THE article by one John Ainofenokhai and published in the Vanguard newspaper of Wednesday October 26, 2011 was obviously  written in appreciation of the sterling quality of Senator  Oserheimen Osunbor who was an asset to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,  while he was governor of Edo State between May 29, 2007 and November 11, 2008.

Interestingly, the same  Ainofenokhai, in an apparent bid to now disparage Osunbor, the PDP having lost the 2012 governorship election to the ACN, wrote the following in the Vanguard newspaper of Friday, July 27, 2012: “He (Osunbor) was no doubt deluded into believing that he was popular and that his little achievements (de-silting of drainages and renovation of some roads) in office would speak for him”. Funny enough, the writer decided to title his article, “Oserhiemen Osunbor’s gobblegook”.

By the definition of the word gobbledegook, it is obvious that Ainofenokhai is a confused person. Perhaps his confusion stems from his grossly limited knowledge of his subject matter as a result of the half-truths and misrepresentation of facts he got from his sponsors.

While trying to belittle the importance of Osunbor in the political equation of Edo State, he ends up with much of his gobbledegook idea. For instance, while he admits, based on his belief, that Osunbor’s “grand conspiratorial alliance with Oshiomhole in the governorship poll… largely did the PDP in”, he tries to paint a picture of Osunbor’s insignificance by saying that he came last in his party’s primaries.

A critical analysis of Ainofenokhai’s article would reveal that he would have preferred Osunbor to have remained anonymous after the PDP governorship primary in which, according to him, the “structure”, the “elements” and perhaps owners of the party “who brought him from the academia”, made him a two- term senator and governor, now felt that for his unforgivable sin he should forever remain silent.

Let us put the writer’s references in perspective. In the third paragraph, he   stated that: “Rather than show gratitude to the political structure that brought him out from the academia and made him what he has become in the political ecology of politics of Edo State by doing all within his powers to sustain the structure, Osunbor has consistently played the game of treachery to undermine it”.

The question is: What political structure was Osunbor supposed to show gratitude to for giving him a political life? Being conversant with the writer’s political essays one knows that the reference is to a one-man structure in the person of Chief Tony Anenih to whom Ainofenokhai and his likes believe every other political success in Edo State should submit to  because they assume he is the maker of all who himself was never made by anybody.

It may interest the public to know that of a truth, Anenih, by virtue of his being the PDP leader of Prof. Osunbor’s Edo Central Senatorial District, and indeed Edo State, had always supervised the processes that saw Osunbor representing his constituency on his own merit since his advent in politics in 1994 when he became a member of the Constitutional Conference. But in alluding to Osunbor’s political engagement, Ainofenokhai makes it look like Osunbor was drafted by a benevolent structure, from the classroom, to assume unmerited political power.

It is relevant to point out, in contradiction of the impression that the writer wanted to paint, that Osunbor’s political quest did not derive from any external magnanimity. Rather his propelling force has been the desire to serve, consequent upon his blood heritage of a political dynasty.

Not many people are aware that Osunbor’s late father was an elected member of the pioneer Midwest House of Assembly and Junior Minister of Works and Transport until the military coup in 1966. Therefore, Prof. Osunbor is bearing the torch handed over by his father.

Also the recognition of his remarkable scholarly pedigree influenced his acceptance by the structure, to utilize the opportunity available to him when he sought the office of a senator which he held with distinction for two consecutive terms before he became governor.

The attempt to impugn the competence of Osunbor in Ainofenokhai’s latter write-up, having in the former  described him in impeccable terms, is most unfortunate and highly reprehensible. What he did not emphasize in his first treatise is that Osunbor like former American president, Bill Clinton, is a Rhodes Scholar, and like the late Ghanaian President John Atta Mills, is a professor of law.

Osunbor has all it takes to be president and not just governor. He is a personality foundered in the crucible of the highest standard of competence and discipline.

He proved the point in the Senate which bestowed upon him the fond epithet of “Attorney-General of the Senate” for eight years; even as Ainofenokhai posited that “Osunbor did not have time (as governor) to properly unravel and therefore Edo people could not convincingly pass a verdict on his temperament in government”.

So, to what intent and purpose is the writer’s effort to now portray Osunbor as an administrator that never made impact?

Using the outcome of the February 25 PDP governorship primary as his parameter, Ainofenokhai wrote that Osunbor’s “rejection by elements within his party was an indication of the greater rejection he would have suffered in the hands of the Edo electorate”.

That was standing logic on its head. Does he mean that if the PDP had fielded Osunbor instead of Gen. Charles Airhiavbere, the party would have done worse than it did? That can never be true.

It is common knowledge that the decision of the powers that be in the Edo PDP to reject their best option who was Osunbor was in direct contrast to the expectation of the Edo electorate; that Osunbor would have gathered sufficient support to have defeated Oshiomhole is not the point.

