By Ahuruonye Darlington
Godfatherism has undoubtedly posed as the bane of our political and socioeconomic development as a nation. The vestiges of this ugly trend can be found at almost all the levels of governance. It is rare to find an elected official in our contemporary society that has not ridden on the back of one political godfather or the other to power.
The godfathers are positioned as key decision makers in government. They influence the decisions of their political stooges. They wield more powers than the elected official, afterall, they sponsored their campaigns with their human and material resources. They subject their stooges to act solely under their dictates which could be at the detriment of the electorates. They take over contracts signed for humongous amounts, they rarely push for the complete execution of such contracts awarded to their companies and if they do in most cases, shabbily executed. They appoint close to 70% of the commissioners and members of the state Executive Council whose loyalty they enjoy. The appointees commits heinous crimes and malfeasance in office and goes unpunished because of their source of appointments.
However, these and many more constitutes to the drama we all are watching in Edo today. Adams Oshiomole who was once a labour leader leveraged on his strong activism, gained popularity and took a shot at the governorship seat of the state. He cashed in on the gullibility of the workers whom he fought relentlessly and courageously for their welfare and sought the People's mandate to govern Edo state. He lost the election because he didn't enjoy the support of the godfathers like Igbenadions and oyeguns of this world. Eventually he got his mandate reclaimed through judicial proclamations and he governed the state for 8 solid years without the interference of any godfather in the state. He was indeed a man who got his palm kernel cracked by the benevolent spirit but forgot to be humble.
The highly loquacious Oshiomohle boasted during his inauguration that he has succeeded in eradicating godfatherism and the overbearing influences of godfathers in the politics of Edo state. Interestingly, towards the tail end of his administration, a successor was expected to emerge. Oshiomole brought in Godwin Obaseki and sold this technocrat and renowned financial expert to the people of Edo state. Oshobaba sang the praises of his political baby and the song was too good to be ignored by the voters.
Obaseki eventually emerged and there was need to focus on the real business of governance in the state. Obaseki changed the narrative of governance and introduced technocracy in the system. He brought his wealth of knowledge and experience as an expert and these didn't go down well with his predecessor and godfather who wanted things to always go his own way. The shoulder ruffling continued unabated and there was visibly no love lost between the duo.
Oshiomole sought various means of getting at the recalcitrant obaseki but to no avail. He never knew that karma is a bitch and what goes around comes around. Governors are always threatened with reelection, but Obeski remained resolute and refused to bow under the whims and caprices of Oshiomole who is now enjoying his position as the national chairman of the ruling APC. He's now the major determinant factor to where the pendulum swings. He would use the party as his instrument of retaliation to frustrate the reelection bid of Obaseki who was sure of oshiomole's reprisal attack and as expected, oshobaba struck.
In politics, once you make your intentions known, everything about you, real and imagined, automatically gets exhumed for public scrutiny. Obaski's degree and NYSC certificates were brought for questioning. There are some minor but negligible discrepancies in his certificates which formed the basis of his disqualification by the APC screening committee working under the dictates of Oshobaba.
This according to them could cost the party the governorship seat in the post-election litigations siting the case of the kangaroo judgement of Bayelsa state.
Were these same certificates not screened by the party screening panel in the 2017 Edo Guber race?
How could oshiomole become so shameless and hypocritical to an extent of talking from the both sides of the mouth?
How could oshiomole mount the podium to altar everything good he once said about Obaseki?
Why did he overstep his bounds by trying to rule Edo on proxy?
Why trying to reinstitute godfatherism he once chastised?
In my estimation, obaseki has proven that he has balls by refusing to bow to the Baal called oshiomole. The law of natural justice will work assiduously for his reemergence and Edo state will go down in history as a state godfatherism never thrives.
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