Issues as Edo Goes to Poll
– Steve Ovirih.
Is there vacancy in Edo Government House? Can Edo Peoples Democratic party (PDP) pull a surprise and keep All Progressives Congress (APC) locked down so much that it will remain in opposition in that old Mid Western State for another four years? As threatened, will APC uproot PDP’s tentacles in The Big Heart? Questions and more questions all struggling for answers in Edo State. Interestingly, in less than 20 days from now the jig saw puzzles would have been fitted firm and appropriately solved.
It is quite christal clear that the Edo Guber poll is a proxy war between two enstranged personalities: a godfather and godson. To a large extent, an oedipal intuition of a son desiring the exalted platform of a father figure could set up a chain reaction that almost always causes permanent rifts between father and son. The narrative of David and Absalom readily jumps to mind: no father loves a child whose daredevilry ambition is to dislodge the father and calls the shots in his stead; yet it is the natural ambition of every child destined for greatness to dream lofty dreams, if possible, strive to be greater than the father.
In Edo State, a mutual love feast had turned sour and the merry makers are rooting for a dismembering of the whole merry making canopy; talk of a political union where things had fallen apart, the Oshiomole/ Obaskei fall out will be a quintessential example. While it cannot be ascertained if they both nursed a mutual distrust for each other from the word go, it is an established fact that no sooner had Governor Godwin Obaseki won the 20016 election than his political godfather realised that he had technically backed a wrong horse who will do anything to turn the table against him, including spoiling the stable the godfather had toiled in eight donkey years to put in order.
The narrative of how matters got to a head between former Governor of Edo State and former National Chairman of APC, Comrade Adams Aliu Oshiomole and Edo APC Governor, now PDP flag bearer, Governor Godwin Noseghase Obaseki is a blockbuster that beats imagination. Typical of Nigerian politics where individual personages are bigger than institution of state, the Edo poll shall be seen through the prism of individual contests rather than been based on the progress assessment of structure and institutions of government.
What really was the crux of the matter in Edo APC before Godwin Obaseki staged a walk away from the House that gave him the golden opportunity of becoming the poster boy and face of Edo politics? Right from the days of Action Congress (AG), the acclaimed progressive structure in Southern Nigeria always propped up an arrowhead of the movement that the rest members of the party que behind and give necessary support. This arrangement held sway through the decades and hardly can anyone become the Governor of a state without the blessing of the arrowhead of the progressive movement. The practice entrenches party loyalty and allegiance to the spirit and letter of collective governance which gives consenting authority to the leadership as regards the affairs of the party; yet there are instances when one can barely separate the activities of government from that of the party: the party nominates Governorship candidate, the party approves cabinet members, the party ensures its government execute party manifestoes and the structure of leadership looks forward to taking the glory for the success of the government it helped to establish.
hould this have caused an irrevocable break down between two political love birds? The Oshiomole / Obaskei squabble threw up an interesting politicking in Edo State. Talk of a double speak of Goebelian standard, that is how strong the desire to unseat Governor Obaseki has become for ex Governor Oshiomole ; an urge so strong, the godfather has to settle for ” an old foe” whom he had once viscerated and dressed down as politically unfit for governance.
Talk of a metaphoric sim swap between two parties on Governorship candidates: the one whom PDP propped up four years back as the candidate with the magic wand , Osagie Ize Iyamu, is now the one APC is marketing with fanfare and aplomb as the next best thing for Edo politics; the one APC painted as the Messiah of political administration four years back has evolved as the best team leader PDP can project. Little wonder that the incumbent, Governor Obaseki had claimed that his enstranged Godfather had completed his second term campaign four years back as all he needed to do is sit back and turned aloud all the unprintable expletives Oshiomole trumpeted against Pastor Iyamu and leave the voters to take their pick. Reacting, Ize Iyamu had noted that what the former APC national Chairman said about him, an obvious demarketing though, he never meant, noting that the former Governor said all that out of the desire to market Obaseki, whom in street lingo, he said has turned out to be “a bad market!”
Obviously, Godwin Noseghase Obaseki wanted to be his own man in power. He doesn’t one to feel the breadth of the strongman breathing hard on his neck, thus he went for the jugular and turned the table against his benefactor-in-chief, who single-handedly made him Governorship candidate and worthy successor , a preferred candidate to Dr. Pius Odubu, who was Oshiomole’s Deputy Governor and others within the party structure who were more on ground politically than Obaseki. If this was an error of judgement by Adams Oshiomole, the Chief made sure such costly error was not repeated again. To worsen the matter, Obaseki while in APC used the structure of the party in Edo State to whittle down the sphere of influence of his party’s National Chairman, a connivance which culminated in the suspension of Oshiomole as party chair, which the court eventually upheld. What predecessor with a chain of influence stomachs such embarrassment? Does Oshiomole deserve such shock treatment from a godson? Pundits are left to decide thaH Howwill the poll pan out in Edo State come September 19th? What’s the jury about His Excellency, Governor Obaseki’s first tour of duty? Will his battle stance with Oshiomole cost him his second term? No doubt, the voters will take side; on whose side will they que on election day? To observers who are residents of Edo State, Obaseki is not an underperformer, according to the feelers gotten from the ordinary people on the streets of Benin, Auchi, Okpella, Ekpoma , to mention but a few. However, some people thepolity.net interviewed had a grouse against him: he went undemocratic by not swearing in members of the State Assembly who were voted for just like the people voted for him too. They claimed he had showed a sleight of hand and overreached himself by denying the people’s Representatives their mandate and that is a slant of dictatorship that must be curtailed. Ironically, the Legislatures Obaseki failed to swear in have sworn themselves in, factionalizing the Edo State House of Assembly in the twilight of the first term of Governor Obaseki’s administration. As at the time of resting this feature story, the state assembly is still under lock and key, probably to forestall an untoward pronouncement against the incumbent.
As the people of Edo State will file out to the poll soon, economic development, infrastructural growth , tourism development, judicial and legislative autonomy, health and welfare of the people should top the list of their desire, but politics of relevance which has trumped governance for almost two years in the state might likely take the front burner. If that be the case, Pastor Ize Iyamu and Mr. Godwin Obaseki will be on the election hot seat again four years after the last jousting . Will the God father ensure his ‘annointed candidate ‘ dislodge his enstranged godson or is this election poised to permanently dislodge the reign of the Godfather in Edo politics? It’s just a matter of time!