There is an element of sport in politics which dictates that even if a contender would not win he should at least be adequately prepared so as not to lose woefully in a contest, an idea that may have been lost on them in their quest for unfounded vendetta against Osunbor and his loyalists. Now the structure that rejected their best option has ended in disgrace.

This Tsunami-like catastrophe is one that the PDP can never recover from unless Oshiomhole changes his political party to PDP, which is the only prayer of all PDP members.

The only exception, are those who have the monopoly of sharing federal patronage among themselves. To them, it is the fewer the merrier.

Ainofenokhai, as with his fellow godfather apologists, is saddened by the fact that Prof. Osunbor disappointed them by accepting the olive branch extended to him by the Comrade-Governor who, given the opportunity, set aside political rhetoric to acknowledge the goodness in Osunbor and the fact that the good Professor had been caught in the web of bad company and disastrous influence.

JUST as Oshiomhole allocated Jeep cars to former governors of Edo State, he extended same to Osunbor, which the PDP structure has been bellyaching about. In sincere reciprocation Osunbor expressed what everybody knows of a truth that Oshiomhole was providing the kind of administrative competence and leadership that Edo people needed.

And in the absence of an alternative why would Edo people have craved a replacement? Ainofenokhai could only rationalize this as malicious.

If this was a malicious reaction to his unjust disgrace at the senseless governorship primary, what does he think of Odion Ugbesia whom he referred to and felt should have been governor instead of Osunbor in 2007, and other Anenih loyalists’ celebration of Oshiomhole’s installation by the court at the detriment of their fellow PDP governor in 2008? What does he make of Anenih’s single-handed appointment of three commissioners and other sundry appointees to Oshiomhole’s government before his god- playing emotions took the better part of him to the disgust of a no-nonsense Oshiomhole?

Ainofenokhai suggested that Osunbor should have swallowed shit and quietly retired in humiliation, watching his adversaries gloat over his misfortune which they orchestrated because, according to him, he is the greatest beneficiary of the party (PDP) in Edo State.

I guess he does not know what he is saying. If it were a matter of staying clear in the interest of the party on the basis of greatest beneficiary, it is incontestable that Anenih whom the writer conveniently avoids mentioning his name or implicating, fits the bill more than any other.

In fact, Anenih has been the greatest beneficiary of all political arrangements in the defunct Bendel State and by extension Edo State, since he was pulled out of obscurity as a retired assistant commissioner of police managing a small guest house in the outskirts of Benin City to become the State Chairman of the NPN in 1983.

And with the election of Dr. S.O. Ogbemudia, at whose insistence he got the opportunity to cut his political teeth and consolidate, Anenih appropriated the character of a king maker which to his credit he had done everything imaginable and unimaginable to validate until he met his waterloo in Oshiomhole.

Since 1999, having succeeded in taking custody of the umbilical cord of the PDP at the national level, Anenih had been the determinant factor of who became governor until Oshiomhole.

Though contestable, he is even credited with the first success of  Oshiomhole in court. Of a truth, he has been the sole determinant of who becomes minister in Edo State, including himself, and whereupon he controls the minister and governor. The implication of this is obvious.

Therefore, going by his own prescription, should Ainofenokhai not have advised the godfather to have refrained from unreasonable actions in the interest of the party?

I guess if he, with others, had done that, the party, as it were, may not have come to this sorry pass. Now why blame Osunbor for the tragedy of the PDP? It is said in Benin that when you beat a child you give him the freedom to cry. If you know that his crying would give you agony, why beat him?

I would want to advise Ainofenokhai to stop crying over spilt milk and to desist from his failed attempt to denigrate Osunbor in the eyes of the people who know better. In case he is not aware, Osunbor presently is in good stead with the people and no campaign of calumny can change the admiration for him.

If Ainofenokhai truly loves the PDP and he is not just writing to impress his patron, he should begin to employ his effort to advise the party on what to do for the benefit of those that are stuck with it. The most urgent step is for the cause of the PDP’s problem, Chief Anenih, to embark on sincere reconciliation with those he has frustrated by his egocentricism, including Osunbor.

In fact, he should embark on the reconciliation with a circumcised heart and a reparative disposition. Anenih needs to purge himself of the emperor-without-a-mandate complex for progress to look the way of the PDP again,  if not to come back to power in Edo State, but perhaps  to be removed from the subconscious of the people as a party and a membership deserving of nothing but hatred.

In conclusion, Ainofenokhai should advise his sponsors to accept their self inflicted defeat squarely and not find a scapegoat in Osunbor

Mr. EFOSA OMORUYI,  a public affairs  analyst, wrote from Benin City, Edo State.