Not that it should matter whether I am from Edo state or not, but I have sufficient stake in Edo state to appeal to Edo voters on this matter. I was born in Benin City, attended the University of Benin, had my first post-qualification job in Edo state and married an Edo woman who has been a blessing!
We all know how governance was made perverse against the people’s interest in Edo state between 1999 and 2008 until Oshiomhole became Governor and started paying attention to the people’s interest; development! He did his fair share (with mistakes of course) and left. Obaseki came after and in the last 3 years largely continued with working in the people’s interest as set by Oshiomhole, and developing the state beyond what Oshiomhole did.
He dedicated more resources to development than servicing the narrow interests of our thieving elites. In less than 4 years, Obaseki has made commendable strides in Basic education (Edobest), infrastructure development (roads, power) and regular payments of workers salaries and pensions even though this basic responsibility shouldn’t be counted as an achievement but such was the case between 1999 and 2008 where workers thanked God whenever they got a month’s pay after months of no pay! Of course, like Oshiomhole, Obaseki has also made mistakes which in my view can be put down to his training as a technocrat and thus inexperience as a traditional Nigerian politician than to his poor leadership abilities.
Point is his achievements far exceed his mistakes and these must must be the deciding factor in re-electing him as Governor since no Edo Governor since 1999 has done as well as he has performed (development) in the first term alone!
Unfortunately, the same Oshiomhole who sold Obaseki to Edo people as a saint and called Ize-Iyamu a thief then now tells us Ize-Iyamu is a saint and Obaseki is the new thief! Same Oshiomhole who told us to resist Annenih’s godfatherism in Edo politics has become the godfather that must decide who becomes governor.
Same Oshiomhole who once said education and inadvertent spelling errors of names should not be a basis to discountenance talk less of disqualifying a candidate now tells us these same factors are valid reasons to disqualify Obaseki. The list of this hypocrisy is endless but they all portray a politics devoid of principles, consistency and credibility.
Why then should Edo people be listening to and taking instructions from such a character? Assuming Oshiomhole was wrong about Ize-Iyamu then and he is correct about him now, how do we know he won’t be wrong again in 4 years time? How do we know he won’t be wrong about Obaseki also if he was wrong about Ize-Iyamu? My point is Oshiomhole and his group who have governed state before and didn’t do better than Obaseki today shouldn’t be deciding whether or not Obaseki returns as governor.
The people must decide for themselves as they are not fools to be played around by Oshiomhole who talks based on which side of his bed he wakes up from everyday! I implore all well meaning Edo people to shun politics without principles and support politics of development which Obaseki has given us in the last 3 years plus. Let’s be wise for once and support what works for Edo state and not what works for a few individuals who think it’s their right to decide for us. They have been deciding for us because we let them.
Let’s stop it now and see this contest as between politics as usual which has gotten the people nothing and politics unusual which has gotten the people something, with more to come. Let’s see it as a fight between the rule of the people and the tyranny of the few.
Let’s follow Obaseki to whichever ever party he and his running mate runs on and make them win. Offensive as they (Obaseki and Shaibu) may be to some, they are still better than the aggregated characters of the governors and deputies who have presided over Edo state since 1999 and they have better results to show in terms of noblese oblige!
Author:
Prof. Christopher Isike,
Department Of Political Science,
University of Pretoria, South Africa.
(C) Control TV 2020.
