SIMON EBEGBULEM, Benin City
THE Esogban of Benin Kingdom, Chief David Edebiri, is one of the most powerful Chiefs in the palace of the Benin monarch, Oba Erediauwa. As the Odionwere of Benin Kingdom, he is incharge of the Witches and Wizards in the Kingdom and does not hesitate to give appropriate sanctions each time they involve in any activity capable of derailing peace in the Kingdom.

Chief Edebiri who also doubles as the Chairman of the Benin Forum, the umbrella body of all Binis in the country and the Diaspora bared his mind on the forthcoming July 14, 2012 governorship election in Edo State , saying that the Binis have adopted Governor Adams Oshiomhole as their candidate.

While commenting on other national issues, he carpeted Northern leaders for asking for an increment in the allocation accrued to their states and warned that the utterances of the Northern leaders are capable to disintegrating the country .

All is set for the July 14 governorship election in Edo state following the emergence of Oshiomhole (ACN), Charles Airhiavbere (PDP) and Solomon Edebiri (Coalition) as governorship candidate of their parties. As the Odionwere of Benin Kingdom, how do you think Edo people will vote?

To start with, that coalition of a thing is insignificant when we are talking about the forthcoming election. They are far behind for people to consider them. I think they should go back to the drawing board and try to grow first. I want to say with certainty that the coalition cannot muster two thousand votes across the state.

Chief David Edebiri...The issue of being a Bini son does not arise in this election

So they are inconsequential. The issue of being a Bini son does not arise in this election. The people have spoken in unmistakable terms. They have got their own candidate. Their candidate is Aliyu Adams Oshiomhole.

That is the candidate for the Edo South. And we have demonstrated that at several elections now. It was demonstrated in the election that brought him in; in the just concluded National Assembly election, the voting pattern is there.

I also heard that the PDP’s candidate is one General who is from Bini here, yes some of us know him. But what I think he should do at the moment is to go round and let the people know him first before he can come and say he wants to be a governor. He has not known the people and the people have not known him.

And even if he is an angel, his case is not helped by the party on which platform he wants to run. I want to say with emphasis that the people of Edo state, particularly the people of Edo South senatorial district (Binis), are not prepared to forget in a hurry what the PDP government did to them, siphoning the resources made for the development of this area into private pockets for nine years without any thing to show for it. So, if they think that the people have forgotten so soon, it is a pity. I want to say emphatically that they are wasting their time.

So Oshiomhole will have little problem, I am not a prophet, but we have predicted these type of things in the past and they came through. And in the present contest, what will surprise me is if the flag bearer of the PDP can win any of the seven Local Government Councils in Edo South.

If he can win any of the LGAs here, that will be the greatest surprise of the century. But he cannot win one at the moment. But let him be patient, he can come back another time and ask for votes. With the type of infrastructural development going on in the state, we will do everything possible to prevent any one disrupting or constituting a clog in the wheel of our progress.

I heard that Oshiomhole has been returned by his party unopposed. According to Shakespeare, he said the first blow wins half of the battle. That is where the ACN would have had some problem, but now that they have been able to scale through that, the next phase of the battle will be easier for them, I bet you.

But do you not think that the Binis may prefer to vote their sons Airhiavbere (PDP candidate) or Solomon Edebiri of the Coalition rather than voting Oshiomhole who is from Edo North?

I told you just now that the Binis are no fools and they are not known to be ingrates. We don’t show ingratitude to people who have done us well. Some one who has come to bail us from Egypt and taken us to the land of Canaan , that is Oshiomhole, so how do you think we will pay him with ingratitude? For nine years, we were in political doldrum but this young man came and through him, we started to see that there is something like civilization.

As far as that is concerned, tribal politics cannot come in. Bini people have never played tribal politics, any body who is saying that is not telling the truth.

The first election here in Benin was in December 1951. I took part in that election. Our party, the dominant party then, the Etu Edo NCNC, we have three seats, we sponsored Ejomo Osagie, he was number one. Then Barr. S.O.Ighodaro. Then we took an Ogwashi Uku born politician, Chike Ekuyansi as the third representative for the Binis in the Western House of Assembly. We did not say Ekunyasi because he was not a Bini boy therefore we will not pick him.

But because of what he did to salvage this place, the Bini people voted for him. So anybody who is saying that because a candidate is a Bini man and therefore he is going to get votes from this area is not saying the truth especially when such a candidate, prior to his election has done nothing to identify himself with the people.

It is not when elections come that you will say you want people’s votes, what have you done to identify your self with Bini people? That is the issue. If you have not done any thing to identify with your people, if you cannot point to one project which you have done for the benefit of the common people, now that you have amassed some money and you want to rule them, the Binis don’t allow that. As usual, we will vote for the man who is working now. We will vote for Oshiomhole.

