By Femi Macaulay
It was an egoistic move, fuelled by an obsession. It is obvious that Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki left the All Progressives Congress (APC) and joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because he desperately wants a second term in office. If political realities in APC had not brought him to his knees, he would not have left the party that brought him to power.
Suddenly, Obaseki is in love with a party that was in opposition to him and his administration. ”The PDP in my view has demonstrated and shown that it is a party that is rooted in democratic practices. The party that believes in justice and fairness, a party that respects its people,” he said when he visited the party’s secretariat for his formal registration.
He added: “I am very happy to be here, the reception I have received since I drove in here has been ecstatic, the energy I see in this party is the kind of energy I require to take Edo to the level we should go to next. So, if indeed we have done anything in the last four years, you haven’t seen anything yet because with the quality of people I see here, the energy of the youths I see, by the grace of God victory will be possible.”
His move suggests that he is an adventurer seeking political power wherever it may be found. His defection exposes his desperation for power. His words to the contrary ring hollow: ”For me, this fight is not about grabbing political power, it’s not about me; it’s not about trying to prove a sense of importance…”
Instead of wailing about his disqualification from APC’s governorship primary election, which inspired his defection, Obaseki needs to look in the mirror. He will see that the things he said about the party’s screening process, after his dramatic disqualification, ironically describe his own governance style.
The governor, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie, described his screening as a “mockery of democratic process” and “an unfortunate, disheartening and dreadful spectacle.” He also said it was an “open display and enthronement of illegality,” and called it an “open show of shame, illegality and travesty of justice.” He described his disqualification as “unjust,” and accused the APC’s National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, of “maladministration of the party.”
Talking of democracy and democratic process, Obaseki conveniently forgot his spectacularly undemocratic role in the sidelining of members-elect of the Edo State House of Assembly, who were members of his party but not in his camp, and were loyal to Oshiomhole, also a former governor of the state and his political benefactor with whom he had parted ways.
After a deliberate delay, he eventually transmitted a letter of proclamation to the clerk of the house, which was necessary for the inauguration of the legislature. However, only 9 of the 24 members-elect, loyal to Obaseki, were first inaugurated, then 2 others, all in June last year, in questionable circumstances.
With the deliberate exclusion of the others, who were not inaugurated, Obaseki’s loyalists took control of the legislature. What could be more undemocratic than such weakening of a critical arm of government in a democracy? It is noteworthy that the political crisis in the state worsened in December 2019 when the House of Assembly declared vacant the seats of 12 lawmakers-elect yet to be inaugurated.
Suddenly, Obaseki remembered democracy when the governorship primary election drew near. He was ready to do anything in order to get re-elected for a second term. He showed his desperation by choosing Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Simon Lalong (Plateau) and Senator Ehigie Uzamere to work out a peace deal with the sidelined legislators-elect. ”The exclusion of the… members-elect is one of the issues behind the virtually intractable crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC),” a report said.
Why did Obaseki wait till the approach of the governorship primary election, scheduled for June 22, and the party’s decision to conduct a direct primary election, which he was opposed to, before trying to normalise the anomalous situation he had helped to bring about in the state legislature? His wailing after his disqualification shows that he has not been looking in the mirror. It may well be that he reaped what he sowed.
He has a right to seek re-election. But should he do so at any cost? He plans to contest the state’s governorship election in September as a PDP candidate, to prove that he can win without the APC support that initially brought him to power. Could he have become governor without APC backing in 2016? Why is he confident that he can be re-elected without APC support?
Obaseki’s defection means he will work against the party that brought him to power, with the power of incumbency which he owes to the party that brought him to power. Surely, this is politics without principles. ”A principle is a principle,” says Mahatma Gandhi, “and in no case can it be watered down because of our incapacity to live it in practice.”
If Obaseki wasn’t so desperate for power, he should have resigned himself to his failure to get the APC’s support for his second-term ambition. When he won the governorship election as an APC candidate in 2016, he should have known that winning is not a permanent condition. Now that he cannot be the APC’s governorship candidate this year, he should learn from his failure.
Does he think it is shameful to be a one-term governor? The question is: What is Obaseki’s legacy? Speaking holistically, his performance as governor hampered his second-term aspiration. He may believe that he did well as governor. But did he do well as a party man?
He will face more image problems because of his unprincipled fixation on a second term. He is too obsessed with power to learn the lessons of power. He should be licking his wounds after his political humiliation in APC, instead of jumping to PDP where he may be further humiliated.
He should be told that illumination is often accompanied by blindness. The perceived plus of his defection prevents him from seeing the minus.
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