AN AWARD WINNING POLITICAL SLOGAN
by Sen Babafemi Ojudu
Alh. Abdulrazak and Sen. Saraki
O TO GE, the battle cry by Kwarans in the last election wins my prize for the best slogan of this election. Whoever came up with it is a genius and should be celebrated. No word captures their aspiration better than this . It’s equivalent in English is Enough is Enough. This does not adequately capture it nuances. Only a Wole Soyinka could provide an adequate translation.
The slogan reverberated across the country like a wild fire in a dry season. It resonated in a manner no one could ignore. Political communicators will for long see it as very effective as Wet e, the slogans Yoruba of South West used in their resistance of Ladoke Akintola during the political crises of the mid 1960s.
A youth displaying a poster with an inscription “O te ge” in Kwara state recently
Did Kwarans lived up to their cry? Ask Sen Bukola Saraki, the one known as Oloye ,who scampered out of Ilorin as soon as results trickled in yesterday. For weeks he was welcomed to Ilorin at the airport with the slogan and pursued all over the towns and villages with it as he campaigned for himself and Atiku to become a Senator and President respectively. It was a humiliating and humbling time for a man who had been the major domo of a political legacy handed over to him by his father.
Yesterday he was chased up to the airport with the shout of Ole! Ole! O To Ge, that is Thief! Thief! Enough is Enough. Certainly not a good way to end a political career. This is what happens when humans play God. It always end in disaster. It shall too for every other politician or ruler with such proclivity.
