By Donu Kogbara

The newly re-elected governor of Edo state, Godwin Obaseki, used to be a staunch member of the All Progressives Congress, APC; but thanks to opposition from his former mentor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole (onetime APC Chairman), Obaseki crossed carpet shortly before the recent election in Edo State and became a PDP member.

Now that he has won said election after a very dirty campaign, he has reached out to his former APC colleagues.

While collecting his certificate of return from INEC, Obasekisaid that he was ready to end his fight with Oshiomhole, Oshiomhole’s supporters and Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, the APC candidate who tried to replace him in Benin Government House.

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Obaseki asked Oshiomhole to “come and join in building the house, where he was part of laying the foundation.”

He added that: “We have no malice. The only thing we disagree on is on the approach in moving Edo forward.”

Obaseki also called on Ize-Iyamu, saying: “We are one family in the pursuit to provide services for our citizens.”

He wanted it on record that “the election of September 19, 2020 has been adjudged as one of the best conducted elections in terms of it being free and fair”; and that: “Our citizens have decided that for now, they trust us more with leadership.”

But he emphatically stated that his opponents were welcome to join his political family, that he was extending “a hand of fellowship to my brother”, Ize-Iyamu and that he was offering him the chance to play a role in moving Edo forward.

Such magnanimity is extremely rare in the toxic Nigerian political arena; and I salute Obaseki for being so gracious towards people who falsely accused him of homosexuality in videos that went viral on the internet, repeatedly insulted his wonderful wife Betsy and cruelly mocked him and her for being childless.

I was shocked to the core by the gutter tactics his electoral rivals resorted to in their desperation to disgrace Obaseki out of office.

Obaseki is far kinder in victory than I would have been if I’d been in his shoes!

And I salute Edo voters for being smart enough to see beyond the crude poison that was dumped on their embattled governor by vicious enemies and for standing by him in his hour of need.

I personally do NOT have a problem with homosexuality per se. But to accuse a happily married man of being gay – and of indulging in secret romantic liaisons with his male staff – is the height of evil.

The rumour on the ground is that quite a few senior APC stalwarts, including governors, quietly supported Obasekibecause they were tired of Oshiomhole’s palaver and regarded Obaseki as a good guy.

If this rumour is true, I say WELL DONE!

When an old man repents i recently  came  across

​an unusual statement credited to Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu, an indigene of Plateau State and the Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate between 1999 and 2007.  The senior statesman had during a television interview in 2018 declared himself Born Again and decided to come clean about the nefarious things that he and his cronies did to win elections.

During the interview with my favourite Nigerian broadcast journalist, Maupe Ogun of Channels TV, Mantuadmitted that he had rigged elections in his heyday and said that he had been in the political game for about  40  years and now felt morally obliged to confess.

He said he had bribed INEC and security officials in the past…and that he had even “made provision for agents of other parties so that they will not raise any objection to whatever we are able to get…

  “…So, whether I rig myself or not, by providing those resources, financial inducements, to the officials, I am rigging elections.

  “…Look, I am tired of being seen as a criminal in the streets of the world because you are a Nigerian. You know, you assume everybody is an innocent human being until he is proven otherwise. But once you are outside this county with a green passport, and they say you are a Nigerian, even though you are a pastor or you are an imam, they will assume that you are criminally minded or you have criminal tendencies    just because of where you come from, that must change.

“I am tired of [seeing people] living in poverty in the midst of plenty…you see people coming to you, relations, friends, this and that, my wife has given birth, my mother is in the hospital, everyday!

  “But if everyone had enough to take care of himself or herself, they won’t come bothering you to say give me this, give me that, and I believe we have we have the resources that [will enable] people to live a decent life without being beggars to those who have…

  “…We need good governance and good governance can only be provided by good people, good people who are truly repentant, who actually are there to serve the people, who are concerned about the well-being of the people…[and will] judiciously and prudently use our resources for the common good of everybody.”

  When Mantu was trending, he was a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. I don’t know whether he is still with the PDP or whether he has joined another party or whether he is now an independent political pundit.

  All I know is that his truth-telling is very unusual and very welcome…and that I salute him and pray that he thoroughly enjoys what is left of his life now that his conscience is clear.