The election is going to take the format of the plebiscite of 1953, where the Midwest state referendum was conducted. Two boxes, one black one white. All those who don’t want progress cast your vote for the black, those who want progress put for the white. The white box was full to the brim with just few votes in the black one. That is exactly what you are going to experience on July 14. I said no Bini candidate in this race will win any of the seven LGAs in the South.

If any of them wins, then my political calculation must be faulty. The PDP candidate Airhiavbere, is a Bini man but he has not associated with his own people, the Binis before now. He is not a patron to any local association. If a man  is popular among his people, they will  come to your house to beg you to be their patron, not the type of money you accumulate.

If he wants to run for election next time, let him start building from today by associating with his people. He does not know his people and his people do not know him. As a matter of fact, they don’t even know how to pronounce his name.

There is this altercation between Northern leaders and their counterparts in the South South over the demand for increase in their allocation by Northern Governors. As an elder statesman, what is your take on that?

I do not think that matter is what Nigeria should face at this moment. Whether the allocation to South South is big or is bigger than that of their northern counterparts is not the issue that is bothering me. The issue that is bothering me as an elder statesman is whether these funds are being used to alleviate the suffering of the Nigerians for whom God has provided these resources .

That is what really bothers me. I think many Nigerians do not really bother about where the money comes from or who gets what, they bother much more about the way those at the helm of affairs are using this money.

But if the Northern people feel that because they have not been fortunate to find oil in their area, therefore South South people should suffer all the deprivation and exploitation of oil and yet they should not be given adequate compensation by way of giving them enough of the national cake, then it is unfortunate. But I think the Northern governors have no case by raising issues that are not relevant at the moment.

They have so many challenges at the moment particularly security challenges. That should be of much more concern to them than arguing about derivation. They should sit down and look inwards and find out why the issue of Boko Haram, killings is being perpetuated in their area.

Always, what tends to divide this country is always coming from the North. Every time, they kill the southerners, burning their churches. This is enough problem for them to solve rather than thinking of how to get more money. The problem again is the common people in the North, do they use this money to better their lot?  I will say no. In terms of backwardness, the North is still the most backward, yet their governors get their allocations.

So I think the argument that the South South people are getting more does not make sense at all. I am afraid that if they press it further, it might lead to some unfortunate consequence. It is not the activity of the Boko Haram that might lead to the break up of this country, it is the attitude of the Northern elites, attitude of the Northern politicians that may lead to the break up of the country.

For example, there was one time we experienced a reprisal attack in the South here against the North and suddenly the Arewa came into the matter.

Then I started asking myself does it mean that the activities of Boko Haram are secretly being sponsored by the Arewa and other Northern groups?

The North should come out openly and condemn what  is going on. Boko Haram will come and go but the attitude of the Northern politicians will determine the kind of relationship we will have in this country. And the more the Federal Government runs away from the call for a Sovereign National Conference so that we can sit down and settle some issues, the more they run away from this fact, the more problem we will have.

I think we should sit down and review our constitution and not to continue to patch the one created for us by the military.

The present constitution is a product of the military, which we say it is an aberration. If military incursion in our politics is an aberration, what happens to the constitution foisted on us by the military? So it is not Boko Haram that may cause the disintegration of this country but the Northern political elite.

National Assembly probes

After spending so many years in the politics of this country, I have come to realize that conducting probes or investigations is meaningless because so many probes have been conducted but we have never seen the results. The results are never brought out, even where white paper are issued, the implementation have never been carried out. So all these probes about  Pension Fund and the rest are the usual talk.

There is nothing to expect from them. The one we had during the regime of Obasanjo, what has come out of it. Even the sanitization of the oil sector as professed by the Jonathan administration, it is all talk talk affair. There is nothing that I personally believe will come out in concrete terms to solve our numerous problems.

Suspicion over Jonathan’s second term ambition

What Jonathan told the whole world was that he wanted one term and people voted for him based on that. I am not very certain in my mind that he will turn around to try to stay beyond ten years. If he learns from Obasanjo’s experience, he will know that it is no longer business as usual. So I think Jonathan will go when he should go. Some of us voted for him because of what we perceived that he will make a change.

But if he does not make a change and he is also coming to elongate his tenure like other people attempted to do, it is rather unfortunate and he will not find it comfortable. If he has good advisers they should tell him not to attempt it. Yar’Adua had a mind of his own but from what is happening today, it looks like Jonathan is getting more and more involved in the PDP politics than being a national leader. But I hope he will not attempt to try and elongate his tenure.