The stage is set for the governorship election in Edo State. The All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the United Peoples Party (UPP) are the major parties. Correspondent OSAGIE OTABOR writes on the three-horse race.
Who occupies Osadebey Avenue, the seat of power in Edo State, after the expiration of Governor Adams Oshiomhole’ tenure in November 12? Three political parties have picked their flag bearers in primaries that were free, fair and transparent. It is now up to the people to decide the candidates that would get the plum job.
The parties that have elected their candidates are the United Progressive Party (UPP), the Peoples Democratic party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), which picked Shedrack Nowamagbe, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and Godwin Obaseki respectively.
According to the Edo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Sam Olumekun, nine political parties had indicated interest in the September 10 election.
But, the UPP, the PDP and the APC appear to be the main contenders. The other parties are said to be waiting for aggrieved aspirants to run on their platforms.
The three candidates are men who claim to have excelled in their chosen careers and professions. Nowamagbe is a musician, Ize-Iyamu is a pastor, and Obaseki is a financial expert. It is, however, up to the electorate to decide whether the musician, the pastor or the financial expert will be their governor.
The candidates would have to rely on the structures of their parties across the state. none of them has contested for elective position before. They are marketing themselves to the electorate for the first time. Nowamagbe is the only candidate that has not worked with any ruling party or government before. Both Ize-Iyamu and Obaseki are seen as the brain behind the successes and failures of the different administrations they served. Their parents were palace chiefs that served the Oba of Benin at different era. Nowamagbe is of low parentage. Obaseki and Pastor Ize-Iyamu are graduates of prestigious universities and Nowamagbe attended a secondary school.
Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu
He rose to prominence when he served as the Secretary to the Edo State Government under former Governor Lucky Igbinedion. Before he was appointed as the SSG, Pastor Ize-Iyamu served as the Chief of Staff. Many said he was the engine-room of the Igbinedion administration. He studies law at the University of Benin. He was called to Nigerian Bar in 1987.
According to his profile published online, Pastor Ize-Iyamu gave his life to the service of God in 1985 when he was miraculously healed after a fatal accident. He joined the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), and in 1998. He was made a Pastor of the Upper Room Parish on Adesuwa Road, G.R.A, Benin City.
He is today the District Pastor, in charge of the zonal, area and parishes of the RCCG in Edo State and the Provincial Regional Headquarters in Benin City. Ize-Iyamu is the only politician among the three candidates. Apart from his records of political appointments, there is nothing in the profile about his past working experience. He established the I.O farms. He has said that he should not be held responsible for the failure of what is now regarded as the years of the locust in Edo State. Ize-Iyamu started nursing the ambition to rule the state during the Igbinedion administration.
Godwin Obaseki
Very little was known of him until his name propped up as the anointed candidate even though he had worked with Governor Oshiomhole. Obaseki served as the Chairman of the Edo State Economic Team, a position he held since 2008.
He attended the University of Ibadan where he obtained a BA in Classics and proceeded to the Columbia University and Pace University in New York where he obtained an MBA in Finance and International Business. He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Stock Brokers, Nigeria and an alumnus of the Lagos Business School Chief Executive Programme. Obaseki’s career in Investment Banking, Asset Management, Securities Trading and the Public Sector spanned over 30 years. He took off as stockbroker in 1983 with Capital Trust Brokers Limited, Lagos before joining the International Merchant Bank (an affiliate of First Chicago Bank). In 1988, he joined AVC Funds Limited, Lagos, where he was a Project Manager and led the core team that set up two of the new generation banks. Between 1993 and 1995, he worked in New York as a principal of Equatorial Finance Co, a financial advisory firm with a focus on Africa and providing Structured Trade Finance for African related transactions through credit, financial advisory and risk insurance.
He founded Afrinvest West Africa Limited in 1995 before working with the Edo State Government. The successes of the Oshiomhole administration is largely due to Obaseki’s expertise in financial matters – it is widely believed.
Shedrack Nowamagbe
He tagged himself the ‘masses chairman’. Nowamagbe is a social critic and a household name in the music industry. He became famous when he drew attention to the failings of government through music, especially during the Igbinedion administration. Nowamagbe was once beaten when he took canoe to the Dumez junction to shoot music on the flooding in the area. He was not a member of any political party before, but he has made the UPP popular in the state. About 400 delegates participated in the party’s primary that saw the emergence of Nowamagbe as the flag bearer. He struggled through thick and thin to establish himself in the music industry. His mother died when he was 12 days old and his father died when he was 12 years. Unlike his contenders that were born and bred in Benin City, Nowamagbe was a farmer and a rubber tapper in his Ugha village and he learned music from his in-law. It was an antelope he sold for N220 that he used to get freedom from his master in 1990.
The UPP candidate said: “I am happy with everything I made through music. I am proud to be a musician. I did music till I became a professor like other professors in various fields. Music gives inspiration you will not understand because it is controlled by a certain spirit. There is a spirit that controls music, especially if you are born to be a musician. There must be an angel that controls you and give you pattern. I started with calypso and I became a social critic, which made some people not to like me. but, I didn’t care because I was looking up to God. That was why God came now to say I should go and put smiles on the faces of the people. I said how? He said I should declare myself the next governor of Edo State. God has given me all it takes to be the governor of Edo.”
On how he hoped to contend with political heavy weights, Nowamagbe said: “You call them heavy weights, but they are political recyclers. They have squeezed themselves into one party like cockroaches. If they are heavy weights, they should go to Abuja, bring a new party and make it popular like I did. If they know they have a name, they could have joined other political parties. Some of them have stolen money to spend. They should sponsor a new party and make it popular. Many of them have the tendency to squander our money and they want to come and do it again. I am coming to shift the focus.”
