The governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress in Saturday’s Ekiti State governorship election, Wole Oluyede, on Wednesday stated that there is no hope of improvement in the nation’s democracy
The ADC candidate who was reacting too the outcome of the poll, said he has lost hope in the electoral process, even as he expressed regret for joining politics, and said he will never run again.
“I am not going to run again because I think any contest now is for the highest bidder and I won’t waste my time and energy”.
The ADC candidate, who came fourth in the election, said that he deliberately refused to buy votes in Saturday’s election, adding, “I have lost hope in the entire process in the state, it is a tragedy. I didn’t buy votes of Ekiti people deliberately.
“I can’t use my hard-earned resources to run around talking to people on why I should be elected and I will still need to buy people, security agencies and the Independent National Electoral Commission. It appears politics here does not mean the best will emerge,” he said.
Oluyede noted that the election was highly monetised, saying he would not however challenge the outcome in court as according to him, such would amount to time wasting, as he alleged that the entire election process, including the electoral umpire and security agencies were hijacked by vote-buyers, making it easy to induce voters without any hindrance.
He said, “Ekiti people have chosen the leader they want by collecting money to vote and they should not complain of lacking basic and social amenities in the future. The problem Ekiti has now is that the people are poor and that was why they could buy their conscience. That was what All Progressives Congress used in gaining the heart of many people.
“More worrisome is the fact that the people do not want a solution to the problem of poverty. That was why even when we came with an agenda to address the poverty confronting them, they still expected us to buy their votes before we could help them. The winner is not the best, but he is the one the people deserved.”
