‘Emilokan’ won’t work in 2024 Edo election, Obaseki warns deputy

The Edo state governor Godwin Obaseki has warned his deputy, Philip Shaibu, not to think that ‘Emilokan’, a Yoruba word which simply means “it is my turn”, will work during the gubernatorial election in 2024.

Obaseki said this even as the brawl between him and Shaibu appears to be very far from coming to an end anytime soon.

To this end, governor Obaseki has passed a message across to Shaibu, apparently warning his deputy that the “emilokan spirit” was totally unacceptable in Edo state’s politics.

“The ‘Emilokan’ syndrome or spirit is not a strategy for winning elections and ruling Edo people,” the Edo governor was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

Obaseki said the Edo people would not accept “Emilokan” as a strategy, according to a statement forwarded to Premium Times by the governor’s spokesperson, Crusoe Osagie.

He was said to have made the remarks when the leaders of the Edo South Senatorial District paid a solidarity visit to him in the Government House, Benin.

“They are not known for that. For us, it is the people that will decide,” he said, apparently referring to his deputy, Shaibu, who is said to be nursing the ambition to contest for the 2024 governorship election in Edo state.

By bringing up the emilokan, Obaseki is in a way telling Shaibu not to feel that he is entitled to succeed him as the next governor of Edo state.

Meanwhile, Shaibu recently wrote a petition to the court to stop an alleged plot by Obaseki to remove him from office.

The governor, meanwhile, has accused Shaibu of manipulating the youth council election in Edo because of his (Shaibu’s) political ambition.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu made the Yoruba word, ‘Emilokan’ popular during his campaign for the 2023 presidential election.

The ideology behind the word as used then by Tinubu was that he had worked for the immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari.

Tinubu believed it was thereafter his turn to succeed Buhari as the next elected ruler of Nigeria.