Godwin Obaseki, the embattled governor of Edo state, had his moment not
too long ago and almost brought down Adam Oshiomhole, the National
Chairman of the All Progressives (APC).
Mr Obaseki, other APC
governors, and some ministers from the South-South had put in all their
political might in a plot to remove Mr Oshiomhole before the
commencement of the party governorship primaries.
And, of course,
that appeared to be the safest route for Mr Obaseki to easily pick the
APC ticket to run for a second term as Edo governor after a
once-promising relationship between him and Mr Oshiomhole became
horribly sour.
Back home in his Edo State where he had served
before as governor, Mr Oshiomhole had been suspended by the local
chapters of the APC and thoroughly discredited in the state, obviously
through the prompting of Governor Obaseki.
Time was ticking against Mr Oshiomhole.
In a matter of days, he would be kicked out of office as the APC chairman, most people had concluded.
And
just in the nick of time, Bola Tinubu, the man that is highly regarded
as the party’s national leader, stepped in. He said those who were
plotting Mr Oshiomhole’s removal saw the national chairman as the
obstacle to their 2023 political ambition.
“The Chairman has been
a tireless campaigner and mobilizer for the party. He has steered the
party through difficult elections. His contributions should not be
undervalued now that the bulk of elections are behind us,” Mr Tinubu
said in a statement in March.
Mr Tinubu said it would, therefore, be “an act of ingratitude” to remove the APC chairman.
“It
is no secret that the Chairman and Edo Governor Obaseki are in dispute.
This is unfortunate. However, the party has moved through proper
procedures within the proper organs of the party to hopefully resolve
this spat,” he added.
The sea became calm, quiet, and safe for the APC chairman, after Mr Tinubu’s statement.
Nigerian
politicians share a common belief – if you do not “finish” your
political enemy, if you give him a breather, he is likely to come for
you with every strength he could muster, and with every ‘weapon’ he
could lay hands on. And also when the fight gets dirtier, you could
actually be fighting under the rule that there is no rule.
Mr
Oshiomhole survived the plot, gathered some strength, and, with Mr
Obaseki’s disqualification on Friday from contesting the forthcoming APC
governorship primary in Edo State, it seems he has now taken his pound
of flesh from his erstwhile protégé.
Oshiomhole-Obaseki political
fight has been on for several months. In fact, it became an open secret
in June 2019 that the two leaders were at war against each other.
The
fight divided the APC in Edo state and crippled the Edo House of
Assembly, where 14 elected lawmakers, out of 24, are yet to be
inaugurated several months after their elections. The 14 members are
loyalists of Mr Oshiomhole.
Governor Obaseki, in order to take
complete charge of Edo politics, kicked Mr Oshiomhole’s loyalists, one
after the other, out of political office.
But in the latter days,
when it became clearer that Mr Oshiomhole and his supporters were
closing in on Mr Obaseki, some of the governor’s aides, including his
chief of staff, resigned from the administration.
What is Tinubu saying?
Mr Obaseki and other APC governors met with Mr Tinubu recently to seek a possible resolution of the Oshiomhole-Obaseki rift.
“Though
I cannot quote exactly what he (Tinubu) said because I was not there,
but essentially he took side with Oshiomhole, by insisting that they
should go and do direct primary with this COVID-19 challenge that we are
faced with,” Mr Obaseki’s spokesperson, Crusoe Osagie, told PREMIUM
TIMES, Friday evening.
Shortly after Mr Obaseki’s meeting with Mr
Tinubu in Lagos, Joe Igbokwe, an APC chieftain in Lagos and a strong
supporter of Mr Tinubu wrote on Facebook, “But they said Edo is not
Lagos,” apparently mocking those who had boasted that Mr Obaseki was
going to trounce Mr Oshiomhole, unlike the former Lagos governor,
Akinwunmi Ambode, who failed to secure a second term because of his
disagreement with Mr Tinubu.
“Please fear PMB, Jagaban and Oshiomhole. These are not small boys,” Mr Igbokwe added in his Facebook post.
When
the national leadership of the APC announced that the party would use
direct primary (against the indirect primary canvassed by Obaseki) to
choose their governorship candidate in Edo it became obvious that Mr
Tinubu and others, probably including President Muhammadu Buhari, had
turned their back against the Edo governor.
The disqualification may just be a confirmation that Mr Obaseki has been abandoned to face his fate.
On
June 12, a few hours after Mr Obaseki’s disqualification, Mr Igbokwe
again took to Facebook to celebrate the development. “Please know that
APC is not PDP. Men in APC are not boys. Sometimes they take hard
decisions to send some strong signals out there,” he wrote on the social
media site.
PREMIUM TIMES asked Mr Obaseki’s spokesperson if the
governor felt betrayed by Mr Tinubu. “I wouldn’t know, let me not react
to that,” he responded.
Is Obaseki leaving APC?
Mr
Obaseki’s initial statement, through his spokesperson, Mr Osagie,
appeared as though he had given up on Mr Oshiomhole and APC.
“We
have decided that it would be effort in futility to appeal whatever the
unjust outcome of the evaluation and screening process of the APC will
be, especially when Comrade Oshiomhole has declared that he is the
Supreme Court and ultimate determiner of the fate and future of our
great party,” the governor’s spokesperson, Mr Osagie said in the
statement.
“We wish Oshiomhole well in his maladministration of
the party and trust that the Almighty will help our country to find the
path to true liberty, freedom and justice,” he added.
But when
PREMIUM TIMES contacted Mr Osagie, Friday evening, to ask him
specifically if Mr Obaseki was leaving APC, he said the governor had not
said so.
Mr Obaseki has told his supporters to remain calm and wait for a further directive, Mr Osagie said.
Mr
Obaseki, as it is now, has the option of heading to court to challenge
his disqualification. He could also get the ticket from another party to
contest for his re-election.
The chairman of APC in Edo State,
Anselm Ojezua, a loyalist of the governor, gave an induction that may be
Mr Obaseki’s direction.
In a statement late Friday, he said the
APC only stopped the governor from using its platform not from
contesting the election. He vowed Mr Obaseki will contest and win.
Nigerian
politicians share another common belief that 24 hours before any
election is enough time for any political maneuvering to take place and
that anything can happen within such available time.
The
governorship election in Edo is in September, about three months from
now. Mr Obaseki still has enough time to pull out all his cards against
Mr Oshiomhole.
Source: Premium Times
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