Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has been taken to the cleaners by Hon. Samson Osagie, former Minority Whip in the House of Representatives.

He said; “For me, I think there is a general misconception and misunderstanding of the crisis bedevilling the Edo APC. It is far from being a crisis between the governor and the National chairman of the APC, Comrade Oshiomhole. Rather it is a crisis emanating from the conduct of the governor towards party members and party leaders. It is between the party leaders and the governor.”

“Those mentioning Oshiomhole are only trying to use the man’s name to seek relevance. And indeed the administration’s pursuit of some of the policies that are considered to be inimical to some of the sectors in the state.”

“For example in the agricultural sector and the educational sector and I will explain. Now here is a governor who became a governor on the platform of a political party, upon becoming governor he shut his door against party leaders and began to describe the party leaders as greedy party people whose only occupation is to make money from government.”

“He is giving the impression that the party members in APC are never do well and people who don’t mean well for the state. Whereas these are the same people who provided the platform for him to become governor. When he started these whole thing people thought that with time he could get to terms with realities to understand that you cannot deride a platform that brought you to power. However, in the course of doing this he has been able to buy the conscience of a few party officials who out of fear of wat to eat are falling for his antics.”

“But unfortunately it is not many people that will accept it across the three senatorial districts of the state. Party leaders in the state are quite disappointed in the way and manner the governor has carried on by demonizing the party and deriding party members and party leaders. So it is not a crisis between the national chairman and the governor.”

“Rather, even the National chairman of the party has even become his victim because he has further accused him of being responsible for the crisis through the state issued by the governor’s media Adviser.”

“He is blaming everybody for the crisis except himself whereas he is actually the cause of the crisis. Even the National chairman that would have been able to step in he seems to be a man that will not take advise from anybody. He has an all knowing attitude, as if he is an omnipotent person, he knows everything more than any other person.”

“Secondly, how do you explain a situation where a governor will shut down the institutions of learning that are supposed to contribute to the economy of the state? For example, the College of Education Ekiadolor that was upgraded to the status of a university has since been shut down by this governor. The student’s academic career brought to a sudden halt, the staff of the college, their career has been tampered with.”

“Obaseki was responsible for the colossal loss we suffered during the presidential and National Assembly elections. Do you know on the day of the presidential election, a governor superintending over election of the President and his National Assembly candidates went to play golf. Eventually he lost his unit and his ward, that will never have happened in Oshiomhole’s time.”

“Therefore, the man did not galvanize the party members; he showed utmost disdain for the rank and file of the party because most party members were unhappy. Even his own unit in ward 4 Oredo, he struggled and that was why he lost his ward. So his attitude towards the party and towards governance generally is responsible for the failure of the party.”

“And we are being told that because he does not bother and his naïvetés, he gave money to the wrong people and came out to start quarrelling with them. During Oshiomhole’s time, he would monitor election from beginning to the end until results are announced.”

“He was 24 hours in the field, it has never happened that Oshiomhole will lose his unit in Iyahmo or ward in Uzairue. But this governor lost his ward, Local Government and senatorial district. It took the intervention of certain persons for him to manage to win his unit, a whole governor of a state will lose his ward in an election, presidential election for that matter. He should be ashamed honestly.”

“Funny enough, this is the same man who came in as governor and made a law that those who lost their units and wards will not make commissioner list or a councillor. Now we are saying that he should abide by that law by not bothering himself to run for a second term so that APC will not lose the state. He does not stand a chance within the contest of his own rules to ask for a second term ticket. Because he has lost the moral basis for it.”

“Apart from that, the PDP guy, the House of Reps member in Oredo, Ogbeide Ihama, defeated the governor in Oredo. The meaning is that if Ogbeide Ihama emerges as PDP governorship candidate and Obaseki emerges as APC candidate, it means we have lost Oredo and to a large extent Edo South and that is the end of APC in Edo state. That is the danger of giving Obaseki a second term.”

“Edo will be a place where there will be no criticism of government and his action. It is not possible we are too sophisticated for that. Even in the days of Oshiomhole, who did marvellously well in terms of infrastructure, he has critics but his approach to criticisms were different. He has brought his critics to superior argument.”

“This governor has no superior argument to offer, other than to witch hunt people with the thugs he has recruited now, using then to attack legislators in their hotel rooms, using them to abduct legislatures for midnight inauguration. So the man’s tactics in unhelpful, anti-democratic and unacceptable to us.”

“The Edo State House of Assembly speakership election, where nine men out of 24 elected the Speaker is all illegality. I have consistently maintained that you must develop and use the instrument of emotional intelligence to deal with people when you are in a high office, such as that of a governor.”

“Develop inter personal relationship skill. Now the governor clandestinely issued a proclamation without making it public and decided to carry some loyal members who were elected to the House of Assembly for inauguration and because he does not have the numbers four elected members were kidnapped and they carried out the inauguration at night.”

“In fact when you talk about the history of democracy all over the world from Greek speaking states of Athens, it was never heard that a matter close to this has happened.”

“You kidnapped people in their shorts, took them to the assembly to take oath of office. What happened was that the governor could not manage 24 members of his own party the APC who were elected to work with him as legislators. These were people who became candidates as at September 2018. He could not develop a relationship with them, for them to trust him enough to accept whatever proposal he presents to them.”

“Even after they became elected in March, between March and June he could not develop a relationship with them or at least majority of them to enable him have his way and elect a Speaker of his choice. You may have a person as your preferred Speaker, it is politics, it is legitimate but you have to do it within the context of the rules.”

“You don’t employ under hand tactics just like they have done and I sympathize with my friend Okiye who is the beneficiary of this illegality. It is unfortunate that he is the one. And I know that if he was not the beneficiary he will take serious umbrages to this kind of tactics.”

“The whole world has condemned it, every well-meaning Nigerian and democrat saw how the National Assembly was inaugurated and this same governor belongs to the same party with President Buhari who issued his proclamation two weeks before the inauguration of the National Assembly. And I think that all lovers of democracy must rise to condemn that action.”

“The absence of peace is not what is called violence, the absence of justice is what is violence. Justice must be done, the Edo State House of Assembly has to be properly inaugurated. If it is properly inaugurated the members themselves will decide who their Speaker will be. Look at the National Assembly, the party took a position on who they wanted as Senate President and Speaker. They worked towards it, engaged them members and at the end of the day members voted towards the candidates of the party.”

“That is how it should be. It is not what we are seeing now in Edo state, what we are seeing now is illegality which will not stand. There is no way any lover of democracy can allow it to stand. The individuals involved notwithstanding.”