By OKHAREDIA IHIMEKPEN

FOR Edo State, the crippled Heart Beat of the Nation, these are indeed  interesting times. A civil government is in place trying within its limits and limitations to undermine the essence of good governance and resuscitate a failing state as represented by a ruling cabal which has monopolized power for the past ten years of our democratic setting. The reassertion of good governance and the search for a new Edo project to bail the citizenry from the quagmire takes place within the context of an increasingly boundless society and of a creeping irrelevance of the old paradigm of a plural yet homogenous society.

Whether we like it or not, the action or inaction of Edo people is bound to come up against this major contradiction in all the arrogance of powerplay and aggravating inanities. It is within this context that Edo people look up to the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, to reinvent the act of governance for the future. At the inception of democracy in 1999, Edo people saw their future intertwined with noble ideals of the PDP judging from the epic battles the party’s founders fought to bring about democracy from the time of G34 that had hitherto eluded them for decades as a result of  military dictatorship.

Quite unsuspecting, the party presented the son of a millionaire, Chief Lucky Igbinedion, as its flag bearer for the gubernatorial election, an election that gave the party a wide and popular acceptance. The Igbinedion government squandered that goodwill and instead formed a cabal that has culminated into what is known as the Action Congress, AC, in the state today and which also railroaded the Adams Oshiomhole’s administration into office. The PDP eventually became alienated from the government it laboured to put in place. The resultant consequence has been bad governance as characterized by the Oshiomhole administration of the moment.

The internal ranglings within the state PDP did not help matters. This fueled betrayals of trust and confidence in  the party hierarchy. It also led to the party’s phyrric victory in the 2007 elections which they lost at the election tribunal. The transfer of executive authority from Governor Osunbor to Oshiomhole that ought to have represented a powerfully symbolic lesson in humility in victory and grace in defeat was not; instead, for Oshiomhole, it was a high display of triumphalism, while the PDP kept their bitterness and disappointment very private. This was the position of things until the Ewohimi declaration of one of the founding fathers of the AC in the state and its one time gubernatorial aspirant, Imasuagbon, who decamped along with his thousands of supporters to the PDP. This ground breaking ceremony brought in the grand settlement of the stakeholders in the party with the coming together of the founding fathers of Chief Tony Anenih and Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia.

The grand rally of the party and the inauguration of Chief Dan Osi Orbih as the state chairman did not only put to rest all the possible fears of the doubting Thomases but sent a distress signal to  Oshiomhole’s administration that the game was up, as the people are again ready to take over the political power that rightfully belongs to them. Orbih, scion of the  MCK Orbih family, is a rare leader and political bull dog who had, in his  political career, combined intellectual acumen with organizing ability. Orbih has always been a strong advocate of an intellectual framework within the party which can bring together the leaders and the led, the strong and sometimes the willing political neophyte who may have been disabled by the inanities, trivialities, and machievellism of the leaders of power and power groups.

Paradoxically, Orbih and his executive are coming to lead the PDP at a time gloom has succeeded the post-democratic euphoria as pains and chaos inundate every home as a result of the  Oshiomhole misrule. Before the August 27,1991 state creation exercise, which gave birth to Edo and Delta states, the defunct Bendel State, from which both states were excised, had a reputation for excellence in all spheres.

The popular slogan “Bendel Number one” ws,s therefore, in deference to the leading position of the state among other states of the federation. Be it in sports, arts and culture, academic competitions, Bendel led them all. Even when the exigency of the time necessitated their going their separate ways, the two sister states like successfully “separated twins” continued to sustain the Bendel Spirit, engaging each other in a healthy competition for the number one position at any national contest.  Sadly, today things are not the same for the hitherto promising state.

The worst, however, was to come when Oshiomhole took over nearly a year ago, as it has unfolded an inglorious era, and reversing all achievements of the successive governments of old Bendel. Education, health, agriculture, works, are all in comatose. Of all, the educational sector appears to be worst hit. Even the so-called beautification to which the governor has devoted ninety percent of our past one year resources is nothing to write home about. These are the many challenges Edo people expect the Orbih-led PDP to find solutions to before the fall of the year 2012. Enough is enough!
Ihimekpen is resident in Benin-City