Oshiomhole, Obaseki and what to know about the tense political situation in Edo state
Edo State has been at the centre of political tensions in recent times as two of the most prominent leaders from the state, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and Governor Godwin Obaseki engage each other in a tug of war over the state’s governorship race. The situation which started to peak in 2019 as the preparation for the 2020 gubernatorial election begun, created two factions in the state APC party – one faction loyal to Oshiomhole while the other to Obaseki.
Adams Oshiomhole, former governor of the state and until recently, the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, through whose influence Obaseki had become the governor of Edo State in 2016 has been at loggerheads with the latter for a while. The fallout which some claim is as a result of Obaseki’s refusal to dance to the tunes of his godfather Oshiomhole has led to constant collisions between both politicians and their supporters.
In an interview with Channels TV, Obaseki insisted that their misunderstanding was out of leadership style and not personal.
“The quarrel is that the party is not allowed to make its decisions from the base, decisions are imposed from the top, and that’s not auguring well; it’s creating disharmony within the system. I do not have a rift with him (Oshiomhole) as a person. I just do not agree with how some decision is taken, as it relates to the party,” he said.
The whole problem could be traced to the beginning of Obaseki’s administration where he changed most of the rules and censored access to the Government House just a few months after being sworn in as governor. He went further by removing Oshiomhole’s loyalists from the office. This did not go down well with Oshiomhole who started to make plans on how to plug the hole.
Beginning with the candidacy for the speaker of the State House of Assembly, the feud between them had become glaring as both pushed their candidate to emerge. In the end, Oshiomhole’s candidate Peter Akpatason won and the allegation that Oshiomhole wanted to fill the Assembly with his loyalists as a move to stop Obaseki from getting the party’s ticket for a second term led to the cancellation of the initial primary election organized by the national body of the APC, and an alleged plot to sabotage Oshiomhole’s position as the National Chairman of the party. And up till now, 14 elected lawmakers presumed to be Oshiomhole’s loyalists have been denied inauguration into the Assembly since June 2019.
When it was clear that Oshiomhole has completed plans to replace Obaseki with Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu who rejoined the APC recently from PDP, the fight became intense and Obaseki threatened to expel Oshiomhole from Edo State APC.
However, during candidate screening for APC primary election scheduled on June 22, 2020, Governor Godwin Obaseki was controversially disqualified from contesting for the party’s ticket, with discrepancies in his academic documents cited as the reason behind the decision.
There were speculations that Obaseki might decamp from APC to PDP when he had a meeting with PDP Chairman in Edo State, and started visiting PDP Governors in the South-South zone. On June 16, 2020, he resigned his membership from APC.
Obaseki defected to PDP alongside his Deputy, 14 Lawmakers, 18 LG Chairmen, 196 Councillors, among others on June 19, 2020.
“For me, this fight is not about grabbing political power, it’s not about me, it’s not about trying to prove a sense of importance, no. It’s for us, 21 years into this Republic, democracy must mature, but as democracy is maturing, we now need to begin to show that politics cannot, and should not, be the preserve of a certain character of people,” Obaseki declared after decamping.
The end of the tussle is yet to be seen as the state prepares to go to the polls some months away in September.
