Why we may be wrong in our ‘position’ on Ogbadibo chairmanship saga

Owukpa will remain in the eye of the storm as events regarding the Local Govt chairmanship zoned to the district, continue to unfold.

Pardon me for thinking aloud once more on this matter. I was just thinking we can think this together, and maybe reassess our positions on this matter.

If we don’t ‘check and crosscheck’ to know where things have gone wrong or about to go wrong, we will miss and mess up everything.

But it’s not late yet. There is still time to re-examine ourselves and our various roles in this matter.

I will talk about my position and I’m not going to play politics with it. I will just say it exactly my way. It’s certain, your position may not exactly align with mine, but what is paramount is that we both have the interest of our LG as well as our local community at heart.

My position like many others’ is simple – We are of the view that the current position be zoned to one of the wards in Itabono. It could be 1 or 2, but the fact remains that the particular ward falls in the Itabono clan.But we may be wrong for holding this position. It may have been erroneously held, and these are my reasons:

1. The current caretaker Chairman has now appealed for a ‘loan.’ If we are adamant, and can’t loan the position, we need to present our reasons very clearly via the right channels, and tell him that political positions are not commodities, therefore can’t be loaned to people. If we have not made this explanation yet, then our position is questionable.

2. We may be wrong because we have failed in our own capacity to remind those agitating for this ‘loan’ that the last Chairman from the district was actually from a particular ward.

3. We may be wrong because he who pays the piper, calls the tune. We may have ignored local politics for long, and people now believe is their birthright. They believe we are asking the wrong question because it’s their jurisdiction, not ours.

4. Our agitation remains irrelevant so long as some people believe they campaigned for His Excellency, Gov. Samuel Ortom. They were instrumental to the votes he got, and not individual families who participated in the actual voting.

5. We may be wrong cause an individual’s compensation is far more important than the compensation for all.

6. We may be wrong because we will never be subjected to intimidation and blackmail as has been the case in grassroots politics.

7. We may be wrong because we have refused to swap our future and that of the unborn generation for 40k stipends.

8. We may be wrong because some selfish stakeholders have taken a stance and are bent on trading our Local Council.

9. We may be wrong to have asserted that zoning is a special arrangement that creates peace, harmony and oneness in every social strata.

10. We are ultimately wrong because our advocacy voices are not backed by huge financial resources as our people place much value on what you can give now than what you can do later. We may be wrong after all. At the end, we may not win this battle, but we may have made strong, yet wrong points.

My name is Ali Adoyi. I’m an advocate of peace and equality. I believe in effective dialogue, something ODA must do now!