP to provide money to support our effort to deal with flood and erosion. They refused. The President gave money to neighboring states under the PDP. But they didn’t give us. But we voted for him the last time but we now know that those votes have not been rewarded.

This President has not treated us as his brothers. So, now, we will vote for change. We will vote to replace darkness. We will vote for a man who will not allow our children to be defrauded by the Ministry of Internal Affairs where our youths were asked to pay money contrary to labour law that prohibits collecting money from people in the name of employment.

“The issues you will decide on February 14 are straight forward. Do you want to vote for a party that has run down our refineries in Warri? Will you vote for a party that has failed to revive the Port Harcourt refinery? Will you vote for a party that could not revive the Kaduna refinery?. This is where the statement by Governor Ameachi comes in. The gap between promise and delivery. They promised 16 years ago to revive the refineries. NNPC said they will fix them in six months. They have given them billions of dollars to fix the refineries and it was all pocketed.”

Replace darkness with light—Tinubu

Tinubu asked Nigerians to embark on common sense revolution. His words: “General Muhammadu Buhari and Professor Yemi Osinbajo are men of great commitment and responsibility. In the last six years when Comrade Adams Oshiomhole came here, have you not seen change? Have you not seen critical and radical development? Are you not seeing change in the schools? Are you not seeing change in the infrastructure? General Muhammadu Buhari and Professor Osinbajo have been endorsed by Adams Oshiomhole. Will you follow him or not? It is about time you replace darkness with light. The only way is for you to embark on common sense revolution.”

Time for change has come—Oyegun

Oyegun told the rally the time for change has come: He said: “What would you do to the government that has not provided jobs? What do you do to the government that has failed to secure your lives? The time for change has come and my good people of Edo, I want to thank you for coming out in such numbers to welcome the agents of change, to welcome the face of change, to welcome the captain of the boat of change, to welcome that man of courage, to welcome that man of consistency.

We will end insecurity, create employment, give qualitative education—Buhari

Buhari highlighted his programmes for Nigeria to the crowd. He stated: “You have suffered physically and materially more than all of us standing here as a result of 16years of PDP misrule which every household is suffering from today. So, APC’s intentions, which have been very well articulated in its manifesto and which will be modified from time to time, are to tackle the three fundamental problems we have that we recognized throughout.

“The first one is insecurity. There is nothing that we can do without security. So, our priority, firstly, is to secure the country. Second is unemployment. The youth of this country are more than 60 percent of the population and whether they are in school or not, they are not employed. This is extremely dangerous for the country.

“There is also the problem of corruption which is responsible for so much wastage of the resources which can be properly utilized especially for education. There is nothing you can give people better than qualitative education.

“APC government, by the will of God and Nigerians, from the 30th of May this year, we will make sure we remove insecurity from the North-east to Badagry, from Sokoto to Cross River and from Daura to Port-Harcourt. We are going to remove insecurity.

“About jobs, the quickest way we can give jobs, whether there is education or not, is to make sure we empower farmers by giving fertilizer and other inputs. The third thing to do which is very important is to try and get the financial houses to give soft loans to traders and small manufacturers so that they can fortify their businesses  and employ more people  to produce goods and services.

“Lastly, we we will try and solve the problems that are disturbing you, especially erosion. The resources required to control erosion in Edo alone are enormous not to talk of the south eastern states. The APC government will do that.

This is an undertaking. “We are going to make sure we rehabilitate infrastructures. When PDP came into power, NEPA was producing more than 4,000 megawatts. Today, after PDP government has expended 20 billion US dollars, we are producing less than that. So, before they kill Nigeria and kill us, we better vote out the PDP. “We urge you to hold your permanent voter cards on election day, come out and enmasse and make sure PDP is constitutionally killed in Nigeria.”

Last line

Though most people especially ardent supporters of the PDP will submit that crowds do not automatically translate into votes, many are also ready to say that the sea of heads in Edo cannot be wished away. For the PDP to win Edo, they will need to do more than just  a day’s work to recapture the minds of the people. But for now, Edo is APC and APC is Edo.