Next Saturday, the people of Edo State, will vote for a new governor to take over from Godwin Obaseki who will soon complete his second tenure. The major gladiators in the election are Obaseki’s preferred candidate, Asue Ighadolo, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Monday Okpebholo, and that of the Labour Party (LP), Olumide Akpata.
Obaseki who was elected governor in 2016 on the platform of the APC, decamped to the PDP, to contest the 2020 elections, after he fell out with his godfather and predecessor, Adams Oshiomhole who was then the chairman of the APC. The PDP excitedly welcomed him to their fold, and after a keenly contested election, Obaseki was declared the winner. When Obaseki fell out with Oshiomhole, during his first tenure, he also fell out with the members of the state House of Assembly, elected on the platform of the APC, in 2019.

To the chagrin of even non-partisans, in Edo State and across the country, Obaseki refused to swear in some elected legislators. Out of 24 legislators, Obaseki carried out his executive responsibility, which required the imprimatur of the legislators, with only 10 legislators, out 24, which make up Edo State House of Assembly. Luckily for Obaseki, former President Muhammadu Buhari, condoned the governor’s intransigence and the 14 legislators, who were considered to belong to Oshiomhole’s faction spent their four-year tenure at home.
Oshiomhole, was also sacked from his position as the APC chairman by his ward, apparently for belonging to the camp of the then potential presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. And with the tacit approval of the presidency, Obaseki swept the polls. As the gladiators head towards the election, next weekend, there is no doubt that the dynamics have changed. Oshiomhole has bounced back to reckoning as the senator representing Edo North, and his faction of APC had won the presidency. Now, he is not only the leader of the party in the state, he has behind him the so-called federal might.
The APC in Edo State, was also able to cohere, after the presidency reconciled the preferred candidate of Oshiomhole, Dennis Idahosa, now the deputy gubernatorial candidate, with the winner of the second round of gubernatorial primaries, Okpebholo, the candidate of the party. To further compound the challenge facing the PDP, Obaseki’s deputy, the vivacious Philip Shuaibu, fell out with Obaseki, and he has decamped to APC, to fight the next weekend’s election. Shuaibu didn’t leave without a lot of embarrassing drama to the governor and the PDP.
Apart from the drama of office space after Obaseki sacked him from the precincts of the government house, there was the religious incense, when Shaibu got his priest to say a Mass to disinfect the new office space he was banished to. To further push the knife into Obaseki back, Justice James Omotosho of Federal High Court Abuja, declared the impeachment of Shaibu as null, void and of no effect. The reinstated deputy governor decided to rub salt to the injury by making a grand entry into Edo State with the APC gubernatorial candidate on July 18, which resulted in the death of Inspector Onuh Akoh.
The APC has been pushing for the trial of the alleged killers of the Inspector, which they claim was sponsored by those beholden to the state government. While the state government has denied culpability, the Edo State Security Network, which the APC had accused of spreading terror in the state, has been banned by the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun. The governor’s past intransigence also caused a rift between his government and the highly revered Edo monarch, the Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, and the implications are far reaching, in an election year.
The governor whose forbearer allegedly betrayed, the forbearer of the current Oba, is seen by the opposition party as living up to the pedigree of his family. To further compound the challenge on the royal front, the royal courtiers in the Benin kingdom have accused the governor of dragging the king to the court of law, which they consider a sacrilege. The dispute over the custody of the returned artifacts of the ancient Benin kingdom has made the governor an enemy of the Benin royal house.
There is also the challenge posed by the resurgence of the LP candidate, Olumide Akpata, with the support of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the party in last year’s presidential election. The LP’s candidate is likely to eat into the votes of the PDP, whose officials including the governor, had previously given the impression that the LP and PDP were fighting APC, as a common enemy, at last year’s election. Now that it is only one election, and with the PDP and LP standing differently, and fighting for one trophy, the PDP may suffer the backlash.
These challenges perhaps explain why, Obaseki has expectedly declared next Saturday’s election as ‘a do or die’. But how can he contend with the many battle lines he had opened in the last eight years? How can he contend with the far reaching influence of the Oba of Benin, who may likely oppose his candidate? The historical discontentment and his resent challenge of the authority of the Oba are strong influences that may work against his candidate. Again, Obaseki and his erstwhile chummy deputy, Shuaibu campaigned for the 2020 election on the ground that they were slaying god-fatherism, which they said Oshiomhole represented.
Now, people are accusing Obaseki of being a godfather, who wants to foist a Lagos boy, on the state. Ighodolo, a very successful lawyer, based in Lagos, is taunted with the lack of capacity to speak Edo language fluently. The PDP has however counted that lack of fluency in Edo with the lack of capacity on the part of the APC candidate, to speak fluent English. The battle line will be tight in Edo north, where Oshiomhole and his reconciled boy, Philip Shuaibu holds sway, and will likely give Obaseki a bloody nose.
The threat of ‘do or die’, by Obaseki may however turn out a wimp considering the enormous security personnel that has been deployed to the state to protect the voting process. According to the IGP, 35,000 police personnel have been deployed to the state for the election. That would be in addition to other security personnel from the Civil Defence. Being an off-cycle election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), should also be better prepared to deliver a free and fair election. Unfortunately, the last time former President Olusegun Obasanjo declared an election as, a do or die affair, even the winner considered the process a sham. Will Obaseki’s threat be proverbial in Edo State election?
Source : The Nation