The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and its leaders in Cross River state are understandably bruised and dazzled. They are still grappling with pangs of defeat. No one should begrudge them that right. It is their lot to mourn.
No party suffers the kind of disembowelling it suffered in the March 18, 2023 gubernatorial election in the state and still remains the same.
However, one would have thought that the PDP would, in mourning its eviscration, also saddle itself with deep introspection as to why it was massively rejected by Cross Riverians at the polls rather than hug vortex of misinformation and lies as if they are consolatory prizes for failure.
By resorting to lies to discredit the All Progressives Congress, APC’s landslide victory in the gubernatorial election and the popular mandate the people freely handed Governor-Elect, Prince ( Senator) Bassey Otu, PDP hopes to achieve an effect illustrated by an American author, Robert .A Heinlein in his thought on media propaganda: “You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic” but evidently, this will not work with Cross Riverians.
Cross Riverians recognize the whining PDP leaders, including its gubernatorial candidate, Senator Sandy Onor, as sore losers and the Jaundiced narratives they push out to the press as puriel fantasy scripted to excuse their electoral failure.
Senator Onor and the PDP were roundly given a bloody nose by the APC and its candidate, Senator Otu.
This was despite the fact that what APC faced in the election was not PDP but allied forces, funded and fueled from outside the state.
APC effortlessly trounced them all and this was because the party presented a candidate that enjoys state- wide acceptance plus the message of hope, equity, fairness and justice which sat well with a broad spectrum of Cross Riverians across the 18 local government areas.
The response of the ordinary people on the streets following the declaration of Senator Otu as winner of the election gives filip to this.
That across the state, people can’t stop jubilating over the victory of Prince Otu bears eloquent testimony of his popularity.
No amount of PDP’s fraudulent claims of rigging can change the truth.
PDP in Cross River is a spent force hence it evinces an unspeakable volume of inward bitterness. It must not therefore, be taken seriously.
Obviously, the frenzy of frustration and evaporated hope of returning to power in the state has pushed the party to resort to clutching on an alternate reality, apparently to lighten the burden of its misfortune.
PDP’s current obfuscation is parented by the illusion of relevance but the party must realise that it has since May 20, 2021, when His Excellency, Governor Ben Ayade left it, lost every ounce of relevance.
Much as brutal truth discomforts the PDP, the party must drink from the cup of shame and accept grim reality of its emphatic rejection by Cross Riverians as evidenced by the outcome of the March 18, 2023 governorship election.
No amount of bland press releases and interviews can obliterate this.
Notedly, PDP’s submission on the election was a phantom without substance.
The opposition party’s premise and conclusion on the subject matter were tragically flawed, a clear vain attempt at fawning on the ego of a piper based outside the state.
Since it has elected to approach the court to seek what it believes is redress, one would expect that the PDP will do so quietly without polluting the polity with noise and lies, without being ghoulish and jaded.
The party must desist from beer parlour gossips and fairytales and stop allowing its imagination about the March 18 guber election play it false.
To continue to do so is to further provoke Cross Riverians who have spoken with their votes to visit the PDP with tremor of revulsion.
Chidi Onyemaizu
Senior Special Assistant on Print Media to Governor Ayade
