Edo governorship 2024: The real issues

Except for technical or weather-related disruptions, accredited voters in Edo State will go out on Saturday, September 21, to elect a new governor.

Edo people have seen enough political drama in the last eight years, after Adams Oshiomhole, former governor (2008-2016), single-handedly anointed Godwin Obaseki, the incumbent, as candidate of their party, All Progressives Congress (APC), to the annoyance of members who ranked themselves as owners of the party.

Obaseki, at the time identified as a technocrat, not much of a politician. He was hired by Oshiomhole from Lagos, to chair Edo State Economic and Strategy Team, inaugurated in March 2009.

All through the administration of Oshiomhole, Obaseki was advertised as the engine room of the government. He did so well on the job to make Oshiomhole christen him the “brain and creativity” behind the government. On the choice of his successor in 2016, nobody could persuade Oshiomhole not to impose Obaseki on the party and thus become another godfather.

The former Labour leader had himself waged a war against the tradition of godfatherism, which the PDP had entrenched in the state. The godfather had the final say on who becomes what. Oshiomhole boasted he had put an end to such undemocratic practice when he got victory at the election tribunal.

Hell was let loose, as the aborigines of Edo APC felt betrayed. Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, one of the prominent faces in that group left the party. He sought and got the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Others remained in the party, bidding their time and hoping to make something out of the arrangement should Obaseki become governor. Many will remember Oshiomhole’s popular campaign track he rendered to promote Obaseki as God’s anointed. He put everything into that contest and made a political mess of Ize-Iyamu.

Soon after he became governor in 2016, Godson Obaseki and godfather Oshiomhole began to go their separate ways. It started as hearsay, until physical actions confirmed they had fallen apart, in what is now the classic case of godfather/godson rift in the fourth Republic. It was not thought possible, that such level of bond and trust could end so callously and treacherously. There’s no full confession yet of the immediate bone of contention, but it’s apparently deep.

Towards 2020, the two couldn’t see eye to eye. Even after Oshiomhole became national chairman of APC, a position that could have earned him respect and support at home, he was declared a persona non grata in Edo. The Deputy Governor then, Philip Shuaibu, issued an order that Oshiomhole could not come to Edo State unless he had the permission of the governor. Leaders of APC in Oshiomhole’s Ward were instigated to suspend him from the party. Chairmen of the party in the 18 local government areas also suspended him. An Abuja High Court supported the suspension. Oshiomhole appealed.

On June 12, 2020, Obaseki was disqualified from the APC governorship primary, for inconsistencies in his academic credentials. Days after, on June 16, 2020, the Appeal Court in Abuja, affirmed the suspension of Oshiomhole as APC national chairman. Both sides got bloody noses from the mutually destructive face-off. They both lost out and the state suffered the consequences- political instability.

Obaseki and his deputy, Shuaibu, then left the APC and anchored with the PDP. The PDP yielded their umbrella for them to take refuge. The party even surrendered their governorship ticket to them and disregarded their own aspirants who had lined up for the primary. Some alleged the ticket was auctioned, because the PDP was not known to be a father Christmas.

But that was not as important to many justice-loving Nigerians as the fact that Obaseki was finally rehabilitated, despite plots by Oshiomhole and APC to humiliate and deny him bid for a second term. Nigerians love to support whoever is perceived as the under-dog in such scenarios, not minding the finer details that brought about the calamity. So, they rallied around Obaseki and Shuaibu.

While the tussle lingered, governance in Edo suffered. First, the legislative arm of government empowered by the Constitution to stabilise the polity was itself very weak, thus being the first casualty.

On June 17, 2019, Governor Obaseki issued a proclamation to convoke the State Assembly in some unusual hours of the night. That scheme locked out 15 members-elect profiled to be loyalists of Oshiomhole, in the bid to prevent him from gaining a stronghold in the House. Only nine members-elect were inaugurated. Constituencies of members-elect that were locked out became unrepresented for as long as that dispute lasted. In fact, it became an endless legal confrontation.

