BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

THERE is rat race for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP ticket for the September 10 Edo State governorship election.

Currently, the four leading aspirants on the platform of the PDP are Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, Chief Solomon Edebiri, Hon. Matthew Iduoriyekwmwen and Earl Osaro Onaiwu.

The four aspirants during sensitization tours of the party to various local councils earlier in the year, agreed to drop their personal ambition for the party’s interest. They agreed that any of them that gets the nod of the party to represent it would have the support of the remaining three.

They, like other PDP faithful in the state, agreed that the party must work assiduously to regain the governorship seat, which it lost to Governor Adams Oshiomhole of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN which joined other parties to form the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Ize-Iyamu, Onaiwu, Edebiri and Iduriyekemwen

Oshiomhole first rode to power through the judicial process, which annulled the election of Prof. Oserhieme Osunbor of the PDP and later won a second term.

Ahead of the forthcoming PDP governorship primaries, can the four aspirants hold on to their promise of not jettisoning the party’s interest and support whoever emerges as its flag bear? This is the question that is agitating the minds of party faithful in the state as each of the aspirants is eminently qualified to fly the party’s flag, if chosen, as a peep into their profile reveals.

PASTOR OSAGIE IZE-IYAMU
After Oshiomhole, he is about the most popular active politician in Edo State today. He has a very rich political resume. A Benin-politician of Orhionmwon Local Government Area extraction, he was both a former Chief of Staff and Secretary to Edo State government during the Lucky Igbinedion (1999-2007) administration.

After falling out with the then PDP leadership over the de-registration of some members of the party, he joined forces with others to form the Grace Group, a pressure group within the PDP that left the party to form the AD and the Action Congress in Edo State. He was Vice Chairman South- South of the defunct ACN. He, however, returned to the PDP last year after falling out with Oshiomhole. His defection to the PDP was also followed by some APC lawmakers in the Edo State House of Assembly. He was the Edo State Coordinator of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organization for the 2015 Presidential election.

Though the Redeemed Church pastor is still an aspirant, many people already see him as the PDP governorship candidate. He has political structures within the 18 local government areas of Edo State. He is forceful and understands the politics of the state very well, he has been reaching out to different groups, galvanizing support for his ambition. It seems politicians in the ruling APC see him as the likely PDP governorship candidate and are already focusing on him and planning for how they will curtail him.

What the ruling APC had against him which they would use to campaign against him if he picks the ticket of the PDP is his closeness to the former Governor Lucky Igbinedion when he was his Secretary to Government. But PDP faithful from his camp have quickly countered this, saying that many APC’s henchmen such as the State party chairman, Mr. Anslem Ojezua and Commissioner for Works, Mr. Osarodion Ogie, among others also served in the Chief Lucky Igbinedion administration.

“As Chief of Staff and later Secretary to the Government, I never awarded or execute any contract. I only followed the directive of the State governor in executing government policies”, he said.

On why he decided to contest the race, he said: “Sometimes people tend to give the impression that it is a crime to have an ambition and prepare for an office. I think it is desirable that those, who aspire for an office, should not be those who were drafted in, had no plan and were not prepared for the office. It should not be a situation, whereby someone felt he could use them and conscript them into the race.

“Political offices are very challenging. Anyone aspiring to occupy a political office must show proof that he is prepared for it. I have lived in this state all my life. What people call (political) structure is what I call goodwill. There is no part of the state, ward or local government that I do not have personal friends. I’m talking about people I could stay in their houses and eat based on long term relationships. So, when people talk about political structure, it does not necessarily mean control of political parties but being able to have credible men and women, who are close to you in all parts of the state. That, to me, is a credit.

“As for my ambition, I have had the opportunity of serving in government and I know the workings of government more than a lot of people. I also thank God for good education. I cannot see my state being misled and mismanaged and be indifferent. It is natural and patriotic to have an ambition under such circumstance.

