Teryila Ibn Apine
The 2015 elections have come and become history now.
Nigerians are happy that for the first time in contemporary history their votes counted.
One expects every politician, political party and public affairs analyst to analyze the elections frankly.
Supporters of candidates should in the same vein ruminate over the successes or other wise of the elections/ candidates.
In my considered opinion, Hon Tarzoor was one of the best and hottest candidates that participated in this elections.
Tarzoor had a vibrant and well articulated blue print known as Towards A Greater- Benue, nick named TAG-B. In the blue print he identified cardinal areas that needed urgent attention.
Tarzoors campaign was constructive and issue based. His message of hope and a greater Benue was clear and thought provoking.
Why then will Tarzoor lose the elections?
One of the first and major reason adduced is the issue of non payment, payment of half salaries by the PDP led administration in the state. More annoying was the fact that the Government chosed to pay this half salaries days before the election day. The people, predominantly civil servants viewed this act of Government as vexatious. Their own way of showing displeasure over this was to roundly vote against any PDP candidate no matter how credible the person was.
Most voters would not vote for Tarzoor because they felt suswam brought him to cover his deals and continue the policy of non payment of salaries.
Worthy of mention is the victory of Gen Buhari at the presidential polls. With Buhari's victory the issue of remaining in mainstream politics cropped up. There was also a psychological defeat on supporters of the PDP.
With the sanity in the electoral process voters saw a good opportunity to vote for the government at the central.
Again, since 2007, people got fed up with the nomenclature PDP. PDP was associated with non performance. Our people yearned for a change, even if it was just a change of the acronym.
Our people saw opposition controlled states working. They admired the dividends of democracy enjoyed by people in other states.
The Benue people particularly the Tiv people always vote for political parties, not minding who was contesting the election. Most people voted for the APC this time even without knowing the name of the contestant.
After the Primaries, the PDP failed to settle the other contestants who had either stepped down or been defeated. These people had misgivings with the party but remained quite and waited for an opportunity to express this bitterness. The elections provided a good opportunity for them. It is alleged that most of them worked against the party.
Similarly the government used and abandoned several party stalwarts. Most of them had no stake in their constituencies any longer. A lot of them had no government patronage to oil the wheel of the party. This made it difficult for them to have a hold on the youth. Even when the patronage by way of money came, the stalwarts who had been deprived of this for so long saw it as an opportunity to ' chop their share'.
The PDP must have been carried away by the power of incumbency.
So with the sudden return of sovereignty to the people. The power of incumbency was rendered useless.
The campaign organization especially the media group underestimated some propaganda embarked upon by the opposition. Issues like Tarzoor wearing ear rings, re-touching his hair or the lie that Tarzoor was into cultism. Our born again voters would simply not vote for him. The Media organization did not make concerted and sustained efforts to disabuse the minds of this group of voters.
Tarzoor was on a hot seat; to be careful with Suswam or to be careful with the Benue people. He was placed between decrying the non payment or half salaries or stand with the Government. This was difficult.
Infact , as far as the 2015 elections were concerned, a candidate just needed to say he was sponsored or had the blessings of suswam to lose the election or to condemn him to win his/her elections.
Tarzoor lost the election for no fault of his.
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