By Igbotako Nowinta
As far as l am concerned, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and Governor Godwin Obaseki shot themselves mercilessly in their legs, in the way they carried and conducted themselves since the bruising electoral campaigns that climaxed with the 2016 Edo State Governorship Election. Someone curious may want to ask: what and how do l mean? A brief recollection of some of the tragic and unpleasant political maneuvers of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, months leading to the 2016 Edo State Governorship Election will illuminate this path of discussion. It is on record that as sitting Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, threw the then chairman of his Economic Team, Godwin Obaseki on the party without minding whose ox was gored. The crude bullets that emanated from his political dane gun pierced the rank and file of the party and almost tore them into shreds. Some of the casualties are still angrily nursing the brutal wounds they sustained in that most unnecessary campaign of attrition initiated and launched by the Oshiomhole camp then.
The recent political bazookas and daggers being shot and drawn indiscriminately, against each other, by loyalists to both Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and incumbent Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, is nothing new in the political jungle of Nigeria.
What appears new, frightening and disturbing to me is the sophistry and stark recklessness that some of the major stakeholders have brought to the theatre of the present conflict, as if their lives depend on it.
As far as l am concerned, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and Governor Godwin Obaseki shot themselves mercilessly in their legs, in the way they carried and conducted themselves since the bruising electoral campaigns that climaxed with the 2016 Edo State Governorship Election.
Someone curious may want to ask: what and how do l mean? A brief recollection of some of the tragic and unpleasant political maneuvers of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, months leading to the 2016 Edo State Governorship Election will illuminate this path of discussion.
It is on record that as sitting Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, threw the then chairman of his Economic Team, Godwin Obaseki on the party without minding whose ox was gored.
The crude bullets that emanated from his political dane gun pierced the rank and file of the party and almost tore them into shreds. Some of the casualties are still angrily nursing the brutal wounds they sustained in that most unnecessary campaign of attrition initiated and launched by the Oshiomhole camp then.
Sadly, for Adams Oshiomhole, as a political tractor he has not learnt the logic of when to call a halt to his gigantic political clearance in Edo State. What else does a character like Oshiomhole want after he had regrettably graduated into a political godfather, an appellation he pretended to abhor since he incredibly ‘conquered’ the godfathers in Edo State? I was even a victim of the then ‘war’!
Shocked by the crude political tactics employed by Oshiomhole, given the fact that l had written a book earlier in 2012, titled – ‘Adams Oshiomhole-Conqueror of the godfathers, I did an article named ‘Return of the godfather,’ which was published in Vanguard newspaper on February 24, 2016.
That article staggered the Oshiomhole camp, because l objectively shut him down, which led to subsequent losing my weekly ‘Pebbles’ column in the Nigerian Observer, before the 2016 Governorship Election.
Therefore, Godwin Obaseki since day one in 2016 won a pyrrhic victory, first over a chunk of his own party men before he survived the political whirlwind generated by Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, who massively adorned the attire of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Unfortunately for Governor Godwin Obaseki, he carelessly exposed his political kwashiorkor, naivety and ignorance early in his tenure when he rudely yanked off some of the party stalwarts that ensured his successful journey to Dennis Osadebey Avenue.
Godwin Obaseki’s political mismanagement of his victory has now exposed him to what he is getting from some quarters today in the state.
This is not supporting those lazy political jobbers or lackeys who wanted to bite from the state treasury for nothing, but common sense dictates that you do not neglect your political faithful so that their relevance can be courted as and when due on the field of politics in Edo State. Indeed, politics is not supposed to be ‘a winner takes it all.’
Certainly, Oshiomhole can never be a man of all seasons in Edo State; he could not have eaten his political cake and wanted it back! Since the ‘lucky’ Governor, Godwin Obaseki has woken up to be a ‘political horse’ by his deft calculating maneuvers that has manifested in what we are seeing today in Edo State House of Assembly, l hereby pitch my tent with him to teach malevolent political godfathers in the land a lesson on knowing when to apply the brakes of insatiable political conquests.
Equally interesting is the fact that in spite of glaring challenges, the Godwin Obaseki administration has systematically won the hearts of Edo people in many perspectives in his ‘wake and see’ phenomenon, thereby qualifying him for a second term, come 2020. On this note, l stand with Godwin Obaseki!
Today, the Benin political extraction in the south has realized the need to rally round one of their own in Godwin Obaseki, to shield him from the humiliation that the Etsako rampaging political machine is poised to unleash, to stop him from enjoying what Oshiomhole had enjoyed uninterruptedly for eight years from 2008 to 2016 in Edo State.
Today, Oshiomhole and Obaseki must sheath their political daggers in the overall interest of the poverty stricken electorate in Edo State, who genuinely yearn for quality, proactive representation from the present crop of lawmakers that will make positive impacts on their lives.
No selfish egocentric agenda from any corner in Edo State, or at the national secretariat of the APC, must override the wishes and aspirations of the masses in whom absolute sovereignty resides, now and always.
The earlier these unwarranted and unwanted political daggers being brandished menacingly, by the factional camps are dropped, the better for the health of all stakeholders within the APC in Edo State, having in mind also that the 2020 Edo State Governorship Election is gathering momentum.
Nowinta wrote: Where We Are – a call for democratic revolution in Nigeria.
