The race for the Edo State Government House is won and lost already. I am not about to tell you who the winner is, but I will narrow it down enough for you to attempt some guess.
By the records of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), there are several candidates for the September 10 election. Political parties that can hardly raise N10 million have fielded candidates. Many of these candidates the people have never heard of before. Their pedigree is unknown to anyone other than their immediate family members and close circle of friends. And may be their concubines, for those of them who play ‘away match’.
I hear a number of them do not know their left from their right. Yet they want to govern a state that has had the benefit of being governed by the likes of the late Ambrose Alli and Dr Sam Ogbemudia. I hear some of them have no idea of where the state is coming from, not to talk of where it is going. I hear not a few of them are convinced within themselves that they are just in the race to make some noise and not some sense.
But in the midst of the crowd swarming around the honey that the Edo Government House is, two candidates stand out and only a miracle will see a situation where the Returning Officer will announce any other person as the successor to Governor Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole.
I believe these two candidates—Godwin Obaseki of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) — are conscious of the fact that the race is for either of them to win. A close watch of their campaigns shows clearly that they see each other as a threat to getting the keys to the Government House. The words and actions of Oshiomhole also show that he considers Ize-Iyamu some threat to his dream of handing over to his beloved Obaseki. Forget the occasional bravado, the comrade is not just dancing and jumping on the stage from one constituency to the other for nothing. He is also not giving traders ‘grant’ for nothing.
Obaseki has abused no other candidate except Ize-Iyamu, who also has not wasted his time trading insults with any other person than the man credited with being the egg-head behind Oshiomhole’s economic team.
History has been thrown in the boxing ring. We have been reminded that Obaseki’s great grand-father betrayed the Oba of Benin— and by extension the Benin kingodm— when he accepted to be the sole administrator of the kingdom after the British invasion. So, Edo people are being told that someone from such lineage should not be supported to rule Edo. At a point, a film by Lancelot Oduwa-Imasuen on the history of Benin kingdom was even circulated to show to the people that the so-called act of betrayal is not the figment of anyone’s imagination.
The exciting Edo race has also seen Africa’s richest man Alhaji Aliko Dangote being punched. Those doing this believe he is backing Obaseki. They have asked him to leave Edo alone. They say they do not want a governor who will be hopping in and out of Dangote’s private jet.
Ize-Iyamu has told us Obaseki is a “typical green horn”, who should be rejected in the September 10 election because Oshiomhole can easily manipulate him. He has described our dear Osho baba as a Pseudo Comrade, whose candidate should be rejected for subjecting the people to untold hardship in the past seven and a half years. He has also described Obaseki as Oshiomhole’s puppet. He has challenged the outgoing governor and Obaseki to explain how they allegedly depleted the state’s treasury.
We have been told by Edo PDP chairman Chief Dan Orbih that the governor spent N11.6 million to “buy drinks” for President Muhammadu Buhari; he wondered how Buhari, a Muslim, could be bought alcohol.
The insults have not been one-sided. We have been told Ize-Iyamu served in the administration of Chief Lucky Igbinedion and was part of the rot of that era. We have also been told that Ize-Iyamu was a cultist in his days at the University of Benin (UNIBEN). His membership of the Pyrate Confraternity co-founded by the respected Prof Wole Soyinka, who by the way is a great friend of Oshiomhole, is now being interpreted to mean he was a member of a dreaded secret cult. Are they afraid he will suck the blood of Edo people? Or, are they just being plan mischievous like Donald Trump?
His explanation that Pyrate or Seadogs was not (and is still not) a secret cult as it was well-known to the authorities of the universities where it operated has not stopped his traducers from continuing to repeat the allegation. To buttress their point, they refer to the fact that he was expelled from UNIBEN at some point after an acid attack on a student. He has given his explanations, but still the allegation keeps being thrown in the mix.
Aside the cultism issue, we have also been told that Ize-Iyamu has answers to give to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) about some financial malfeasance.
But Ize-Iyamu is selling himself as the experienced one. He has been chief of staff and secretary to the state government (SSG). For these, he believes he had piloted the engine of governance and needs no induction course to swing into action from day one.
One fact that has also shown clearly in this race is that for Ize-Iyamu and his party, the real enemy goes beyond Obaseki. They see Oshiomhole as the one that must be cut to size. The pastor-turned-politician has told us what an ingrate he considers Oshiomhole. He has told us how he made Oshiomhole governor— a claim the comrade has gleefully denied. Both men used to be pals. There may be some exaggerations here and there but the fact that Ize-Iyamu played a key part in the emergence of the former Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President as Edo State governor is not that hidden. Whatever role he played, I also don’t believe is akin to claiming to have made him governor. Haba! But whether or not we believe him, Ize-Iamu has refused to drop this line of thought.
He said: “Edo people should forgive me for being one of those in the forefront that brought Mr. Oshiomhole to be the governor of the state. We now know who he is. Therefore, in the coming elections, Edo people should not repeat the mistake of the past. When I remember how we brought in Oshiomhole to contest the 2007 governorship election, I weep because we brought in a bad thing.”
Until they fell apart, I suspect, over the issue of who governs the state next, Ize-Iyamu was a member of the APC. He left when he felt he stood no chance of picking the party’s ticket to realise his ambition of calling the shots in Edo Government House. But Ize-Iyamu sees my point of view as inaccurate, as he claims his reasons for the defection have to do with the non-construction of the road leading to his community and the failure to tackle the erosion menace in the area, as promised by Oshiomhole when he left the PDP for the APC.
My final take: The implication of the roforofo fight for the Edo Government House is that the campaigns have been less about issues but abuses and trading of insults. The people want to know what to expect from their next governor. But whatever incline they are being given into this has been over-shadowed by the attacks.
