Yagba people must be sensitive to the danger of voting for candidates who do not know them, who have never had any reason to associate with Yagba; nor with Yagba leaders or followers in their political careers. It is the biggest mistake to commit when a people wilfully surrender their votes to candidates they least know, or who barely identify with them on sundry traditional or communal occasions. To put this within a rhetorical context, have these prospective questers for Yagba votes shown up on occasions like “Mopa Day,” “Isanlu Day” or “Egbe Day,” among others?
Have they experienced the decrepit condition of the road network in Yagbaland by way of commuting through the area?
Have they volunteered support, albeit salutary or tokenist to assuage the hardships endured by our people?
In specific terms, can they be counted to have amplified the advocacy for the remidiation and reconstruction of the Kabba-Mopa-Isanlu-Egbe road, the major artery which links all three Yagba local government areas?
As far as these candidates are concerned, Yagba barely exists. And so issues of development in Yagba are secondary in their scale of preference. This mindset is not likely to change anytime soon, not even if Yagba people queue behind them at the polls.
The condescending treatment meted to Yagbaland can be exemplified by the following scenario: Although one of the other brothers held forth from 1999 to 2007, events afterwards are akin to the emasculation of two of three siblings, by one of other brothers. Two other brothers have repeatedly and deliberately been consigned by one sibling, to the position of bystanders, with Yagba most deprived in the equation. This is grossly unfair.
Sadly, unappointed mouthpieces of the oppressors of Yagba people have serially advanced fictitious statistics, singing praises of the oppressor’s political sagacity and invincibility. It is, however, gratifying to note that one of the two disadvantaged brothers from the far- flung extremes of the geopolitical space, now seems to share his apprehensions about the morality and feasibility of the continued suppression and oppression for another epoch. A lot more will, however, depend on whether Yagba elects to take the plunge by smartly rallying behind one of it’s own, or fritter the opportunity. In that case, it is hoped that the extant contending interests amongst Yagba people, will have learned to rise above partisan creed and sentiments to break the frontiers of knowledge of where they are coming from and where they are headed. It is incumbent on them to collectively pursue their eventual emancipation, thereby turning the erstwhile “impossibility into possibility”.
Caveat: Any acrimonious jostle for the senate by multiple Yagba candidates, splitting the votes of Yagba candidates among themselves rather than working as a unit, will be antithetical to the realization of the aspiration for the 2023 senatorial cycle. This will heighten the general assumption that Yagbaland is not ready for a place in the higher national parliament.
Credit: Voice of Kogi West
