Edo South 2023: High Performance Versus The Imperative Of Longevity 

Edo South 2023: High Performance Versus The Imperative Of Longevity

In a fast moving world, and with all the changes we see in technology everyday we wake up, a few years difference between two people who live in the same environment could easily translate into light years in approach to solving problems of modern society.

It is recorded that Methuselah lived for 969 years, and then, he died. By contrast, Jesus lived for only 33 years, and he left a legacy of sacrifice, the level of which mankind had never seen before his advent nor will ever see until the human age comes to a crashing end. This is why I have trouble with my friend Ojeikere’s thesis as to why a third term for Senator Matthew Uroghide should be an imperative.

Dr. Martin Luther King once said: Like anybody, I would like to live a long life – longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will.”

There, you go!! Need I say more?

The outgoing Senator, at 66, ought to be focused on grooming the upcoming generation and not striving in a ‘roforofo’ with young aspiring politicians. As an elder Statesman, a position which he has earned rightly, he ought to be at the vanguard of grooming able successors versus hugging office in perpetuity. Any argument made for a third term can also be made for a fourth and fifth and sixth term in office. When will enough be enough?

My friend makes the argument about him becoming a ranking Senator who will therefore be better positioned to bring goodies to Edo State. That argument already begs a question. As Chairman of a Senate Committee which oversees hundreds of agencies, how many lives in Edo South has he impacted? Does Edo South reside only in his family compound? After eight years as Senator, given the positions he has held and currently holds, we should be begging him to continue.

That is however, not the case.

Edo South cannot wait to host a home-coming party for him, and to ask him to take a bow to usher in a new generation that is not limited by analog approach to problem solving.

The Senate is work. Nigeria of 2023 is not Nigeria of 2015, when we still enjoyed relative peace. With the attendant problem of bandits, fused with Boko Haram and ISWAP, a new approach, the brilliance and sagacity and vision of youth is required. Besides, as it is already clear from my foregoing argument that the outgoing Senator’s record leaves little to rejoice about, let us now examine the record of his main challenger in the PDP.

When I began to interrogate the achievements of Ogbeide-Ihama, I was amazed at the breadth of his intervention in the things that matter to the good people of Edo South. For a man who sits in the House of Representatives, his achievements span so many areas, you would think he held the office of governor. Ogbeide-Ihama has rebuilt dozens of Primary Schools; provided school supplies for dozens of schools; built boreholes across all the Wards in his district; provided training and empowerment for women and the youth; provided double decker buses for free transportation for constituents; built healthcare facilities for constituents; provided transformers for communities and groomed successors in the political and economic space of Edo South. To cap it all, he also established the Ogbeide-Ihama Foundation. This is with a view to continuing with good works in or out of office. With all of these accomplishments under his belt, we are left in no doubt that here is a man who has shown what a political career ought to look like, and therefore, a man worthy of higher office.

Michael Ovienmhada.
Author, Poet and Playwright, and Public Affairs Commentator.
omeekey@hotmail.com