Anyone reading through Professor Oserheimen Osunbor’s interview on Pages 46 and 47 of Monday, June 8, 2015 edition of Vanguard newspaper will, invariably, come away with the impression that the political woes that befell him on Tuesday, November 11, 2008, is traceable to the doorsteps of Chief Tony Anenih, the immediate past Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees.
It is glaring that the former Governor of Edo State has a well-laid-out personal agenda to pigeon-hole Chief Anenih as a never-forgiving man who engineered his fall from power and authority. In the same vein, he struggled to rationalise his hitherto concealed dalliance with the Oshiomhole Administration while he was holding a federal appointment as the Chairman of the Nigerian Law Reform Commission – a position he clung on to until the eve of his defection to the All Progressive Congress, on April 7, 2015.
It is conventional wisdom that Chief Tony Anenih “made” Osunbor politically. As a rookie politician who had just descended from the Ivory Tower, Chief Anenih, literally picked Osunbor from the “political nursery”, nurtured him to full bloom and guided and mentored his ascendancy into political recognition and primacy. On his own, Osunbor ranked third in the perking order of PDP governorship hopefuls just before the epochal primary held on Saturday, December 9, 2006. In the country’s power matrix, Anenih’s position and relevance to the business of politicking is so vital and weighty that he has been the rallying point or the diverging one – depending on which side of the political divide you happen to perch. Osunbor rode on this platform and became the Governor of Edo State.
Like the mythical bird – the phoenix – Chief Tony Anenih has always risen from the “ashes” of brazen confrontations, wilful disloyalty, unprovoked insolence and accusations of zero-tolerance for dissenting views, to the pantheon of those who recognise, nurture and apply positive ideas in the actualisation of those state policies, programmes and projects for the benefit of the larger mass of the people. He believed that Osunbor’s freshness and vision would be to the uplift of Edo State, hence the support.
Osunbor’s vituperative on the sources of funds that powered his governorship campaigns between December 2006 and April 2007, is hinged on the unauthenticated claim that Chief Anenih asked for the repayment of a personal loan of N200m, he advanced to the PDP Campaign Organisation when it ran into dire financial waters. The assertion that funds were sent to state branches of the PDP to finance campaigns in the run-up to the elections of April 14, 2007, did not point out that these funds were rather complementary and not enough to run the whole hog of electioneering.
Osunbor’s half-confession that “I didn’t see any N200 million that Chief Anenih contributed to finance my election. But I am aware that he contributed N100 million to the PDP in Edo State and as governor, I ensured that money was paid to him”. If it really transpired, Edolites MUST ask Osunbor where he got the N100m he said he paid to Chief Anenih after “verifying” that he (Anenih) contributed that sum to prop up his campaign. Was this sum taken from Edo State monthly allocation(s) or from his personal pocket? How did he “verify”, if the money was not handed over to him (Osunbor).
As a candidate, who was virtually insolvent before he joined the governorship fray in Edo State, Professor Oserheimen Osunbor enjoyed the goodwill of many partymen and women who donated funds, vehicles, campaign stationery and promotional materials etc to ensure his visibility and electability in the Edo electoral spectrum. Prior to his swearing-in, Edo State PDP gave Osunbor a comprehensive list of those selfless party people who voluntarily donated to his campaign for acknowledgement and recognition. It is noteworthy that more than seven years on, Osunbor never deemed it fit, worthwhile or fair to correspond with these people who made his election possible, in the first place. Instead he alienated the people as soon as he settled down.
The people of Edo State are not fooled that Osunbor’s cock-and-bull rationalisation of his self-serving defection to the APC, is coming at this period in time when hustling for the 2016 Edo State Governorship Election is revving in few months ahead. You can gauge his desperation to go back to Government House, Benin City in his own words:” That I’m now in APC is no longer a rumour. Why I left the PDP is not longer a rumour. I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AN APC SUPPORTER IN EDO STATE. (Capitals, mine). I only formally joined on the 7th of April……..”
The interview is designed to launder the image of Professor Osunbor and ingratiate him before his new masters who will soon realise that he joined them because of his obsession for Osadebay Avenue, Benin City.
Before I end this rebuff, I would like our Prof to tell Nigerians and Edolites if our Leader was responsible for the dirty slap he received from his wife Mrs Osunbor in full glare of party leaders and members when he was pushing for a certain lady to be nominated as council chairman. This incident was one of many that exposed Prof Osunbor as not only a weakling, but lily livered. It is also noteworthy to inform Nigerians that instead of the professor of law to take the issue of his court case seriously, he hired all sort of Native doctors and juju men who had a field day milking him and the state to preserve himself in office.
Like the mythical phoenix, the PDP in Edo State will rise, mobilise and galvanise Edo people as well as refocus and re-build for the struggles ahead, not on belly-aching over Janus-faced politicians whose only undying wish is to lead even under the mentorship of The Devil himself!
Signed :
Chris Osa Nehikhare
Publicity Secretary
PDP Edo State.