. Review support for Edo gov after meeting Oshiomhole
. Obaseki shot himself in the foot- retired judge, analyst
Strong indications emerged at the weekend that state governors on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress may dump their Edo State colleague, Governor Godwin Obaseki, in his current bid for a second term in office.
A new-found rapprochement between the APC governors backing the embattled Obaseki, and the National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, it was learnt, is now threatening to swing the political pendulum in the state in favour of the camp loyal to Oshiomhole.
This is coming ahead of the June 22 APC primaries in Edo State for which the direct method of voting has already been adopted by the party’s National Working Committee.
Also, the backing of Oshiomhole’s adoption of direct mode for the Edo primaries by the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, may have further discouraged the governors from giving further support to Obaseki.
Although Obaseki and seven of his colleagues held a meeting, penultimate Sunday, with Tinubu in Lagos, to seek his support for the Edo governor’s second term bid, the APC national leader was said to have been non-committal.
Independent National Electoral Commission’s weekend declaration that it would only honour the mode of election to be used in the conduct of the June 22 governorship primaries in Edo as submitted to it by the APC national chairman has further dampened the hope of Obaseki’s supporters.
Obaseki and his supporters in Edo are agitating for an indirect primary mode, citing raging COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse.
A few days ago, the Edo governor signed a gazette banning the gathering of more than 20 people at a time, except at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium that allowed 5000 persons at a go.
Obaseki himself insisted at the weekend that no direct primary would be allowed in Edo, stressing that only indirect primary could hold in the state in accordance with the rule gazetted in newspapers last Friday.
But INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, has said that the electoral body’s rules, regulations and laws allowed it to only relate with the national chairman and national secretary of political parties and not the state branches of political parties.
The INEC official stressed that regardless of happenings in state branches of political parties, the commission would only recognise the date, venue and mode of primary submitted to it by the two national officers.
The Point gathered at the weekend that following series of discussions between the APC governors and Oshiomhole since last Monday after they met him in his office in Abuja over the crisis rocking the party in Edo State, the governors may have had a change of heart and now on the verge of reviewing their support for Obaseki.
Governors, who attended last Monday’s meeting with Oshiomhole and the APC NWC, included: Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo), Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano), Simon Lalong (Plateau), Babajide Sanwu-olu (Lagos), Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi) and Simon Lalong (Plateau).
It was learnt at the weekend that some of the governors, who may have resolved to no longer take sides in the Edo APC crisis, were making serious efforts to prevail on their remaining colleagues to join them in their new stance to remain aloof regarding the perennial political disagreements between Obaseki and Oshiomhole.
Many of the second term governors of the APC said to have initially thrown their weight behind Obaseki in his feud with Oshiomhole were, at the weekend, said to have begun to back down, and even making efforts to convince their first term colleagues to allow Obaseki “to carry his own cross alone.”
The Point learnt that attempt by the APC governors to prevail on Oshiomhole to soft-pedal on his handling of the feud with Obaseki and grant him a right of refusal for his second term bid, during their last Monday’s meeting with him at the party secretariat in Abuja, not only failed, but also resulted in the governors being convinced about the impropriety of their continued support for the embattled Edo governor.
It was gathered that the APC governors capitulated on their insistence that Obaseki be granted right of refusal concerning his second term ambition, when Oshiomhole reeled out to them all the events that had taken place since the feud between him and Governor Obaseki began.
The Point learnt that it was at this juncture that some of the governors felt that Obaseki took the wrong direction by going to visit President Muhammadu Buhari at Aso Rock Villa, instead of going with them to Oshiomhole to iron out things regarding the direct mode adopted by the party for the Edo governorship primaries.
It was further gathered that, there and then, some of the governors at the meeting with Oshiomhole even expressed disappointment with Obaseki’s handling of the political disagreement between him and Oshiomhole, who is not only his predecessor, but also the national chairman of the ruling party both in Edo and at the Federal level.
According to a very credible party source, “Obaseki threw away wholesale whatever goodwill he had left with the other APC governors, when, instead of going with them to meet with Oshiomhole, he decided to go to the Villa to show his nomination forms to President Buhari.
“This political gaffe on the part of Obaseki gave Oshiomhole the latitude to lay bare all the wrongs that the Edo governor had been doing and at the end of the day, he not only convinced the APC governors, he also gained their sympathy and even tacit support. But Obaseki was nowhere to be found to make his own case. He was at the Villa for photo opportunity with the President.”
Oshiomhole, The Point learnt, told the APC governors at the meeting how Obaseki had constituted himself into a hindrance to all the peace moves he had made to end the rift between them.
The APC national chairman was also said to have told the governors how Obaseki refused to inaugurate 14 elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly, who he said were rather molested and banished from the state by the governor’s supporters.
Oshiomhole was said to have further told the APC governors how Obaseki scuttled moves by the National Assembly to intervene and resolve the matter amicably, adding that the Edo governor even took a committee set up by the party’s National Working Committee under the chairmanship of Governor Umar Ganduje to court.
