The recent victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the off-cycle governorship election in Edo State was made possible because of the untiring efforts of some notable party chieftains such as Senator Adams Oshiomhole and the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) led by Governor Hope Uzodimma. It was for the purpose of expanding the party’s frontiers and making it one of first choice by Nigerians.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu acknowledged the role of Senator Oshiomhole and the progressive governors at a meeting with the leadership of the party in Abuja recently, where the governor-elect and the deputy governor-elect, Monday Okpebholo and Dennis Idahosa, were presented their Certificates of Return. At the meeting, the President hailed the role played by Oshiomhole and Uzodimma during the election. He also urged the party leadership and membership to remain united and focused on achieving the Renewed Hope Agenda.
He said: “Never mind the noise makers. I do a lot of statistical sampling and results. When you hear politicians saying ‘all politics are local’, you must respect that notion.
Try as it may, the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) baseless attempts to exonerate itself from the hardship confronting Nigerians, the effects of which President Tinubu has frontally taken on to reverse, via the Renewed Hope Agenda, will ever be to the utter shame and regret of the PDP.
As the gains of the re-engineering matrix of the administration bear more fruits in the not-distant future, the true meaning of the fabled 60-year-rule of the PDP and the juggernauts that touted it, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, would dawn on Nigerians. They planned to put Nigerians under perpetual and everlasting bondage, misery and suffering.
Nigerians are now wiser, and nothing encapsulates this more than the APC’s victory in Edo State that brought a well-deserving end to the Godwin Obaseki eight years of maladministration and back into the fold of the forward-looking APC.
Under the leadership of the APC led by President Tinubu, Edo State would be salvaged and brought back into the APC fold. Governor Uzodimma has been beckoned to lead other progressive governors in ensuring the mission is accomplished, applying all democratic principles. The Imo State governor is one of the silent heroes who worked day and night to make this come to reality and once again ensure that democracy flourishes in Edo and its dividends cascade down to the people, under the leadership of Governor-elect Okpebholo, beginning November 12 and beyond.
Governor Uzodimma, fondly called Onwa by teeming supporters and admirers, has democratic antecedents that predate his emergence as Imo State governor in 2020. A former member of the upper legislative chamber of the National Assembly, he, not unlike President Tinubu, who he holds in the highest of regards and esteem, has joined in expanding the frontiers of the party, ensuring notable spread across the Niger and far beyond the Heartland State (Imo), where he has continued to endear the ruling party to all and sundry.
With sterling performance in Imo, which has rubbed off on Ndi Imo at the federal level, through appointments, added to the glaring federal presence in the state and coupled with his administration’s unsurpassed infrastructural and economic development strides, Governor Uzodimma has continued to garner accolades from far and wide, several of which has translated into more recognition and added responsibilities.
Into his first tenure in office, colleagues from the ruling party, in recognition of his leadership qualities made Uzodimma the chairman of the Progressives Governors’ Forum. Even before he came into office, President Tinubu had chosen to work with him, by charging him with a sensitive assignment, which he has delivered on. In the process, the APC has gained and continues to add into its fold, a windfall of notable opposition figures joining the ruling party at the centre in the Southeast geo-political zone.
The landmark APC victory in Edo was made possible by the unrelenting efforts of Oshiomhole and Uzodimma. Right from the beginning, the Imo State governor has been in the thick of the battle to rightfully return Edo State to the fold, working assiduously with others, including the leader of the APC in Edo State, Senator Oshiomhole, a former two-term governor, to make this manifest. It is, therefore, no surprise that following the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) declaration of Senator Monday Okpebholo as the winner of the September 21 election, congratulatory messages have been pouring in from far and near.
Uzodimma, being a loyal party leader, may not understand what he and others have achieved in getting Edo back to the APC fold. But, observers of Edo politics are in a position to understand. After Comrade Oshiomhole left the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) as its president, people from all walks of life, advised him to contest for the highest office in the land, the presidency. But Oshiomhole opted to run for the governorship after the Edo people persuaded him to come and lead them out of the PDP conundrum. That was how Oshiomhole joined the governorship race in 2007, under the umbrella of the then Action Congress (AC), in alliance with the Labour movement.
However, he was rigged out by the PDP, and the Edo people cried foul. The current president mobilised resources for Oshiomhole and recruited forensic experts who deployed the most modern techniques, including recounting the ballot papers used for the election. That was how, on March 20, 2008, the Edo State Election Petition Tribunal nullified the election of Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor and declared Oshiomhole the authentic winner. On November 11, 2008, the Court of Appeal upheld the ruling of the state election petition tribunal, declaring Oshiomhole the winner.
Therefore, Governor Obaseki made one of his too numerous blunders, when he and his cohorts came with their usual rhetoric that, “Edo no be Lagos”. Sadly, after the efforts made by the now President Tinubu and Oshiomhole to bring Edo into the APC, Governor Obaseki, who was handed the ticket of the party by the latter, against all odds, took the state back to the PDP, to the chagrin of many, including President Tinubu and Oshiomhole.
It is, therefore, understood why President Tinubu deployed his political ally in the Southeast, the political strategist, Governor Uzodimma, to return Edo to the APC fold. Uzodimma did just that, applying all democratic tenets. He campaigned for the party within the Igbo community in Edo, by reminding them of all the anti-democratic actions of Governor Obaseki, including his refusal to swear in 14 elected members of the Edo House of Assembly. He rallied fellow governors to ensure that the dream of Mr President was achieved in Edo.
By reclaiming Edo State to the APC, Governor Uzodimma is already galvanizing support for President Tinubu’s 2027 second-term bid, which is well expected, clearing all hurdles and expanding the political horizon of the APC ahead of 2027. Today, the Imo governor has been described as the “Lion” of the Southeast. As chairman of the Southeast Governors Forum, Uzodimma has been able to propagate the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu, and today the Southeast is witnessing the influx of people into the APC.
The APC National Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, while congratulating Senator Okpebholo, commended the political sagacity of Uzodimma and other progressive governors. “We look forward to a prosperous new chapter for Edo State,” Ganduje said.
There were wild jubilations in the ancient kingdom of Benin, when the Returning Officer for the Edo State governorship election and Vice-Chancellor, Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna, Niger State, Prof. Faruk Adamu Kuta, declared Senator Monday Okpebholo of the APC as the winner of the keenly-contested election at 9:26 p.m. on Sunday, September 22. He announced that Okpebholo, representing the Edo Central Senatorial District, secured 291,667 votes to defeat the PDP candidate, Dr Asue Ighodalo, who got 247,274 votes.
The Labour Party’s (LP) Olumide Akpata, former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), came a distant third, securing 22,763 votes. This declaration has ended Obaseki’s plot to keep Edo under the stranglehold of the PDP. Thanks to Governor Uzodimma whose superior political dexterity rescued the state from that stranglehold. President Tinubu can now relax that his APC has made a major in-road into the South-south ahead of 2027.
• Ebegbulem was former Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to Senator Adams Oshiomhole as APC National Chairman and the immediate past Imo State Commissioner for Trade and Investment
