By Sufuyan Ojeifo<\/p>\n
If the governorship election, earlier scheduled for September10, 2016, had
\nnot been shifted to September 28, by now, the good people of Edo State
\nwould have been celebrating the emergence of a brand new Governor; and, I
\nam not in doubt as to what the verdict would have been. Pastor Osagie
\nIze-Iyamu would have become the custodian of the people\u2019s sacred mandate.
\nAs a grassroots politician, Ize-Iyamu has galvanized massive support
\nacross the State. He is seen more as the face of the liberation movement
\nthan the candidate of a political party in the rescheduled election.
\nThrough him, the people would have realised their much-desired freedom
\nfrom the shackles of deceptive administration, foisted on them by the
\noutgoing Governor Adams Oshiomhole.
\nHowever, in spite of the poll shift, deliberately orchestrated by the
\nGovernor, in concert with some security agents, when he saw the writing on
\nthe wall, the people\u2019s verdict, according to credible reports and feelers,
\nremains sacrosanct. They will now declare it on September 28 or any other
\ntime the election is rescheduled to hold. For them, the election provides
\na veritable opportunity to reprimand Oshiomhole for the propaganda of the
\nlast four years.
\nThe day of reckoning has finally come. The comrade Governor has
\npathetically realised that deception has an expiry date. Governance by
\ndivide and rule has lost its efficacy. He is now faced with a worsening
\ncredibility crisis. The shift in the date of the election, rather than
\nmitigate what would have been his initial electoral damage, has reportedly
\nworsened his situation. The postponement has backfired and this is very
\nobvious. The consequential collateral damage will manifest on September
\n28.
\nThat I have, so far, refrained from mentioning the names of political
\nparties in this piece is deliberate. I am convinced that the governorship
\nelection in Edo is not about political parties or party affiliations. It
\nis a statewide consciousness to test the people\u2019s will against the will of
\na man who has transformed from a comrade to the ultimate godfather in his
\nparty and now wants to extend his suzerainty to the entire State by
\nplotting to install his proxy \u2013 Godwin Obaseki \u2013 as his successor. His
\nplan is sardonically self-serving. A vote for Obaseki is already dubbed
\nas a vote for a neo-godfather.
\nIndeed, Oshiomhole wants an Obaseki who would cover his odious tracks,
\ncontrary to his claim of continuity of performance. This is discounting
\nObaseki\u2019s electoral value and self-worth. The people are now much more
\nenlightened. They say they do not want a puppeteer who will sustain his
\nmaster\u2019s continuity of divide and rule. They easily cite the massive
\ndevelopment in the Governor\u2019s village (Iyamho) at the expense of so many
\ntowns and villages across the State. To a very large extent, the comrade
\nGovernor\u2019s credibility problem is self-inflicted. It is his personal
\ntragedy that he had chosen to be a clannish and nepotistic Governor.
\nAnnoyingly, he always turns round to point fingers of guilt at elders in
\nthe State who are politically opposed to him, making them butts of abuses
\nand verbal attacks, blaming them for all imaginable setbacks that the
\nState has witnessed in the past. It is indisputable that Oshiomhole does
\nnot have respect for elders. He has terribly fouled the air of the
\nculture of respect in Edo state; and, he has now extended his lack of
\nrespect to the sacred area of tradition by insisting that the governorship
\nelection should be shifted to coincide with some post-coronation
\nactivities of the revered Oba of Benin.
\nThe actual coronation should have been on September 26, 2016. The
\nelection is on September 28. From September 27 after the coronation,
\ncommunity and village heads in Edo South would have been expected to leave
\ntheir domains to visit the Oba of Benin in his palace to pay homage. But
\nthose movements to express royal solidarity would certainly have beeen
\naffected by the pre-election, election and post-election activities.
\nIndeed, it was because of Oshiomhole\u2019s obstinacy on the September 28 date
\nthat the Benin Kingdom would now have to wait till October 20 to coronate
\nthe new Oba. The new date is now confirmed. The Governor made fine
\ntradition to buckle in the face of crude politics.
\nBut, there were reports in the social media, after the postponement, that
\nthe Deputy Governor, Dr Pius Odubu, a true and courageous Benin son, told
\nOshiomhole that his decision to have INEC pick September 28 was capable of
\nundermining age-long traditions. Dr Odubu was reportedly upbraided by
\nOshiomhole for talking about tradition when his political fortune was
\nunder real threat. Oshiomhole does not care about tradition, yet he wants
\nto benefit and make political capital out of royal endorsements by
\ntraditional rulers for his candidate.
