APC’s poor struggle to discredit Asue Ighodalo
By John Mayaki
The primary task of a serious campaign team in any election is to craft a winning message. This message should ideally highlight the candidate’s strongest attribute and expose the most damaging weakness of their strongest rival. The APC in Edo has failed miserably in this task, and this failure can be attributed to two key factors.
Firstly, the quality of individuals running the party’s campaign is embarrassingly poor. Instead of utilizing experienced professionals within its ranks, the party has entrusted its communications to loud-mouthed ragamuffins who rely on generating illegible text chunks from ChatGPT and disseminating them on WhatsApp. This is all they know about ‘strategy’ and the only trick they can pull from the hat.
The second factor is the quality of the candidates themselves. Okpebholo lacks any redeeming qualities, while Asue Ighodalo of the PDP has met all the key criteria. Hence, the APC, with its team of amateur propagandists, has stumbled from one attack line to another, unable to make any stick.
Three weeks ago, the rallying call was ‘ofonee’, a slogan apparently borrowed from Philip Shaibu, whose treachery has left him internally displaced. However, the APC undermined the credibility of their own message by later urging voters not to consider Asue at the polls, effectively undoing their previous narrative.
If the party truly believed Asue was disqualified, logic dictates they should have shifted attention to Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party, the only other notable contender. Instead, the APC remains obsessed with a man they once celebrated for being purportedly ousted from the race.
Aside from the “ofonee” slogan, which they themselves exposed as empty noise, the APC has also attempted the “homeboy” narrative. This argument posits that despite Asue Ighodalo’s vast education, immense knowledge, and success, Edo people should reject him because he built his career and proved himself outside the state. Instead, they should settle for the “homeboys,” with Okpebholo and Shaibu as the embodiment of this archetype. By doing so, the APC essentially equates being a “homeboy” with being illiterate, pedestrian, unrefined, and lacking achievements.
This insult was clear to Edo citizens, particularly young men and women making the state proud in cities across Nigeria and in the diaspora. The attempt to delegitimize their citizenship and sense of belonging has only strengthened their support for Ighodalo and the PDP. If anything, they are determined to redefine what it means to be a true “homeboy” and retire the old-school politics that presents only the worst for leadership, solely because they are easily manipulated by the whispering elder in Iyamho and the Ugbor Pastor.
Asue Ighodalo’s surging popularity in the diaspora has unsettled the APC, particularly since their illiterate flagbearer cannot inspire similar support. In response, the APC shifted the focus to the size of rally crowds at home. However, this tactic was short-lived, as videos emerged showing the Edo APC continuing its practice of paying and transporting people from neighboring states to attend their rallies.
In contrast, people attend Ighodalo’s events to listen to his ideas for improving their lives, while Okpebholo’s rallies are merely entertainment, with attendees motivated by the promise of cash giveaways. On election day, it is glaring that the real Edo voters will vote for the man with a plan, not the illiterate comedian who wants to give them natural resources to store at home.
Asue Ighodalo is clear. His unblemished record is his most potent weapon. The APC is confused and cannot settle on a message.
