EDO GOVERNORSHIP: OSHIOMHOLE AND HIS ORACLES
Throughout his campaign for the July 14 (this Saturday) Edo State governorship election, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has concentrated his focus on issues that have very little bearing on his performance as governor of Edo State in the last four years. He has devoted considerable attention to the issue of godfathers who were supposedly scheming to wrest power from him. As the whole world knows, the target of his godfather campaign has been Chief Tony Anenih.
Anenih has been vilified at every opportunity and projected as a bogey man standing in the way of democracy and development in the State. Although Oshiomhole has hardly ever attempted to show how Anenih has hindered his ability to perform as governor in the last four years, he has nonetheless found it convenient to stomp this godfather platform. It is, of course, a convenient platform for a Governor whose performance can hardly stand up to scrutiny.
Oshiomhole has deliberately diverted attention from his record as governor because there is not a lot that he can be proud of. There is no relationship between the resources that have come into the State (including statutory allocations, IGR, funds from Excess Crude Oil, the massive loan of N18 billion from the bond market, etc.) and the physical development of the State.
The common characteristic of Oshiomhole’s governance is the inflation of contracts and concentration of cosmetic and made-for-propaganda projects. In Benin City, for example, the planting of flowers, shrubs, curbs and beautification of the Ring Road and Akpakpava Road (estimated to have cost N1.2 billion) and dualisation of the Airport Road (N11 billion for 6.82 kilometers) are his trophies of performance. What the world now knows is that even these projects were done at costs that were prohibitive, if not scandalous. The Ring Road/Akpakpava project was initiated by Oshiomhole’s predecessor, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor at the modest cost of N150 million (a massive difference of over N1 billion).
More important, however, is the sad fact that the preponderance of roads in Benin City is impassible. Most Benin dwellers go through harrowing experience to get in and out of their homes every day. The same is true of all the local governments in the State where the renovation of a primary school or health centre is about the only dividend of Oshiomhole’s rule.
Having seen the failure of his godfather propaganda and the exposure of the falsehood of his claims of performance, Oshiomhole has become increasingly desperate and he is willing to use any and everything, no matter how odious, to get an advantage in the election of Saturday. First, he attempted to play politics with incidents in the State in which some people died. The idea was to blame these accidents on the PDP and, by so doing, alienate Edo people from the party.
That ploy has failed. Fortunately, police report on the governor’s convoy accident totally exonerated the PDP from any involvement. Indeed, the report showed that both the owner and the driver of the lorry that rammed into the convoy are card-carrying members of the ACN.
In addition, Oshiomhole has tried the strategy of blackmailing INEC and the President of the Federal Republic. He intimidated INEC into suspending the update of the Voter’s Register, by leading a protest march (in which, at least, one person died) to its (INEC) office in Benin City. He has also, repeatedly, attempted to drag the President’s name into some imaginary plot to rig the election.
From all of Oshiomhole’s antics and activities, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that he is a desperado who is prepared to do anything and step on anybody to retain his hold on the governorship position. Nowhere is this more evident than his readiness to drag the revered Benin monarch, Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Erediauwa, into his campaign platform. By so doing, he is attempting to appeal to the primordial sentiments of the Benin people who are generally known to hold the Omo N’Oba in great awe.
As every Edo person knows, it is sacrilegious to drag the name of the Omo N’Oba into situations of conflict. The attempt to use the name of the Benin monarch started with some palace chiefs who claimed to be speaking the mind of the Omo N’Oba expressing support for Oshiomhole. It was followed by orchestrated propaganda that the Omo N’Oba did not bless the PDP candidate and, as recently claimed by Oshiomhole propagandists, that the President was snubbed by the Omo N’Oba.
When all these falsehoods were exposed for what they were, with the Oba’s palace issuing a statement to the effect that the Omo N’Oba did not snub the President and that he was not supporting any candidate, the Oshiomhole camp became more desperate, and started to attach the name of the Omo N’Oba to its campaign. It was evident in a video clip on television, showing a palace chief claiming that the Omo N’Oba had “expressed support for Oshiomhole as prescribed by the oracles.”
Oshiomhole seems desperate to drag the Omo N’Oba into his campaign and it would appear that no amount of denials from the Oba’s palace can dissuade him. Is it not ironical that Oshiomhole, who has been crying to the roof-top against other political parties for playing tribal politics in Edo, is the very person doing the same openly in the mass media? The tragedy of Oshiomhole is that a governor who prides himself as a man of the people no longer trusts the people to vote him back to power and has now resorted to the dictatorship of metaphysical deities. By using that video clip on oracles, Oshiomhole has not only disconnected himself from the people, he has shown that he has no faith in the democratic order that ostensibly brought him to power. The good news is that it is the people of Edo State, not oracles, however powerful, that will vote to decide Oshiomhole’s fate on July 14, 2012.
Written By Johnson Omoregie