That an off-season governorship election would take place by 2020 in Ondo State is no longer news and that the voting public is seriously looking-up to the PDP to rescue them from the APC mal-administration in the State is equally not in doubt.

From farmsteads to markets, from transporters to commuters, in churches and in mosques, in offices and on the streets, the preponderant suasion is that the present government should go, a government which has as its hallmark: a divisive and egocentric headship with demonstrable shallow understanding of the challenges of the people and an incoherent approach in addressing the problems.

As it stands with the people of Ondo State today, the governorship seat come 2020 is for the PDP to either take or give away. Judging from the trend of elections so far conducted under the present central government and INEC, the Ondo electorates are determined not to be caught napping this time. Starting from an open, free, fair and transparent primary, the people are asking the PDP for a candidate they can support with their will and votes.

Someone who has been there with and for the people, one whose mien shows sufficient serenity of mind to untangle issues and proffer lasting solutions, a detribalized leader that will unite the State under a common purpose, a candidate not lacking in empathy but one that will enunciate and implement policies that will bring succor to the people, someone whose popularity cuts across the North, the South and the Central senatorial districts, someone loved by the people, an individual whose antecedents speak of his ability, capacity and will to get the job done.

Like every gubernatorial election since 1999, the voters in Ondo State will be the ultimate judge in deciding who becomes the State Chief Executive come 2020. Out of the five gubernatorial contests held since the nation's return to civil rule in 1999, individuals who believed they possess the requisite mental and managerial ability with self-confidence have always put themselves forward to lead, and of the five contests, providence had so done it that a candidate of Southern Senatorial extraction was always on the ballot.

That the PDP in Ondo State had stayed true to its name in allowing the democratic wishes of her members prevail in the emergence of candidates from the Southern Senatorial district four out of the five times the Party had been on the ballot is a feat that must be commended and not vilified. Media threats not in congruence with the realities on ground, attempting to blackmail other Senatorial Districts to drop out of the race for the South appears a sponsored agenda from outside the Party, to sow division among the PDP rank and file, thereby weakening its capacity to reclaim the Alagbaka seat of government.

As the PDP rallies its members across the nooks and crannies of Ondo State for the task ahead, it is the patriotic duty of every member of the Party and the interest of the suffering people of Ondo State, for the Party to eschew any form of sentiment that can deprive the people of the much needed alternative they look up to the PDP to provide. The personal strengths and inadequacies of aspirants not withstanding, the democratic space allows for the home acceptability test in an open, transparent, free and fair primary.

Exploiting primordial cleavages in the quest to serve, thereby accentuating divisiveness in a fold is an ominous sign for a self-seeking service and a tell-tale pointer to a bigger disaster in the making. Just as any candidate from the Southern Senatorial zone will require the undiluted and absolute support of stakeholders and voters from the Northern and Central Senatorial Zones to clinch the ultimate prize, the same way, any candidate from either the Northern or Central Senatorial zones will require the support of the Southern Senatorial stakeholders and voters.

As it is in every progressive clime where citizens have felt and seen good governance with unprecedented social lifting and economic transformation at work, the electorates with so much openness of heart and with an understanding of their age-long challenges that required new thinking and approaches to surmount, deliberately embraced a paradigm that weaned them off their deep-seated primordial proclivities that were antithetical to development.

This is no time to grandstand but a time to build a groundswell of support around the aspiration of the party to retake the Alagbaka seat of government, let whoever is confident of himself/herself and in his/her ability to deliver the goods to the admiration of the people and the credit of the PDP step forward boldly and present himself/herself to the delegates.

Well articulated. Eyitayo Jegede is up to the tasl

Zoning to any people is a rape of their rights. Ondo must say NO to this political aberration and shenanigans to birth new dreams that will culminate in good governance.

Eyitayo Jegede is such a great force to reckon with as Ondo State politics and PDP is concerned, I could see victory in next year for this man and his entire team. Ondo State must be recued from the grip of these clueless people come 2020.

Like Eyitayo like GNI

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helinues:
Like Eyitayo like GNI

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