Edo 2024: Why Prof Akhaine’s candidacy matters
By Otor Drama
Amidst near standoff with the back and forth of the All Progressives Congress (APC) screening hopla for Edo 2024 governorship election, coupled with the battered image of the party and the untold hardship it has visited on the mass of the Nigerian people, it would be standing a chance for victory if Prof Sylvester Odion Akhaine (SOA) scales the primary election.
Professor Akhaine’s clear-thoughts agenda, people-centred economic blueprint, his broad world views on egalitarianism and seminal manifesto on the totality of ‘Edo of our Dream’ and how it would rebound if voted the Governor of the state are testaments to his absolute commitment to the Edo Project.
Amongst the litanies of contenders and pretenders, it’s far from retelling that it’s only SOA that can spur APC to victory, as well as the singular aspirant prepared enough to bring about the desperately needed encompassing development. Aside being the only person from the academia or interventionist-politician and a professor of politics from the prestigious Lagos State University, Akhaine remains a shining star in the desert of Edo political wilderness.
Those who followed his socio-political trajectory and interface for nearly three decades know that he’s the only aspirant with his intimidating social capital that can instigate and mobilise Edo people across political party lines to resurrect the creative acumen of the Edo spirit. He has a cross- partisan appeal from all sectors of the civil society. He is easily attracted to Labour and PDP members, and the academia. His huge electoral capital lies in his pro-people orientation, former PRO of Nigerian students in the heydays of NANS who championed the academic reform programme, a leader in the pro-democracy movement that fought the military that ushered into the country democracy, the youth are in love with him, and first class intellectual renowned globally. His versatility and fluency in Esan language will humble Asue Ighodalo of PDP. Above all, he has no baggage. Also, he will be the president’s best bulwark in Edo state ahead of 2027.
It’s well noted above that Professor Akhaine is no stranger to political and social mobilization having be in the thick and thin of the June 12 struggle that led to his incarceration by the military junta of General Sani Abacha bin who rule the country the country arbitrarily to the nation’s detriment.
Professor Akhaine’s Governorship is surely needed in Edo so that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu can properly accentuate and establish Lagos state example across the country in the prevailing democratic process, that is , a model in economic prosperity and one of the best 35 developed cities globally. There’s no use the APC leadership burying their heads in the sand like the ostrich in the midst of obvious credibility deficit and image crisis as the nation is being dragged into the slaughter slabs. That is why Professor Sylvester Odion Akhaine matters. That’s why Edo people matter. That is the essence of democracy.
Otor Drama, a public analyst wrote from Benin, Edo State
