It’s hidden there in plain sight, even if it hasn’t happened in recent history that the people will not pick the next governor of ONDO state and I Mean by their self will but sentiment and gladiations among the power brokers will.
I vividly remember sometime in 2012 at the Adegbemile cultural center during the governorship debate and Mimiko, Akeredolu and Oke stood shoulder to shoulder to discuss who knows Ondo state better and who has a plan for her. Of course then, Mimiko stood out while Oke followed and obviously Aketi goofed. He had little or no knowledge of the state he aspired to govern. He still obviously do not know as he leads the state to obvious bleeding.
Perhaps for a noble mind, one is tempted to say that Akeredolu is the finest of all governors the state has ever had been a well “learned” silk except when one remembers that nothing had seemingly changed about Akeredolu except for the odds that has become higher for him than at his previous outing. He has a record now by which the people can judge him.
With the politics playing out and until the recent developments as exemplified by the results of election in the state in the just concluded elections, one could easily go to sleep and award victory ahead to the APC irrespective of the division in the party in the state.
According to Covey, third alternative thinking and choice involves applying four paradigms: “I See Myself”, “I See You”, “I Seek You Out”, and “I Synergize With You”.
The first step or paradigm is about coming to know oneself which the last election opened eyes to see, that power lies in the people’s thumb if they are so allowed to use it justly or who would have thought Akeredolu will need alignments and force to have majority in the house of Assembly election?
It is about stepping outside of the known to seek more friends which he is doing and seeking out common foes to fight a common front.
Until we proclaimed our doctrine, in front of us, capitalist individualism and communist collectivism rose triumphal, the shadow of their imperial wings extending in every path open to mankind…
This way, Justicialism was born, under the supreme aspiration of a high ideal. The Justicialism, created by us and for our descendants, as a third ideological position aimed to liberate us from capitalism without making us fall into the oppressing claws of collectivism. That’s where the third option lies.
The Third Position, Third Way or Third Alternative is a political position that emphasizes opposition to both communism and capitalism. Advocates of Third Position politics typically present themselves as “beyond left and right”, while syncretizing. That’s what may play out and may be to the advantage of anyone who may come out under any party with the full support of the people since as much unloved as Akeredolu seems, the people seeks an alternative if any would be.
In Prof Chinua Achebe’s classic, ‘Things Fall Apart’, he said that “a man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to redeem them from starving. They all have food in their own houses. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground, it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so” in a bid to enjoy the power of togetherness. He then concluded: “Let us smile not because we don’t have problems, but because we are stronger than the problems.”
If the problem of the people of ONDO state will be that of choice, and what’s playing out in alignment and reaalignments are anything to go by, a protest vote against Akeredolu might just be the needed sympathy that the third alternative needs to emerge as the next occupant of the Alagbaka high ivory.
May the people be well governed.
Ayo Ologun is a broadcast journalist, a social commentator and he writes from Osogbo.
