By Kennedy Ifeh
In 2016, a personality who I significantly respect called and informed me that mayhem was about to visit Edo State.
He said that the ignorance of the ordinary man in the understanding of progressive ideology and its vendors has led to a person of questionable ideological depth assuming a very sensitive position in governance in the state.
His fear, however, was not for the immediate. He was worried that if the personality grew to become governor of the state a few years later, Edo State would be run by the sword and every votary of truth would either compromise or face death the unpleasant way.
Many of us who were active in the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) from 2000 to 2004 and knew the antecedents of this personality, took this warning seriously.
Today, we can confirm that Edo State is being held under siege with the gun pointed at any voice of dissent in the social space.
The greatest exposition in recent pronouncements is not a denial of this path of the malcontent, but the temerity of these indulgent persons in justifying their diabolical undertakings.
It is an insult to the institutions of government in Nigeria for a Deputy Governor or the aides of a serving governor to argue that they are on the path of executive lawlessness because that is how they were taught.
Trading on deception exploited from all fronts, they got an order from the Inspector General of Police stopping a legitimate gathering of Nigerians.
If they gave a false narrative on the security situation in Edo State for whatever reason, the inability of the police to confront their lies drawing from genuine police report, gave them space to thrive.
The police took the information supplied by the governor and his cronies uncritically and acted on it as if there was a state of emergency in Edo State.
Sadly, the right of the people to organise and associate was violated by the misinformation of the law officers of the country.
While the police issued an official statement stopping the rally organised by Osagie Ize Iyamu’s supporters to celebrate their decision to join the APC, it went ahead to put its respected personnel on the ground to enforce the said instruction of the Inspector General of Police.
On the other hand, interests and alliances not too far from the government, organised thugs to whom were assigned various roles targeted at disrupting peace in Edo State.
Some of these hired thugs, set fire on the tarred road, violently barricaded the airport road in the city on Thursday December 12th. On Friday, the 13th, others went about with vehicles, brandishing guns and firing indiscriminately in Benin City.
A vehicle conveying attendees to the event which was relocated to the private residence of Osagie Ize Iyamu was arrested and detained in the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Benin City and only released on Saturday, December 14, 2019.
Still on the execution of this movie, thugs were organised to stop an elder states man from coming into Edo State to perform his official assignment.
In all these, we are yet to hear of any arrest by the Nigerian Police. With immunity as their garb, the agents of this pathetic social infraction operated openly and with impunity.
They were not questioned by the institutions of state. They violated the social space with ignominy and had no respect for the Nigerian constitution nor its people.
The Edo state political space has suffered severe criminal assault in recent times. Many have been macheted, inflicted with all kinds of bodily harm because they dared to gather for purposes considered hostile to the position of the state government.
Just like it happened on Thursday the 12th of December 2019, none of the criminals that have attacked gatherings that the governor perceive as hostile over these years have been arrested.
Who is paying for all these? Who is behind this barbaric assault on our national psyche? What is the final objective of these enemies of civilisation and order? What is the final end sought by these enemies of community and social harmony? These questions are puzzling and disturbing indeed.
Even when the house of Adams Oshiomhole was threatened with attack by some political thugs, the Commissioner of Police in Edo state then, came out to deny that it happened.
It must be said that it is dangerous to the social psyche of our country for the development in Edo State to be taken for granted.
The fact that players loyal to the governor are coming out to publicly acknowledge their complicity in criminal indulgence by claiming they learnt it from someone shows the level of decadence that pervade government house in Benin currently.
For a government to mobilise youths for anti-social indulgences as is being done in Edo State is dangerous to the entire social order in Nigeria.
When a government has lost the confidence of the people on its capacity to protect them, when the people are more scared of the government than the street criminals on the security of their lives, then a major calamity has befallen that state. This is exactly the present locale of the social space in Edo state today.
It is obvious that the present government in Edo State is not bothered about what the people think on the coming elections. It is relying on the thugs who will maim and kill before and on election day.
Yet, it is better for them to know that no matter how brutal and repressive a government might be, confronted with the resilience of a people, its capacity to kill in the election, might not return the government to power.
It is funny that these characters could accuse Adams Oshiomhole of bringing thugs into Edo State on Thursday and Friday. We never saw thugs molesting the governor, his deputy or any other official of the government.
The victims of thuggery known to Nigerians on these days were Adams Oshiomhole who was to be prevented from entering his own state of origin by hired thug described as protesting APC youths.
The others were the supporters of Osagie Ize Iyamu who had the rally they were organising for their Principal scuttled officially as well as Osagie Ize Iyamu himself whose freedom of association, personal liberty and right to life have been brutally assaulted in the cataclysm that has ensued so far.
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Adams could not have hired thugs to stop himself from entering Edo State neither would Osagie Ize Iyamu have hired thugs to shoot at those who were welcoming him into the APC.
It is important for the governor and his aides to know that the people’s patience to study the fact of a matter does not indicate foolishness. You, definitely, cannot fool the people forever. This is the crux of the matter.
Let it be known that those who ride on the tiger’s back, will end up in the tiger’s stomach. In Christian cosmology, it is said that those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.
Those who rely on violence to suppress the will of the people will definitely be victims of their inherent contradiction. Let the government be challenged to excel. Let the government be challenged to transcend the records of Adams Oshiomhole.
The state is suffering from a serious debt overhang. There is no effective working plan to curb insecurity in Edo State.
The level of poverty in the state is getting worst as the government lack the capacity to industrialise the state. The state Universities have not witnessed any government thrust in infrastructural development.
Ambrose Alli University is threatened by extinction due to the self sustenance policy of this government which compel the institution to fund itself.
Most of the tertiary institutions survived by past governments are shut down. The state is in continuing regression in all dimension of the development index.
The indulgence in blackmail, name calling, and violent assault on opponents only have a momentary impact. In the long run, the triumph of truth and the will of the people would determine the final end.
The citizenry of Edo State must sustain this matured eerie presently expressed, trusting that in a few months time, our mandate will deliver judgement on this state of affairs.
The final judgement is not in the hands of the police or any accomplices built and bought by the government. The final judgement will come from the electoral will of the people expressed in the ballot.
- Kennedy Ifeh, Toronto, Canada
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