There is too much at stake for Adams Oshiomhole in the coming September 28 Edo election. As if his life depends on its outcome, he has embarked on a vigorous campaign across the state dancing, jumping and advertising his achievements. He says his is a battle for continuity against return to the Igbinedion and PDP years of the locust. The governor’s battle unfortunately is not just against the entrenched interests in Edo State but against all those with a sense of entitlement in the Delta region beginning with the militants, their sponsors, who Ken Saro-Wiwa described as ‘vultures’, who after impoverishing their people by converting the commonwealth to private use, move over to the courts to secure perpetual injunctions as a shield against prosecution in a region where successive leaders since 1966 believe ‘stealing is not corruption’.
The recent shift in date of the election has led to fierce attack and intensification of hostility between the combatants. But if you asked me if Oshiomhole and his party are vulnerable in spite of his sterling performance, my answer will be in the affirmative. Beyond the bravado and shout of “PDP is dead in Edo and we are waiting for its burial”, Oshiomhole knows the outcome of electoral contest has never been decided on the basis of outstanding performance or faithful implementation of party manifesto since rigging was introduced by ‘mainstreamers’ to the Western Region in 1964.
Detailing how that election was rigged, Mr. Esua, ex oficio chairman of the western regional electoral commission in a letter to Governor Fadahunsi dated November 20, 1965 enumerated the strategies: “Refusal of electoral officers to accept nomination papers or failure to report for duty; announcements of candidates ‘elected unopposed’ without the commission’s prior clearance; revocation of the appointments and replacement of electoral officers; leakages of voting slips; refusal of returning officers to read the certificates of votes counted at the place of counting”. Akintola refused to back down when he, along with Akinloye, Ayo Rosiji, Akinjide and Fani Kayode met with Sardauna over the massive rigging insisting “what happened in his region was not different from what happened in other regions”. The method was improved upon by NPN to sweep away high performing UPN governors in 1983. Obasanjo further modified it to sweep away ANPP and AD governors in 2003. Jonathan modernized it with an injection of $1.4b.
Besides ex- President Jonathan whose ego was bruised by Oshiomhole’s refusal to demonstrate his loyalty by acting in the manners of Obi and Mimiko, the governor has also stepped on powerful toes in and outside Edo State. Starting from his Edo base, he has Chief Tony Anenih, ‘Mr. Fixer’, to contend with. Here is a man who was already an ‘institution’ long before Adams Oshiomhole manoeuvred his way into the textile unions where he made a living by shouting ‘aluta’. He was by 1983, Edo State chairman of National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and took credit for helping Chief Samuel Ogbemudia take power from a very resourceful Professor Ambrose Alli in the days of NPN’s curious “land slide and sea slide’ victories in opponents strongholds. By 1993, he was the chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) which secured victory for MKO Abiola, a victory Anenih later traded away. He was Obasanjo’s Minister of Works accused by political enemies of expending over N300b budget for roads on the 2003 election during which PDP defeated ANPP and AD in their strongholds. He recently admitted to EFCC the disbursement of N260m from Office of National Security Adviser on behalf of President Jonathan to groups and individuals to influence the 2015 election. I present before you fellow compatriots, a great Edo man of ‘timber and calibre’, Oshiomhole has consistently taunted since President Jonathan in his magnanimity reined in his militants and allowed him win the 2013 election. Now with Anenih and Jonathan, a man who hardly forgives, joining forces, Oshiomhole knows the day of reckoning has finally come.
Oshiomhole also has Chief Tom Ikimi, a former chairman of NRC, who rather than concede defeat of his party settled for General Abacha’s foreign minister as another home based formidable foe. He recently moved back to PDP from APC which he helped to put together when he lost the contest for the chairmanship of the party to Chief Oyegun. Ikimi saw the hand of Oshiomhole in his defeat.
Another sworn enemy of Oshiomhole in Edo is High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, a media mogul and a former business partner of the late MKO Abiola and late General Shehu Yar’Adua (President Yar’Adua’s elder brother). He and his Daar Holding and Investment Limited has since December 9, 2015 been charged to court for partaking in the sharing of money budgeted for weapons procurement for the Nigerian military but allegedly diverted by Dasuki Sambo, the then National Security Adviser, to Dokpesi’s Daar Holding and Investment Limited. Someone has to pay for the humiliation of one of the Edo untouchables. And the only person that fits that bill is Oshiomhole, the face of APC in Edo.
Of course Oshiomhole’s greatest foe in Edo is Lucky Igbinedion who he had accused of stealing from the people. Although he merely addressed him by his new status of a convict, conferred on him by the court, his supporters even at that think Oshiomhole who made a living shouting “aluta’ before becoming governor should have some respect for an untouchable Benin ‘icon’. Matters are not helped when Oshiomhole went on to boast about his recovery of over 200,000 hectares of land illegally dashed out to Chief Gabriel Igbinedion by his son, Lucky when he was governor. Oshiomhole has climbed the cliff. Civil society groups have demonstrated in Benin insisting Oshiomhole who has brought such a dishonor to a revered Benin family must be replaced by Ize-Iyamu who was Igbinedion’s Chief of Staff when Benin City looked like a war-ravaged city as a minimum condition for a truce.
As if these are not enough domestic problems plaguing one small man of slight build, whose weapon is his caustic tongue, from the larger Delta came other formidable adversaries such as Princess Stella Oduah and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala both at the receiving end of Oshiomhole endless diatribes on corruption and incompetence. Both women of means and influence are feverishly working to ensure Oshiomhole is roundly defeated on September 28 if only to teach him a lesson that ‘no man ever wins a woman’s war.’
Ifeanyi Okowa and Nyesom Wike, Oshiomhole’s Niger Delta brother governors, both of whom he had advised to pay arrears of workers’ salaries in their states instead of mobilizing N2b to support Ize-Iyamu or sponsoring 8,000 militants to destabilise his state during the elections are not amused. But they are resolved on one thing: Edo State must be brought back into the Niger Delta fold. This is a task that must be accomplished even if it involves applying the “Amaechi treatment’ which forced his supporters to run for their lives instead of coming out to vote for Dakuku Peterside, his candidate. All is fair in war. The objective is to ensure Ize-Iyamu rides into power even if it means on the blood of the people as Wike, according to Itse Sagay, did in Rivers.
The battle line is drawn between vultures, militants, men as ‘institutions’ and one small man of light build who arrogantly calls himself a ‘giant killer’, swearing by the lives he has touched and communities he has served diligently for eight years. The epic battle is set for September 28. The umpire and the security personnel, we hope will provide a level playing ground by guarding against the repeat of chaos and anarchy that accompanied the Port Harcourt war wrongly described as election.
