{"id":29257,"date":"2014-07-16T21:57:26","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T20:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=29257"},"modified":"2014-07-16T21:57:26","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T20:57:26","slug":"oshiomhole-as-the-trouble-with-edo-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/oshiomhole-as-the-trouble-with-edo-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Oshiomhole as the trouble with Edo State"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\" align=\"center\">By Tamuno West-Greene<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">If there is one thing that the opposition politicians and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have perfected, it must be the skills for propaganda and public deception.\u00a0\u00a0They have become experts in acting the aggressor and victim all at once.\u00a0\u00a0Like the proverbial mischief-maker, they would go into the bush with a cutlass only to jump out to the road to lead the search for the one cutting the bush.\u00a0\u00a0We have seen this dishonest display by the APC time and time again.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Recently, at the news of the passing of the highly revered Emir Ado Bayero of Kano, the APC leader, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, led Senator Bukola Saraki and other APC governors to Kano to influence the appointment of one of their own, the suspended Central Bank Governor, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the new emir of Kano \u2013 an action that tested the security and tranquillity of the volatile city.\u00a0\u00a0As usual instead of staying with the fact that they went to interfere with the internal matter of the Kano people, the narrative changed to how President Jonathan used the law enforcement agents to harass the APC leaders in Kano.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Even Governor Amaechi regaled those who are not yet bored with his cock and bull stories how he acted\u00a0<i>James Bond<\/i>\u00a0to escape from Kano.\u00a0\u00a0Recall also that it was the same Rivers State governor who chose to use a gate leading to his office, which he had never used in the past, the very day he learnt that the police were on their way to seal off the office of an impostor group, the new PDP, just to dramatize that he was denied access to his office.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the recent Ekiti gubernatorial election decisively won by the PDP, the APC leadership including the erudite governor of Lagos State, Raji Babatunde Fashola who should know, are working tirelessly to change the narrative from the triumph of popular will to their so-called \u201cstomach infrastructure\u201d theory. APC is the party in government in Ekiti and boasts of all the resources.\u00a0\u00a0There were reports that together with their candidate, APC spent huge money, bribed voters with sundry gifts and even threatened workers in the state\u2019s employ with sack if they refused to go along with them at the polls.\u00a0\u00a0Yet the same people are shouting aloud how PDP bribed and intimidated voters in Ekiti State!<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The APC government in Edo State has now keyed into their party\u2019s familiar refrain of public deception of playing aggressor and victim once again.\u00a0Things have fallen apart in the politics of the state and the centre can no longer hold.\u00a0\u00a0In the past weeks, crises have engulfed the Edo State government.\u00a0\u00a0Specifically, the State House of Assembly is in serious turmoil with members at daggers drawn across party lines.\u00a0\u00a0As matters stand now, the Assembly has been divided into two separate factions each with its own speaker and \u2018house leaders\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0And each \u2018House\u2019 is sitting separately in different locations and making \u2018laws\u2019 for the good governance of the state. Although in legal terms, it is quite easy to argue that one faction is the authentic \u2018House\u2019 and the other, a group of impostors, yet the problem is deeper than what legalistic explanations can offer.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Yes, it is on record that a court of law has duly upheld the suspension of the PDP legislators and the affected lawmakers did not help their case by treating the judgment with levity no matter how unjust it might have been.\u00a0\u00a0Yet the reality is that legalism has not staved off the unrest with the state precariously perching on its precipice with every passing day.\u00a0\u00a0Even more germane is the fact that rather than hurt the PDP lawmakers, the judgment upholding their suspension is denying the people of their constituencies who freely elected them a voice in the governance of their state. The judiciary ought to advance the frontiers of democracy rather than abridge popular participation. That is precisely what the court judgment is in the matter of the suspension of the PDP lawmakers in the Edo House.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">But away from esoteric theoretical arguments, there is a more practical question to ask: is the crisis rocking Edo House of Assembly avoidable?\u00a0\u00a0In all fairness, the straightforward answer to this question is yes.\u00a0\u00a0It is yes because the crisis arose simply because the members of the Edo legislature<a name=\"_GoBack\"><\/a>especially those from the opposition PDP want to be independent of the executive in carrying out their law-making duties as the principle of democracy ordained.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As has become the case in almost all the states, governors have reduced the legislature, what is in fact the most important organ of government to a mere annex of the executive arm.\u00a0\u00a0As loud as governors including Rotimi Amaechi and indeed Oshiomhole may accuse Jonathan of high-handedness, the governors are the main obstacle to democracy by interfering and dictating to the legislature.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The case of Edo State under Oshiomhole\u2019s watch is even more intriguing.\u00a0\u00a0Oshiomhole when elected poached the PDP lawmakers who dominated the House and lured them to defect to his party.\u00a0\u00a0Now some of those lawmakers are accusing their governor of grand hypocrisy and dictatorship and have decided to return to the PDP but their governor would have none of that.\u00a0\u00a0Although Oshiomhole and his ruling APC are accusing the PDP of fomenting crisis in his state, the incontrovertible truth is that Oshiomhole is the one behind the crisis in the State House of Assembly.\u00a0\u00a0He was enjoying it when he was taking PDP lawmakers to his party.\u00a0\u00a0Now that APC is unravelling and people are seeing through their propaganda and melodrama nationwide and beginning to question their membership of the party, people like the Edo governor appear to be on the edge.\u00a0\u00a0Why is Oshiomhole waiting to be told that he is the trouble with Edo State?<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>\n<div><b>West-Greene contributed this piece from Port Harcourt.<\/b><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Tamuno West-Greene If there is one thing that the opposition politicians and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have perfected, it must be the skills for propaganda&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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