Partisanship is ; prejudice in favor of a particular cause; bias.: "an act of blatant political partisanship", bias, prejudice,one-sidedness, discrimination, favor, favoritism, partiality, sectarianism, factionalism. It commonly finds expression in politics, religion, nationalism or ethnonationalism. For the purpose of the case I'm making I shall restrict myself to political partisanship and ethnonationalism. Ethnonationalism is defined as; “a form of nationalism wherein the "nation" is defined in terms of ethnicity or race. The central theme of ethnic nationalists is that "nations are defined by a shared heritage, which usually includes a common language, a common faith, and a common ethnic ancestry". It is that nationalism which proceed on the basis of enlightened interest of a particular ethnic group (Uromi in particular and Esan in general) and at the detriment of other ethno nationalistic groups in competition with it.
Uromi Voice is set up to further the ethno nationalistic interest of Uromi in particular and Esan in general. It was conceived as a pro development, pro good governance , and post partisan platform to bring friends and people of Uromi in the far reaches of the earth together in one place for the purpose of Uromi development. It is serving this purpose very well. It was able to jump start reconstructive efforts at the Uromi Central Hospital. The platform was used to raised money for a deserving Uromi son. It is being used right now to get the Esan Northern Waterworks restarted. It was used to do a town hall like questioning of some of the candidates aspiring to represent us at the Edo State House of Assembly in the upcoming elections. It is being used to imbue in all of us a sense of patriotism, first to Uromi, then Esan, then Edo state and Nigeria at large.
Uromi voice gives us the unique platform to interact directly with policies makers for Uromi directly. We have the great Joe Okojie here. We have the honourable Minister of Works or his aides here. We have the chairman of the Local government Hon. Sam Oboh here. We have aides of Chief Tony Anenih here. We have aides of the Edo State Government, Adams Oshiomhole here. We have aides of Senator Odion Ugbesia and Hon. Friday Itulah here. To my knowledge and information, it is being scoured by policy formulators of Uromi heritage to gauge the pulse of the electorates toward their policies. It is an instant opinion poll for how we feel about things done in Uromi. We must take our task very seriously and conduct ourselves very respectfully if we must achieve our aim.
However there is a strand in Uromi Voice which I find most disconcertingly jarring. It is our knee jerk recourse to political partisanship in discussing matters of development in Uromi. Everything is reduced and seen through the crucible of the APC or the PDP or to which political affiliations we may espouse. In doing this we have forgotten why we chose this forum in the first place and why it appeared so invitingly to us. The result of this rancour is aptly captured in the first stanza of the poem ‘The Second Coming’ by William Butler Yeats. It goes like this:
“ Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
And the third stanza of the famous poem of John Pepper Clark titled ‘The Casualties’ set in the Nigerian Civil war. It goes like this:
“The drums overwhelm the guns…
Caught in the clash of counter claims and charges
When not in the niche others left,
We fall.
All casualties of the war.
Because we cannot hear each other speak.
Because eyes has refused to see the face from the crowd.
Because whether we know or
Do not the extent of wrongs on all sides,
We are characters now other than before
The war began, the stay-at-home unsettled”
Caught in the clash of counter claims and charges
When not in the niche others left,
We fall.
All casualties of the war.
Because we cannot hear each other speak.
Because eyes has refused to see the face from the crowd.
Because whether we know or
Do not the extent of wrongs on all sides,
We are characters now other than before
The war began, the stay-at-home unsettled”
The import of the above, is that we either eschew emotional political partisanship when we discuss issues of Uromi development issues or we fall apart. Or we may find ourselves beating the drums of war louder than the actors in the field until we destroy the brotherhood and sisterhood that is Uromi and Uromi voice. We shouldn't fret about persons. We should care about the projects ; their cost, the impact to the environment, the benefit to Uromi, how we could pressure the policy makers to slow or expedite actions on them, how we can become a political think tank for policies, etc. We either do this or we fall.
We have the legitimacy to do this. Just consider the enormity of the following for a second. Uromi Voice approximates the number of people said to have participated in the elections in which Sam Oboh was elected. It has a membership base at the time of writing of 15,157. In that election, the Chairman of Edo State Independent Electoral Commission, EDSIEC, Mr. Solomon Ogoh declared that 15,986 voted. Sam Oboh was declared to have netted 12, 672 votes while, Mr. John Yakubu, was said to have gotten 3,314 votes. The difference between the membership of Uromi Voice and the number of people that participated in the election that put these putative policy makers in Uromi in power is 800! If viewed this way, Uromi Voice should be a potent voice and pressure group for Uromi. If only we let go of political partisanship when a post is made that touches on the development of Uromi. If only we discuss dispassionately and cerebrally without any visceral recourse to our default comfort zone. If only we treat them as Uromi issue and not as political point scoring by the originators of the posts.
It will be difficult to achieve. But it is the only way to oil our war machine. When put in proper perspective, we arrive at the irreducible conclusion, that, a); both parties (APC or PDP) take Uromi development as given and, b); the contention is always on which vehicle (APC or PDP) would take us faster to our desired destination; the Uromi of our collective dream. We therefore get stuck in process rather than the objective for which the process was designed to achieved. We must therefore deploy all the cerebral arsenal that we have to ensure that this sleeping giant, this Uromi Voice, could rise to meet its expectation. This is my post for a post partisan discussion of development issues affecting Uromi. Anyone is free to counter it. Thanks.
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