“When people say that I have held the ambition for a long time, I laugh. In 2007, they said I had the ambition but it will interest you to know that nobody can point to a single poster that I printed. Yes, I was in the forefront of the Grace Group and we were very visible talking about internal democracy. Common sense told me that the outgoing governor then came from my senatorial district and there was the need for some form of equilibrium in the political arrangement of the state. I too also was in the forefront of ensuring that someone from another senatorial district became governor. I believe I have paid my dues and my ambition now is propelled by the mismanagement of our commonwealth and the need to redirect the drift in our state”.

CHIEF SOLOMON EDEBIRI

He was the revelation of the 2012 governorship election debate organized for candidates. Then, his policy plans and what he would do to bring the state out of the woods when elected endeared him to the people of the state. However, he had contested the election ond the platform of the now defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, a party that was not very popular in Edo State. He came third in the April 22, 2012 governorship election.

He led the Edo ANPP group into merger with the ACN and the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC to form the APC. He joined the PDP in 2014 after complaining that only the ACN group was running the show in the new APC. Edebiri has never occupied political office before; hence, he is seen as a “decent” politician.

Buoyed by the outcome of that election, Edebiri has once again thrown his hat into the Edo State governorship ring for the July, 2016 election. Asked why he decided to contest again, he has this to say: “I am a member of the PDP. My first and primary assignment now is to convince leaders of the party and members of the party that I am best suited for the governorship position.

“Looking at the past and where the PDP is coming from, the party certainly needs a man that can bring the unity in the party, a man who can create hope for the people, a man that can re-build the party. If you look at this backdrop, the party needs a great unifier, PDP do not need anybody that will divide the party into two factions.

“So, our primary focus now is to ensure that we go to the primary successfully and we go to the field. I enjoy a lot of public support and I am very confident that if the PDP can trust me with their mandate, Edo People will trust me with their larger mandate to govern the state. That informs my commitments to this struggle. The people have watched me over the years, they have seen my antecedent, they have seen me and believe that this is the time.”

When asked to comment on how his party the PDP can avoid the mistakes of the past which caused it to remain in opposition for almost eight years and what it can do to avoid the seemingly crisis rocking the APC in the state, he said that every political party usually has its own individual differences adding it was usually a part of the democratic process.

“So, if APC is having one or two differences, I don’t see it as crisis and before you know it, things will come together and they will continue to work together as a party. So for me, APC has done their eight years, PDP had served their eight years tenure before, so the people of Edo State are the best judge over who they trust with their mandate in 2016 election.

“I also want you to know that it was Adams Oshiomhole’s name that won him the mandate in 2007 and 2012, it was not the name of the defunct ACN; the party used Adams’ name and they rode to victory. PDP should also look for a name that can sell the party and use that person to sell the party. PDP must be very careful not to select anybody that the people may not want. I am not here to speak on behalf of other candidates but I am here to say that if they can trust me with their mandate, the people will be grateful to the PDP by voting the party.

As a man that has interests in several business concerns, he believes that the best thing that any state can enjoy from every government is to become an income generating state not just through VAT. “We seem to be limiting our IGR to VAT, taxing people, market women, taxi drivers and hotel owners etc. The best way to generate income for the state is to make it an export, manufacturing state, a production state.”

He promised to introduce in the state one agro-system, that is, that one local government, one crop system if elected as governor of the state adding that, “if we can endowed them with one commercial crop, for instance, cassava in Uhuwmnode, timber in Ovia North-East, groundnut in Akoko-Edo etc, and we now harvested and commercialize it, bringing in the factories, we are producing and selling outside, then Edo State will be the industrializes and becomes a tourism destination.

Although he has the outlook of a lightweight politician, who many say may not be able to tackle the ruling APC, and some people think that he has not built a political structure that is capable of winning the PDP ticket or the final election, but this may be the greatest undoing of those who underrate him in the contest.

MATTHEW IDOURIYEKEMWEN
Matthew Iduriyekemwen, a former majority leader, Edo State House of Assembly, was Edo commissioner in the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.