The National Assembly that sought to intervene was helpless. A Federal High Court in Port Harcourt stopped the National Assembly from interfering in the affairs of Edo State House of Assembly. It’s easy to connect the dots if we recollect that Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State was at the peak of his political empire and he dispensed a lot of favours, including being Obaseki’s backbone in that battle to dismantle Oshiomhole and Edo APC.

As the Assembly was in disarray, it got distracted from its main job of holding the executive to account on behalf of the people. In fact, those nine legislators who were permitted by the governor to be inaugurated saw him as their benefactor. Rather than represent their constituents, they more or less represented the executive, who in the Nigerian context, can do no wrong.

Governors all over the country are projected as too powerful to be challenged.Whereas the power of Appropriation resides in the Legislature constitutionally, they (lawmakers) willingly surrender it for individual gains. They are always disunited and any smart governor will manipulate them against their collective interests.

Fast forward to 2024, Saturday’s election is more of a battle between Oshiomhole and Obaseki. It’s going to be the final bout to decide who gets upper hand in an epic political rivalry. It is less of a contest of brains and brawn to deliver good governance to the people. The stakes are so desperately high, not because the debate is about getting the best of candidates who can fix Edo, but more about perpetuating class hegemony.

Since 1999, Edo people have been served the short end of the stick. It has been an experience of mediocre governance all the way. The victims are the people, not the politicians. The victims are those abandoned in rural communities, particularly in Edo Central and Edo North communities; whose wanton neglect by successive governments are under-reported.

The victims are those that have no roads to take products from farms to urban markets. They have no electricity in Nigeria’s 21st Century. Communities in Akoko Edo have been denied electricity for years because the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), does not sell electricity to rural farmers and poor artisans. Government does not offer them any protection.

The victims are the rural poor, whose schools have become decrepit. There are no teachers and no instructional facilities.These same schools in the 70s, 80s, had teachers from all over the world, Pakistanis, Indians, Togolese, Ghanaians, Cameroonians, the best in every subject. The laboratories, then, were fully equipped and well maintained. Even when you were not a science student, you were enthralled by the sight of dead frog floating inside a reagent bottle, preserved for anatomy.

There was always a Bunsen burner in the corner to heat the burette and pipette. Teaching science was engaging. There was a giant diesel generator that provided illumination in an era when there was no public electricity. Village school was good, even when government education budgets were in the hundreds and thousands. But not anymore. In this era of trillion budgets, the government is absent. Rural schools rely on old boys to hire part time teachers.

The victims are citizens who battle perennial yellow fever and cholera epidemic, because of poor sanitation and poor healthcare. The dams and water-works that gave free potable water in the 70s and 80s are dead, even in urban centres. Yet, governments are very busy in the media, governing by propaganda and lies.

Unfortunately, community leaders that ought to have some understanding to educate their people are more interested in personal profits. They sell their conscience. And the slavery continues. Let Edo people demand good governance and rescue the future of the state from political merchants, who at the end of the day are same of same. Let the people demand jobs and vocational engagement to reduce adverse impact of unemployment in urban centres.

There’re hardly salient ideological dissimilarities among the parties, politicians are the same. They’re always together, with minor disagreements over resource control. After the election, they will realign shamelessly, at the expense of illiterate voters.

For the police, they must let the people decide. What was on display in Kogi and Imo off-cycle governorship elections did not beautify the police. What the civilized world expects from the 35,000 personnel, plus 9,000 army and other forces is utmost neutrality.

The police are yet to make public their findings on the policeman (Inspector Onuh Akoh), who was gunned down on July 18, 2024, at the Benin Airport. That murder must not go unpunished. Let the Inspector General, Kayode Egbetokun, ensure that no party gains any form of upper hand come Saturday. Edo people deserve a fair level playing field.

For the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), this is another opportunity to save face. That outing in 2023 was a disaster. This same INEC earned accolades from Nigerians for quality performance in Edo governorship election of September 19, 2020. It should not continue to depreciate.

For voters, you do not need a bully as governor. You do not need a man who will disregard and manipulate the legislature. Governance in Edo shouldn’t be nuclear science. All a real leader needs, is being humble and kind-hearted to make sacrifices for the people; Professor Ambrose Ali did it. Be wise!