By Daniel A. Noah Osa-Ogbegie
About two weeks ago, I started this series on Adams Oshiomhole to draw attention to his unhealthy obsession to completely Lord it over Edo state, using underhand tactics of trying to heavily destroy the character and personality of otherwise brilliant and respectable Edo sons in the process.
I went through history to give an account of how Adams Oshiomhole was massively supported to be Governor of Edo state by Lucky Igbinedion and Capt. Hosa Okunbo, using Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu as the field marshall. I made the point that the understanding between Oshiomhole and his sponsors was that Pastor Ize-Iyamu would succeed Oshiomhole but that immediately Oshiomhole was sworn in as Governor, he created machineries to thwart that agreement through series of political shenanigans. That he also ensured he had very vile open confrontations with Chief Tony Anenih and Chief Gabriel Igbinedion,insulting the elder statemen as though they were his village hirelings, so as to break any obligation he had with them prior to his governorship and emerge as the sole power determinant in Edo state. The way he ruthlessly went about destroying those who helped him to ascend the office of Governor between 2009 and 2015 should be a course for all students of Machiavelli school.
I also took an excursion to recount how in 2016 Oshiomhole came very hard on Pius Odubu his then Deputy, for daring to aspire to be Governor of Edo state after goading him on much earlier without Odubu knowing that Oshiomhole was merely using him to upstage Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, who Oshiomhole had (has) a morbid fear of.
Once Ize-Iyamu was out of the way in 2014, it was easy for Oshiomhole to pulverize Odubu to ensure his choice, Godwin Obaseki emerged as the APC candidate in 2016. Odubu has not recovered since then, but for oshiomhole, nothing can stop in his way of being Edo’s Tinubu.
I also made the point that Adams Oshiomhole, as events have now shown, did not support Godwin Obaseki for any altruistic reason. That he supported Obaseki because he thought Obaseki would be a puppet Governor while he, Oshiomhole, remained the puppeteer with the strings backstage ala Tinubu’s Lagos.
Edo people have always detested this kind of arrangement of a puppet Governor controlled by a puppeteer. It was why they massively supported Oshiomhole against the earlier godfathers. It was why they joined in chorusing Oshiomhole’s adaptation of Ize-Iyamu’s “no man is God” and Oshiomhole’s “one man one vote” mantras.
Edo people want their Governor to be answerable to them and not to any godfather. Oshiomhole’s desperate quest to emerge as the sole godfather of Edo state threatens this disposition of Edo people to have an independent Governor who is only beholding to them and not to any godfather.
Oshiomhole never believed in Monday Okpebholo. Information out there is that he privately derided him while pushing for the candidacy of Dennis Idahosa, a man he sacked in 2015 as his Commissioner, alleging that the said Dennis Idahosa was a fraudster. If Oshiomhole sacked Denco under the allegation of fraud, why was he going around frantically to ensure he got the APC Governorship ticket when APC had much better aspirants like Osagie Ize-Iyamu, Mike Onolememe, Prof. Osunbo, Engr. Chris Ogiemwonyi, Prince Clem Agba, Dr. David Imuse et al? The answer is simple: Oshiomhole continued with his quest to have a puppet as Governor so he could emerge as the Tinubu of Edo, since his experiment with Obaseki failed woefully and disastrously.
Adams Oshiomhole went on to push for Denco to be running mate after failing to make him the APC candidate, losing to the candidate of Godswill Akpabio, the Senate President.
Adams Oshiomhole has publicly described Monday Okpebholo as a slow engine. This description is mild, given Oshiomhole’s real evaluation of Okpebholo. Do Edo people want a slow engine, according to Adams Oshiomhole, to be their Governor at this time? Do they want a fraudster, again according to Oshiomhole, to be their Deputy Governor?
Is Oshiomhole current craze to ensure the same man he described as a slow engine become the Governor of Edo state not curious and nauseating? Can Edo people afford to follow Adams Oshiomhole who only cares about constantly being in government to assuage his increasingly implacable hedonism.
Oshiomhole, not content with his sprawling villa in his Iyamho village and the castle at Okorotun, Benin City, is reported to have acquired another castle worth over ten billion Naira at Asokoro, Abuja in the face of this highly debilitating economic and social quagmire his Party have plunged Nigeria into the last nine years. His desperation to install a stooge in Edo government house is apparently to ensure steady supply of illicit public funds to maintain the lifestyle he acquired since he became Governor.
Edo people cannot afford to have a Governor that would open the vault to service the numerous APC godfathers who are lurking around, waiting on the wings to take their bites from Edo meagre financial resources.When I see them trying to defend Okpenholo’s numerous acts of gross incompence, I get even more determined to rouse Edo people against them. Our collective well being as a state, is far more important than their projection of amassing more unexplained wealth under the government of a clueless and completely obtuse man.
Edo people must band together again to show Oshiomhole that he can not choose for us. We are not his slaves. We must reject another of his attempt to be the godfather of Edo as we do not trust his judgement, often laced with inferiority complex and the selfish need to assuage his implacable hedonism and voluptuous proclivity.
When some apc members say Obaseki promised he will not be a godfather and that he’s becoming a godfather by supporting the candidacy of Asue Ighodalo, I look at them with amusement. If Obaseki wanted to be a godfather, he would not have chosen Asue Ighodalo. He chose to support Asue Ighodalo because he knows Asue can continue with the
professionalisation of governance that he Obaseki has started. Everybody knows that Asue cannot be a puppet to anybody. That he chose to offer himself to serve Edo people as their Governor at this time, resigning from more lucrative offices, is a testament of his altruism.
In this coming Edo election, only one candidate has come out with a plan for Edo. Only one candidate is talking to Edo people. Only one candidate has the profile of the Governor Edo need at this time. We must support and elect the candidate with the character, personality, competence and temperament. The candidate with the vast exposure and contacts to move Edo forward. That candidate is Asuerinmen Ighodalo, the candidate of the PDP. Pay no heed to professional politicians who seek to protect their political interests and hegemony now congregating with their kindred spirits in the APC to thwart the will of Edo people.
Edo people and residents must come out en masse to vote for a better future for themselves and for their children. We must be determined to save Edo state from Oshiomhole and his mauraders from the APC by voting for the man we know can navigate the ship of Edo state to secure a better future for them and their children. I will not be careful in stating unequivocally that that man is apparently not Monday Okpebholo. He is Asue Ighodalo!
DAN Osa-Ogbegie, a Benin based legal practitioner and spokesman of Asue Ighodalo, writes from Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria.