The APC national chairman was also said to have regaled the governors with how Obaseki accused the Senate President of bias while rejecting the intervention of the party’s National Reconciliation Committee under the nation’s number one lawmaker, resulting in Lawan eventually excusing himself from the body.
He also told the governors how Obaseki instituted multiple court cases to frustrate the return of the 14 Edo State lawmakers to the state House of Assembly.
Oshiomhole was also said to have further told the APC governors that there was no longer any love lost between Governor Obaseki and the party stakeholders in Edo, who he said were not happy with the governor for allegedly being the “arrowhead and mastermind” of the factionalisation of the party in the state.
All these accusations raised by Oshiomhole against Obaseki were said to have “shocked” some of the governors, who were said to have now “developed the feelings that their intervention in the crisis in Edo State was no longer worth it.”
“He told them about the division in the party in the state, how virtually all the stakeholders are against him (Obaseki) and told them that it may be too late to consider the requests they are making and to make matters worse, Obaseki himself was not there to even respond to the issues raised by Comrade Oshiomhole. By the time the meeting ended, some of the governors were shocked at the extent the governor allowed the crisis to linger,” an APC chieftain privy to the meeting said.
‘OBASEKI SHOT HIMSELF IN THE FOOT’
A political observer in Edo State, Osigwe Omo-Ikirodah, said it’s unfortunate that Governor Obaseki had continued in his macabre dance, while his supporters too continued to applaud the absurdity.
He said the Edo governor had shot himself in the foot by picking the APC nomination form from Oshiomhole, “and as if that was not the most half-witted thing to do, Obaseki went ahead to submit the same form. The implication of all these is that, Obaseki by default, has accepted to abide by the rules of the game.”
According to him, “Obaseki has refused to drop his ego and apologise to Adams Oshiomhole. Instead, after picking the form, Obaseki was heard boasting to reporters that Oshiomhole was a broke ass dude before he became the governor of Edo State. He thereafter said he knew the role he played in making Adams Oshiomhole governor. Grandstanding and bragging when the reality is lurking around.”
“Obaseki till now, calls the party members beggars looking for state money to share. Now, Obaseki has in the last 72 hours instituted multiple court cases against the APC and its leading aspirant, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu. From one court to another, Obaseki is busy looking for how to serve a restraining order on the APC from conducting a direct primary.”
A retired High Court Judge, Justice Roland Amaize, in his analysis of the political rift between Obaseki and Oshiomhole, blamed the governor’s advisers for the worsening situation.
Justice Amaize said in the last couple weeks, Governor Obaseki had continued to misstep due to wrong advice.
The retired high court judge told The Point, “He, as a leader who is seeking re-election (note that Oshiomhole is not seeking re-election), political deftness and dexterity require that he should settle more for peaceful, rather than combat disposition. I listened to the discussants on TVC’s popular programmer, ‘Journalists hangout’ a few days ago. One of the issues which engaged their attention was Edo politics. In that discussion they described Gov Obaseki as someone who in one breadth boasts/brags, and in another breadth, he begs.
“To me, there could be no better description of His Excellency in the present circumstance. This is clear from the fact that whilst he claims he is a man of peace and therefore he seeks peace, one is very often surprised that he takes u-turn so soon thereafter, resorting to boasts.
On the gazette recently signed by Gov Obaseki, Justice Amaize said it was clearly designed to undermine his party’s decision to conduct direct primaries in an exercise which he is part of as an aspirant, as well as the Nigerian constitution.
He said, “It is clearly designed to undermine the nation’s constitution as well as his party’s constitution. Above all, it is overreaching of the powers of the PTF/NCDC in rolling out guidelines/protocols, which are expected to guide INEC in its duties in the Edo gubernatorial election. To me, it is the height of display of naked power. I do not know how far he intends to go with this, but we can only simply watch on and see how the whole thing in that respect pans out.
“If I were part of the Governor’s team of advisers, in all of the above and more that I have not troubled to enumerate, I would have advised him differently. Such contrary advice might have seamlessly paved way for peace that probably would have put the situation differently. Hence, the inevitability of my question: who really are those advising our dear governor?”
EX-GOV OSUNBOR APPEALS FOR PEACEFUL PRIMARIES
Meanwhile, former Edo State governor, Prof. Osarieme Osunbor, has appealed to warring parties members in the state to embrace peace ahead of the primaries scheduled for June 22.
Osunbor, a professor of Law, who is also a member of the APC National Caucus, said, “The crisis in Edo State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC), which has simmered for about two years now, threatens to boil over as we draw closer to the party’s governorship primaries on June 22.
“This portends disastrous consequences for the party and the people of Edo State, unless it is resolved promptly before the primaries.”
The former governor, added, “Given my position in the party, I have made efforts outside of public glare towards bringing about reconciliation by speaking to the two leading protagonists: the National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, and the Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, as well as some of their supporters.
“I also tried to rally some elders of the party from the state to broker peace. It is common knowledge that our revered royal father, His Royal Majesty, the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II, made his own efforts, including appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari to help broker peace among these two illustrious sons of Edo State.
“It is also believed that their mutual friend, Dr. Aliko Dangote, made repeated efforts at reconciliation to no avail. So did a number of others that I know.”
