02/08/2022
WHY WE SHOULD IGNORE MISCHIEF MAKERS AND FOCUS ON ISSUES AND SOLUTIONS
Last week, I received a mischievous message that had gone viral on WhatsApp, regarding my political aspiration to become Executive Governor of Benue State in 2023. The message alleged that my father, Sen. Jack Tilley-Gyado, a stakeholder in the All Progressives Congress (APC), had planted me in the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as a decoy for the downfall of his own party, the APC. This is an absurd and absolute fallacy.
It is very unfortunate that there are so many regressive elements littering Benue State’s political landscape, and while we should be objectively and collectively charting our way out of the security and economic quagmire we are in, so much focus and energy are still being given to propaganda, fake news and insults.
From my experience in the 2019 political process in which I contested for the Jechira House of Representatives seat, I was unpleasantly surprised to find competence sacrificed at the altar of imposition and personal interests. On the morning of the primaries, after over a year of campaigning, several aspirants were suddenly stepped down by the party under the guise of a zoning arrangement that had not been communicated or agreed hitherto. Needless to say that the party went on to lose that seat in the general elections.
My experience in the current electoral cycle has not been much different, and again the adverse results are evident in the rancour that has ensued from primary elections in the mainstream political parties, at all levels.
In previous eras, we were deceived into thinking that Nigeria can only be a two-party state, and as a result majority of people blindly coalesced around two predominant prevailing platforms at a time. However, the polity has evolved and the choice of alternative platforms is broadening.
My participation in politics is born out of a deep yearning to see change in the fruit of our politics as a people. Whereas Benue and Niger
