A few days to the governorship election in Osun State, political campaigns are becoming increasingly toxic, with key players throwing courtesy into the wind in their utterances and behaviours. Though people often argue that politics is a dirty game, political actors must not drag one another in the mud in the name of playing politics. This is why I found the exchange involving the Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, and the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, over their Osun State counterpart, Ademola Adeleke, ahead of the August 15 governorship election very troubling.
Elections should not necessarily destroy relationships. Political competition is expected, but there should be limits to what political leaders say about one another. It is even more worrisome when the negative rhetoric is coming from governors against a governor like them. Governors are colleagues who occupy the same constitutional position, regardless of their party affiliation. Do they overlook the concept of esprit de corps—the sense of solidarity, camaraderie and mutual respect that should exist among people who occupy similar offices?
The matter with Okpebholo, to me, is the worst of the two. Unprovoked, he fired a salvo at Adeleke, claiming that the governor keeps dancing before signing any document. In a trending video, Okpebholo himself kept dancing, but this time to the gallery, when he said, “Before somebody signs paper, he will dance. Are you not tired? For four years, this man has been dancing. Before he takes breakfast, before he drinks tea, he will dance.” These were the words of a governor about a fellow governor in a video that circulated widely.
