By John Mayaki

Before September, Edo State, for many reasons, claimed a prominent spot in national news.  Fraught with power crisis, the greatest highlight emerged with a far less-than-majority of the new lawmakers sworn in, bizarrely, at night.

Yet before this, Edo state had been boiling, and the sham of inauguration catalyzed the climax, driving Edo politics to national attention. The directive from the central government and National Assembly was clear and simple: The process which flouted constitutional prescriptions should be revisited.

But before situations arrived at this incendiary degree, because all politics are local, the matter started from nearly insignificant times and places that, on a normal day, would not attract even regional audience. It started with Godwin Obaseki, the current governor of Edo State.

Unknown and uncherished, strolling at the fringe and edge of unpopular party politics, serving in a little capacity of the government that preceded his, Obaseki found favour in the eyes of the bigwigs, and later was  drafted into mainstream activities. From there, he entered the gubernatorial race, assisted by party men and women of goodwill who wanted the continuity and sustenance of the projects and legacy of the past administration led by Adams Oshiomhole.

With his campaign enjoying the works and services of experienced professionals and political veterans, he became victorious in the polls. For quite a time, the blessings of his enablers and benefactors followed him, suggesting and prescribing paths to follow and trenches to avoid. That was the moment of success, the periods that saw Obaseki, the new governor, for the first year, attempting to continue the works of his predecessors and making new promises.

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He later began to go off course, allowing the allure and temptation of power to eat away the caution of wisdom needed to succeed in the capacity he served. With wisdom gone, the folly began.  He surrounded himself with sycophants who filled the chasm with deceitful adulation and false assessment information.

Things began to fall apart albeit unknown to Obaseki and his acolytes at the time. With the benefit of hindsight, it is understood that the first cut at the trunk of his administration had been made at that point. At this point, redemption was still possible, except that what happened next, dissipated the chances.

Godwin Obaseki, the governor plucked from oblivion and plugged to stardom, turned and contumaciously bit the hands that nursed his political career. He said his party men were demanding that he shares the state resources with them. However, the dynamics of civil society have not changed and the burden of proof remains with the accuser. But he showed no evidence of such heavy allegation.

His benefactors, bigwigs, veterans, hopefuls, and faithful left him. They abandoned him to the merciless fangs and beaks of parasitic scoundrels and vultures. As if the gods were impatient with exposing his insincerity and hypocrisy, they granted publicity to his innumerable scandals.   Some who backed and helped Obaseki’s emergence, underst-andably disappointed by his betrayal and mudslinging, simply maintained silence, turning their eyes away from his infantile attitudes. One of them is Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, who before stepping away from state politics as his gubernatorial tenure ended, greatly informed and designed the way for Obaseki’s ascendance.

Lacking wise counsel, Obaseki, at the local level, went on and on, to anyone who paid ears, demonizing his benevolent helpers, peddling conjectures and blatant lies. At the same vein, he lionized himself, trying to show and prove to the people he is now a fierce independent lion who can govern the pride. But it was insecurity getting the better of him because never was his independence in question.

Tinubu

Every day is for the thief but one day is for the owner, says our local wisdom. One day, Obaseki bit more than he can chew and things began to fall apart. In a land and atmosphere saturated with dissent, dissatisfaction and dislike for his mindless despotism and crass ineptitude, his totalitarian tendency grew one more fragile tooth and bit the wrong bat: the legislature. Democratic agents and apologists, civil societies and institutions, and concerned individuals spoke out against Obaseki’s behavior.

Oshiomhole, who in many ways was affected and should be concerned with the developments,  came out too to address the situation. It finally came to the open, that things have fallen apart.

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After having consistently tried to pit the people against Oshiomhole, after trying to paint him a recalcitrant son of Edo who disrespects the Benin Monarch, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Adams Oshiomhole arrived the palace of the Esogban of the Benin Kingdom to a rapturous welcome. The spirit was there, complemented with an electric vibe, hitting the nostalgic buttons, reminding all the present about the presence of a performing governor they had in the past.

In one fell swoop, the fiction Obaseki had been plotting and writing for three years was erased. Records were set straight in minutes and hours.

Oshiomhole, a  traditional man to the core, was at a point found doing obeisance to Esogban, who turned 90 last week, but immediately seen in the scene, with hands outstretched in symbolic brotherly love, was the Esama of Benin, helping Oshiomhole back unto his feet. Esama and Oshiomhole, two men whom the divide and conquer tactics of Obaseki sought to foist animosity upon, openly, punctured any such suspicion by coming together and standing true to their values of brotherhood.

With Tinubu and Oshiomhole visiting Benin, the long march to 2023 has begun. Put differently, the corrective steps towards Edo 2020 entered a new gear, gaining stronger momentum.

Vanguard