From the celebrated verbal excursions of the irrepressible Patrick Obahiagbon to the controversial grammatical gaffes of Governor Monday Okpebholo, Edo State has seemingly gone full circle. But should we care?

The latest gaffe by Governor Okpebholo which saw him stutter over figures while delivering his 2025 budget address to the State House of Assembly on Tuesday, December 11, 2024 has stirred emotions.

Given that the election that brought him to power is yet to be decided by the courts that embarrassing moment has not surprisingly sparked a political frenzy with his supporters and traducers trying to outdo one another.

The many critics who are yet to accept Senator Monday Okpebholo as governor overhyped and mocked the bloomer by Edo State’s number one citizen. Their ridicule, even if aimed at defaming the governor and their political opponent also went a long way in reducing the esteem of the office of governor. That is an office that should be glorified if not, but for the fact that Okpebholo will serve and give way to another person.

Many supporters of the governor have understandably kept mum because they were too ashamed of the sight of their governor embarrassingly trying to get over the figures. Those not too ashamed or who have adopted Okbepholo irrespective of his poor linguistic nuances have taken the budget presentation with full chest.

Indeed, the governor’s booboo was largely not surprising given his equally embarrassing syntactic missteps in the days leading to the 2024 governorship election. Several times the governor stumbled during the campaigns leading to the fallacious decision to keep him away from media interviews.

Despite the howlers, the electorate cheered Okpebholo to electoral victory on September 20, 2024. His two leading challengers, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and Olumide Akpata are considered among the best legal luminaries of their generation in Nigeria.

Though the results of the election as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC are being challenged in the tribunal, there is no doubt as to the fact that Okpebholo is no pushover. He has his strengths and keeps his strides beyond the forts of grammatical expression.

In effect, the people in Edo State got what they desired in terms of grammatical undersupply.

The spectacles and the increasing politicization of the verbal deliveries of the Edo State governor should call for concern. This is because the attempt by some in the state to diminish the office of governor in the effort to score political points is largely unnecessary and a diminution of both critic and the criticized. It does not help anyone.

It should, however, be a matter of concern and indeed introspection by the governor and his handlers that he did not prepare well enough for the budget presentation.

This correspondent has in the past averred that budget presentation is one of the most hallowed obligations of our democratic enterprise. It is a time when the executive at the local, state, or federal level lays down the fiscal proposals for the year ahead before the representatives of the people in the legislature. It is about the most important interaction between the executive and legislative branches of government.

Every effort should be made by all to make the occasion as gleamy as possible. Governor Okpebholo should have rehearsed himself properly. His handlers should also take this correction by writing down the numbers in words and not only in figures. Reading out complex numbers is better done in figures as it flows without the confusion of the commas.

Your correspondent, however, rejects the digression into buffoonery by some including the state chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Jarret Tenebe, and the evisceration of the moral fibres of the governor’s 2024 election challenger, Asue Ighodalo.

Ighodalo was not in the chamber when the governor stuttered and it is shocking that Tenebe would call out the PDP candidate over this faux pas. Except Tenebe saw him in spirit.

Mistakes have been made and the governor and his handlers should move on in a way to avoid future bloopers.

Grammar was not the yardstick in the emergence of Okpebholo as governor, after all, Patrick Obahiagbon, the grammatically animated  Ogodomigodo himself, would not have endorsed Okpebholo.

One must also appreciate the decorum exhibited by the PDP dominated House of Assembly during those seconds of stuttering. The lawmakers did not make a jest of the governor and should be applauded for their maturity. The legislators have for now commendably exhibited grace in their dealings with the APC governor.

Edo state has made its choice and until and if controverted by the courts, every effort should be made by all to uphold the collective dignity of the state.