Crusoe Osagie
IT was most disheartening to read a respected columnist churn out alternative facts about the face-off between the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki on the backpage of the Nation of on Monday.
Coming from Sam Omatseye, it was an utter disappointment, and that is putting it mildly.
In Omatseye’s framing of the problem between the two political leaders, nothing seems to be the problem apart from the fact that Obaseki just enjoys the destruction of both himself and a friend of many years.
Omatseye saw no need to seek a logical narrative as to what the cause of the feud might actually have been and why it seems to have defied all attempts at a solution.
For him, Obaseki who obviously has everything to lose in this contestation that has since taken the Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) mode, enjoys the time – consuming and unproductive brickbat. How illogical can a columnist descend?
In a hurry to achieve an aim which is far from equipping the reading public with facts, Omatseye forgot that even the most fickle-minded of readers will, at least, want to know why Obaseki and Oshiomhole are entangled in this stand-off instead of peace and friendship, which is certainly a more assured path to Obaseki’s goal of obtaining his party’s ticket for the 2020 election and returning to power for another four years.
Obviously, when an overlord has informed his subservient aide that the sacrifice to satisfy his appetite as a godfather is the head of the aide on a platter, then a wise aide may choose to fight for his redemption instead of voluntarily submitting his head on that plate.
We are aware that Omatseye is Oshiomhole’s bosom friend and we do not begrudge him for trying to work for his friend in his column but this must not be done at the expense of facts. He should ask other respected columnists why they have refrained from being used to settle scores on the matter.
The piece can best be described as an attempt to rewrite history with the stamp of Omatseye’s spicy pen. But for anyone who has been following the trend of events in Edo State, the recount of the different episodes from the party primaries – said to be the genesis of the disagreement – shows that there must be something fundamentally wrong with his understanding of the local dynamics of the politics in the state since the inception of the crisis.
We would like to point out the different instances where he was misled. First, he stated that Comrade Shaibu rode to Oshiomhole’s house on a motorbike to attack the APC National Chairman. This is wrong. Shaibu, who was one of the guests at the convocation at the Edo University Iyamho, was in the vehicle conveying himself and other guests, including the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, Governor Obaseki and Dr. Aderemi Makanjuola, among others, when they were attacked. The attack was at Oshiomhole’s residence.
If, as Omatseye has posited, Oshiomhole has no interest in Edo politics, why then is it that the reorganisation of the political structure in the state, with the sacking and reappointing of new Special Assistants and Senior Special Assistants by Governor Obaseki, is worthy of his mention in the piece in defence of Oshiomhole. The same happened when some commissioners were shown the exit door. Why did they not treat the development with indifference? Why has it remained a recurring decimal in the conversation ever since, if it wasn’t a matter of interest? The resultant attacks only point to the contrary.
Omatseye also erroneously stated that Edo State has 33 local government areas (LGAs), out of which Oshiomhole has three. First, Edo has 18 not 33 local government areas. All these go to show that he was briefed by someone to do the piece and the person apparently did a terrible job briefing him, thereby sending the respected columnist on a wild goose chase.
For the records, it was at Oshiomhole’s behest that Governor Obaseki, Shaibu and the Secretary to the State Government, Osarodion Ogie Esq, and several others, were picked, elected and appointed to different positions. Believing that this was done with the best of intent and recognition of their abilities, these people have worked assiduously to deliver on their mandate to the people.
Is it now wrong for them to work for the people, rather than kowtow to the whims and caprices of an overlord, who himself was the protagonist of the now popular fight against godfatherism in Edo State?
In case Omatseye is genuinely interested in identifying the root cause of the political problem in Edo State, he is welcome to know that it is a matter of a budding godfather and the glorification of local enforcers of governance by violence manifested by the lionisation of Agberos (motor park warlords). A couple of these enforcers who became a law unto themselves celebrated holding billions of naira in their private bank accounts while the Local Government Areas they were contracted to collect revenue for were owing multiple months’ salaries and pensions. A regular episode in the state was the sight of pensioners draped in black, protesting their abandonment at Ring Road (the city center of Benin), which was a sour commentary on governance.
This is one of the many changes the Obaseki government has effected. It fought to a standstill the Agberos who Oshiomhole fondly call his infantry. The issue of Community Development Associations (CDA), a second behemoth of violence and savagery, is another manifestation of the fight Obaseki is waging. Should we mortgage the sanity, improved welfare and ease of doing business in our state on the altar of the romance with these non-state actors?
A handful of politicians against Obaseki in Edo State have always maintained that the condition for settlement is fair and squarely a matter of the governor ‘carrying them along,’ a euphemism that shouldn’t be lost on anyone conversant with the politics of sharing the national, nay state’s cake. It is also loosely attached with the condition of allowing Oshiomhole’s garrison commanders back to the streets, to commandeer the where, how, and when the revenue accruing to government would be collected and disbursed.
So, Obaseki’s true secret is that he has fended off the vultures from the patrimony of Edo people and his stand-off is characterised by an understanding that at the end of the day, when people talk about his administration, what would be on their lips would be what his government did for his people, not what he did for Oshiomhole and a greedy few, who want their bread to be buttered at the expense of the ordinary Edo man or woman.
These obviously are the issues Omatseye glossed over in his rendering of the political intrigues in Edo State. A detached commentator will present a true picture of happenings in the state and leave the readers to draw their conclusions. This is what is expected of a respected columnist, not a jaundiced and jejune piece that we saw in The Nation of yesterday. It was a disservice to the highly regarded publication.
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