Says moneybags will crash at the polls

By Simon Ebegbulem

Prof. Frederick Ebegue Amadasun is one of the governorship aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State and a  grassroots politician. In this interview,  the professor of  anaesthesiology, consultant anaesthesiologist at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) and Chairman of the Edo State Hospitals Management Board, declares that, despite the money bags in the governorship contest, he has all it takes to defeat them at the APC primary election. He also reacts to the  allegation by some aspirants  of  plans to manipulate the delegates list of the party, just as he  says Governor Adams Oshiomhole has the right to back any candidate of his choice.

Excerpts:

How has the race been?

The race has been okay. On  daily basis, we are winning more followers and more people now believe in our dream and we give thanks to God for it.

Are you not scared that some aspirants in your party who are seen to have deep pockets may kick you out of the race?

On a serious note, there are many money-bags in that race but that is one of the motivating factors for me because if I allow the money bags to  frighten me off the race, it means I am doing a disservice to the people of my generation and the people in my own class of the society. So we can’t just leave the field  for them, that will be sentencing oneself to perpetual servitude in his own land. And we must also let it be known that money is important in this game but money is not all there is to it. And President Buhari  proved it, Prof. Ambrose Alli proved it in the past and some other people around the country have  proved it too. This game is very expensive, it gulps resources but money is not all there is to it. In fact, so many other things go into it that can actually reduce money to a secondary level. And that is a point that we are out to prove.

What is actually motivating you in this race?

I want to prove that if you are not a  billionaire, you can still aspire to any position in this country. Besides the fact that one feels eminently qualified, the ability to win the race and go ahead to do a good job is a  motivating factor.

You are one of admirers of the Oshiomhole legacy in Edo. What are those things you want to do that you feel have not been achieved by the Comrade?

Amadasun

I am one of the apostles of Oshiomhole; so if people say Oshiomhole has done well, I am one of the chorus singers that  he has done well. You are meeting me in my office as the Chairman of the Edo  State Hospitals Management Board. He put me here. I see it as a position of trust and respect from him. And it is part of the reasons I put my all into this job. But the second part of your question, what he has not done what one wants to do. I have always put it the other way round that he has done immensely well, I want to continue from where he has stopped. I want to sustain the legacy of the Oshiomhole administration and build on it.

You are from the same Orhiomwon Local Government with the Deputy Governor, Dr Pius Odubu, and Dr Chris Ogienmwonyi who are both strong contenders in this race. How do you intend to outsmart them?

We are from the same local government;  so we will just take our own share of the votes of the delegates from  the local government. I  can assure you I am not an underdog there. I have made my mark there and I will keep that which is mine. But Orhionmwon is just one out of 18  local governments, winning Orhiomnwon is not all that will be in getting the ticket, you still have seven local governments to go and fight and get majority votes to claim the nomination and that is what I am setting out to do.

We have four governorship aspirants from Orhiomnwon where you hail from, including one PDP aspirant. Why do we have four from that same LGA?

It is a cry of the heart, we are appalled by the relative under -development of the place. A vast land mass under-developed and yet having  sons and daughters eminently qualified in all spheres of life both within and outside this country and yet the place remains in  perpetual under-development until the coming of Oshiomhole. It will be a question mark on those of us from the area who are in a position to go for leadership and refuse to.

Allegation of plans to substitute delegates list

It remains an  allegation. But those who are concerned enough to want to take it off have brought the information to the attention of the national body of the party, and  the National Vice Chairman in the South-South, has  assured all  aspirants who were there at a meeting in Abuja, that there will be no tampering  with the delegates list. They even went as far as saying that it is the delegates list that was approved by a  former National Chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, that will be used and there will be no tampering with  the list. I think that is assuring enough. The primary will be supervised by the National Secretariat  of the party; so if they give such assurance, I believe we must  give them the benefit of the doubt.

But we hear of an anointed candidate in APC. Does that not bother you?

In the first place, the phrase ‘anointed candidate’ is a misnomer. What I mean by a misnomer is that it is a spiritual responsibility by a spiritual authority to so do. In our party, nobody is given any authority, spiritual or temporal, to do anointing. So the question of anointing does not come in at all. But if you are talking of individuals, leaders, officers in the party expressing interest in  one aspirant or the other, I believe that is a legitimate thing. There is no blank mind in this game, even when it comes to the governor. The governor is the leader of the party, and, as a leader of the party in the state, he cannot be said to have a blank mind on the matter. In actual fact, having done so well, he  should be interested in who comes after him. But the point is that if he prefers Mr A to Mr B, does that trample on the aspiration of Mr B? No. Mr B still retains his inalienable right to aspire. And since the field is open, the delegates are all available for both Mr A and Mr B to lobby, nobody knows how the result will go until the final counting. So, talking about anointing or blessing, I reduce all to lobbying. The delegates are there for all of us to go and lobby by the high and the mighty and the not so mighty and the lowly placed. Go and lobby the delegates rather than dissipate energy accusing the governor or anyone else.

The state PDP has boasted that they will take over the state. As a former member of that party, do you think they have the capacity to do that?

If PDP was a performing party, I would not have left the party. PDP has become moribund at least in Edo. Since the arrival of Oshiomhole, they have never won any state wide election. This forthcoming governorship election does not promise to be an exception because they have lost their spin, they have lost their message, lost their population and everything.

One of the PDP aspirants, Pastor Ize-Iyamu, used to be a member of the APC. Do you see his entrance in the race as a problem, for the APC?

It can never be a problem because whoever they field, APC will defeat  him. It is not a question of individuals.  Pastor Ize-Iyamu is a nice man on his own, but we are talking about party versus party. I think the Supreme Court once gave a judgment that when people vote they actually vote for their parties. We are going to compare APC  with  PDP. PDP is a spineless party, PDP is a vision less party, PDP is a party that even desecrates promising candidates and individuals.