\nOshiomhole is desperate and ready to go to the extreme to install his
\nsuccessor. But well-meaning Nigerians should counsel him not to plunge
\nEdo State into avoidable crisis through his manipulative conduct. Edo
\npeople are peace-loving. It was bad enough that the Governor, through his
\nschemes, prompted security agencies to dubiously and negatively profile
\nEdo State as a safe haven for militants and terrorists of the Boko Haram
\nhue. Is it not curious that the security advice came on the heels of a
\nhitch-free mega rally, organised for his candidate with President
\nMuhammadu Buhari in attendance?
\nIn the run-up to the September 28 election, the Governor has resorted to
\nseveral questionable antics aimed at subverting the will of the people.
\nHe has allegedly directed that Electoral Officers in the State should be
\ndeployed and replaced with those from some States controlled by his
\nparty. The INEC has reportedly rebutted this insinuation. He has also
\nbeen alleged to have made moves to have INEC replace National Youth
\nService Corps (NYSC) members already trained for the election with his
\nparty members. The reason for the move is that the Youth Corps members
\nwill pass out on September 26. The electoral body has also said it would
\nnot succumb to the push. These gambits are capable of inflaming
\ndestructive passion.
\nPerhaps, the real concern is the recruitment and planned deployment of
\nvicious thugs to disrupt and undermine the integrity of the electoral
\nprocess. Leading politicians and opposing political camps have accused
\none another of complicity in this. The Governor, who has been in power in
\nthe State for about eight years, has so much explanation to make as
\nregards the prevalence of thugs on the political turf in the State. His
\nclaim that the other camp had registered 8,000 militants is dubious and
\nunjustifiable. The simple and logical argument is that with state
\nmachinery at his disposal, Oshiomhole is better positioned to recruit and
\nfund thugs for political ends. He is said to have sustained a lucrative
\nrecruitment scheme since stepping in the saddle as Governor and has given
\nofficial protection to known thugs, including the notorious Osakpanmwan
\n(alias No Molest) who once assaulted a prince of the Benin monarch.
\nFurther validation: during the Akoko-Edo House of Assembly rerun election
\nin August 2009, there were media reports that twenty seven thugs wielding
\nAK-47 rifles, who were allegedly recruited from Kogi by the then Action
\nCongress (AC), the Governor\u2019s party, were arrested in Igarra by the Deputy
\nCommissioner of Police in charge of election operations and taken to Abuja
\non the instructions of the Inspector General of Police. They were
\nreportedly paraded with their rifles by the Police and charged to court.
\nUpon their release to their sureties, Nigerians would want to know why the
\nmatter has since \u201cdied.\u201d The thugs and their sureties are still at large
\nwhile the exhibits (Ak-47 rifles) are being detained by the Police. It is
\nall the outcome of the manipulative conduct of a desperate Governor even
\nas a member of the opposition party. One can, then, imagine the extent he
\nwill go now that his party controls the government at the centre.
\nThis and other pranks are what the Police, in particular, and other
\nsecurity agencies should work assiduously to avert on September 28. The
\nPolice should be allowed to do their job. Oshiomhole should not use his
\nposition as the Chief Security Officer of the State to manipulate and
\ncoerce the Police to do his bidding. I pray that the INEC will provide a
\nlevel play field by conducting the election in accordance with the
\nguidelines as contained in its books.
\nFinally, I hope that President Muhammadu Buhari, who is a beneficiary of a
\nfree and fair presidential election in 2015, will not throw partisan bias
\ninto the mix. After a series of inconclusive elections by INEC under his
\npresidency, this should be an opportunity for the Commission to justify
\nthe postponement of Edo governorship election by making the election a
\nmodel worthy of replication in future exercises. This will, no doubt,
\nenhance the election management profile of Buhari\u2019s government.<\/p>\n
Mr Ojeifo, Editor-in-Chief of The Congresswatch magazine, sent this piece
\nfrom Abuja.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Sufuyan Ojeifo If the governorship election, earlier scheduled for September10, 2016, had not been shifted to September 28, by now, the good people of Edo State would have been…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n