His ambition and acceptability cut across the three senatorial districts. He has the support of the youths and prominent party leaders like former Minister of Works, Architect Mike Onolemenmen.

He may pick the party’s ticket owing to his unflinching loyalty. He has the record of not decamping from the party since its inception in 1999. He recently said only the people and not PDP Governor’s Forum will decide who the party governorship candidate in Edo will be.

His mission as governor borders on laying strong economic foundation for the state and creating enabling environment for investors

Commenting in an earlier interview on the quality expected of the next governor of the state, he said: “There are so many aspirants in the field and as I have always said, it is nice and proper for everybody to aspire. The most important thing is that who is that person that can deliver the election to the party? Who is that person that can make the election easier for the party to claim back the seat of governance in this state? Who is that person that the electorate will feel more comfortable with electing him to govern the state? Who is that person that will best represent us against the opposing parties knowing that one of the major parties that we are going to fight against is the incumbent party not just at the state but at the federal level?. So, saying whether I think I will be the favourite, I honestly know that I have all it takes to win the primaries.

On his expectation of the party primaries, he said: “As far as I am concerned, if the primaries are free, fair and transparent… because perception is key; if I run primaries, lose and I find out that fairly I have lost the primaries and there was nothing in the situation that would have changed the result, I have seen that the person that emerged, for instance, if it is not me, was the right person who could have emerged without any external influence and interference tailored towards picking a choice person, as a loyal party man I will accept the result.

But in a situation where, the thing is skewed out of the normal, the thing is not transparent, free and fair, you cannot avoid rancour then. And once there is rancour it then becomes the bane of the party. But I think that having learned, having gone through the mills, we have learned our lessons from previous experiences, we have seen that even persons who have been assisted by this party (PDP) to pick tickets have all dumped the party at different times. People have contested elections on the platform of this party; people have been elected governors on the platform of this party, etc. They have all, at the time they think that the party is not attractive, dumped the party and gone elsewhere, as they say, to look for greener political pastures. I think it is the time for the party to actually look at everybody’s records. First and foremost, whoever must emerge in PDP must be a committed party member; the person must be someone that PDP can say ‘yes, he is PDP. The person must be someone that you know that tomorrow when he becomes the governor of the state he will still recognize that this party took him there.

“Anybody who is in the party right now is a party man. And once you are a party man, loyalty to the party comes first. I did primaries in this party before, I didn’t win but I have remained in the party till today. And watching the results of the elections in all the places that I have influence it was clear that I didn’t lose. When I say somebody is a loyal party man, I know you are interpreting it that somebody decamped and returned to the party. Those things do not really bother me. If at the end of the day, in the opinion of party members, they see that any of the people who have shown interest emerges and the process is not transparent, can you stop the people from getting angry? But if the process is free and fair and anybody emerges then every other person will say ‘yes, in the circumstance there is nothing anybody would have done, this person would have won. The normal thing is let us work with the person’. But in a situation where the thing is skewed in favour of someone, may be right from the choice of delegates, and it is manipulated, it will take you so much effort to pacify and calm nerves”, he said.

His major weakness, people say is that he may not have the capacity to lead a state like Edo. But there are those who countered this saying that a man who was the Majority Leader of the Edo State House of Assembly for two terms and an NDDC former Commissioner is not a political neophyte.

EARL OSARO ONAIWU
EARL Osaro Onaiwu was the director-general of the Governor’s Forum in Nigeria. He later became the DG of the PDP Governors’ Forum during a split in the Forum. Oniawu cut his political teeth in 1983 when he was a member of the Youth Vanguard for Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia campaign team and was appointed as an Adviser to Ogbemudia, one of the youngest to be so appointed.

He has promised to bring to Edo State what he had lend to other governors as the Director General of the Governors’ Forum.

Onaiwu believes in fair play and has told those who care to listen that whoever wins the PDP ticket will have his blessing and support.

Many see his absence from the main politics of the state when he served as DG to the Governors’ Forum as his greatest weakness as he was said to be out of the mainstream of Edo State politics.