Nothing speaks more eloquently about the reality of this Nigeria today than the situation of election in Kwara State. Kwara State stands in the middle of the richest and the poorest part of the country. People who are well to do, people who are poor, people who are well educated, people who are poorly educated… the list goes on.
What you can learn from this is that, Kwara State has enough learned minds to enlighten its masses to make informed decisions, while it also has enough poor people to serve as a determinant of what the present day government looks like to the people, what its impacts are and who, in reality, does it favour. Before I proceed, something needs to be clarified here: Bad government, no matter how bad, will favour one some party. History and common sense confirms that, in most cases, the rich elite class are often the beneficiaries because bad government is bad SIMPLY because it does not favour the masses. So, that should serve as our guide in this opinion.
In Kwara, Buhari’s winning is very symbolic. When I say symbolic, I speak not of the mouth watering numbers of his victory or the abysmal inertia of PDP’s loss, but I speak of a kind of balance and unbiased expression of gratitude and frustration, then further distribution of such emotions to the right channels.
Masses who vote for Buhari definitely vote against PDP. And when you consider the fact that, bad government favours the elite at the detriment of the masses, Kwara definitely serves as a standard against which you can test how Buhari has fared as our president.
Ali Faagba writes from Ilorin.