Renowned poet and former private secretary to the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Odia Ofeimun, has reiterated his intention to contest in the Edo State governorship election in 2016.
Ofeimun, in a telephone interview with punch correspondent on Monday, said he had not gone back on his decision to run for the position.
Asked if he would be contesting on the platform of one of the registered political parties in the country, he replied, “When we get to that bridge, we will cross it. This is just to let you know that I am interested in the governorship race in Edo State. I haven’t said anything about running under a party. The point is that I am going to run.”
The writer, who is also a former President of the Association of Nigerian Authors, first hinted that he might contest in the forthcoming election in an article published in the The News magazine last month.
In the article, he had declared that his goal was to realise a collective sense of achievement for his people in Edo State.
He had said, “I am determined to prove that within the particularity of one nationality, Edo, and the fold of a multinational state, Nigeria, it is possible to achieve high feats of modernity, cultural civility and technological proficiency comparable to that of any other country in the world. And, this, within 40 months. Not two terms of office.
“My strategy is to bring together the best minds that Nigeria, at home and in the Diaspora, can muster. I believe that this must begin with the complete elimination of illiteracy across all age grades. Put every child at school and nudge and humour and cajole every citizen under 60 years of age, and above if they so wish, to go to school. Provide for everyone who does not have it, whether native or not, with the equivalent of a school certificate which the Nigerian Constitution, since 1979, has declared the minima for full citizenship.”
A persistent critic of the Nigerian system, Ofeimun has been friends with many members of the political class often described as the progressives. For instance, he is close to the likes of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and the man he hopes to succeed in Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. Whether or not this relationship will help his ambition is the question as it is not yet clear if he has started discussing with the APC leadership.
Incidentally, the ruling political party’s Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun is also from Edo State.
Although some Nigerian writers have been lawmakers, ministers deputy governors or commissioners, this is about the first time that a Nigerian writer has declared his ambition to contest in a governorship election in any part of the country.
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