by Abdul Ajia

Those who are still searching for answers behind the reason why Mr. Ayodele Fayose triumphed over the more cerebral Dr. Kayode Fayemi should look no further than the market place of emotions. 

When the highly cerebral Adlai Stevenson was running for President of the United States against Dwight Eisenhower, a woman was reported to have told the democratic candidate at a campaign rally, “Every thinking person will be voting for you.” Ironically, Stevenson reportedly replied: “Madam, that is not enough. I need a majority.”

Despite Stevenson’s policy gravitas and intellectual appeal, Dwight Eisenhower won the election convincingly. In recent American history, George W. Bush won re – election in 2004 appealing to the emotions and in some cases fears of the American people. A day after George W. Bush won his re – election, major western newspapers screamed “How Could 60 Million People Be So Stupid?” 60 million is the number of voters that returned Mr. Bush to office.

Those who are still searching for answers behind the reason why Mr. Ayodele Fayose triumphed over the more cerebral Dr. Kayode Fayemi should look no further than the market place of emotions. Reports reaching this writer showed that Mr. Fayose connected emotionally better with the voters than Dr. Fayemi.

The critical mass of the voters that swayed the election are impervious to the substance of what Dr. Fayemi stands for. Fayemi’s drive to reposition Ekiti, his social security initiative and many other landmark achievements pales into insignificance when the voters are confronted with the following questions: Do I like him? Does he represent my values? Is he the kind of guy that I can have a drink with? These are some of the questions that Ekiti voters likely asked themselves as they got ready to cast their ballots. The people of Ekiti in following their gut have returned their verdict, in the gubernatorial contest between Ayodele Fayose and Kayode Fayemi, they preferred the former and now we can understand why the philosopher David Hume posited that reason is a slave to emotion.
 
Emory University Neuroscientist and Clinician Drew Westen in his ground breaking book “ The Political Brain – The Role of Emotion In Deciding The Fate Of The Nation” cautioned rationalist against the dispassionate  vision of the mind that makes decisions by weighing the evidence and reason to make the most valid conclusions. Westen and a team of neuroscientists proved empirically that political partisans in particular do not necessarily pick their candidates based on rationality but most times on gut feeling led by emotion.

This group of scientists discovered that most voters do not base their decisions on its utility value by adding up the costs and benefits of taking a particular decision. The political brain, research has shown; is an emotional brain not an unemotional calculating contraption impartially probing for the right details, statistics, and policies to make a reasoned decision. And in politics, when reason and emotion eventually run into each other, emotion ultimately wins.

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