By Kassim Afegbua.
I read a Right of Reply from one of Governor Obaseki’s scruffy bootlickers in which he tried, but without much tact to rake up unrelated issues to the very subject matter I had written on in the penultimate week. I had touched on the issue of Obaseki with-holding the monthly allocations due to the Benin Traditional Council.
This cretin of a spokesman in his response, instead of responding to that, wrote about how highly they placed the Oba. Does anyone with-hold the allocation of an Oba that they supposedly hold in high esteem? He mentioned also, that my discourse was buoyed by attention seeking. How does appointment in President Tinubu’s government correlate with the issues I raised? When they are caught pants down, in their unholy acts of rebarbative idiocy, they clutch at flotsam to stay afloat to save their punctured faces. I am still wondering when it becomes a crime for anyone to seek appointment; as the writer did when he beseeched Obaseki, after Obaseki’s election, to become his mouthpiece. Later, I will address a couple of other issues that have reduced the person and office of the Governor to a ridiculous level since he came into governance. I am even shocked that a spokesman of someone does not know where his boss comes from; a little rustic village called Eke, forced into the boundary of Edo, when it was created. Ideally, Obaseki is from Delta state.
A true Benin man cannot behave like a loose canon, to treat a highly respected Monarch, the great Oba of Benin, Uku Akpolokpolo, with such disrespect and odiom as Governor Obaseki has done. He with-held Oba’s statutory monthly allocations illegally, proceeded to build a museum outside the jurisdiction of his office, and promoted rebellion within the kingdom, making some Enigies raise dust where there was none. Now he is surreptitiously fanning the embers of division within the Kingdom that has long survived western invasion. He is also making frantic efforts to balkanise what remains as the beauty, allure, heritage and symbol of our collective sufferance as Edo people.
The mere mention of Edo invokes that sublime feeling as a city of culture, where the monarch is held in awe and respect in his elegance, quintessence and in celebration. While an insider, and sadly the Governor, a supposed Benin man, has been trying to demystify the culture and tradition of the Great Kingdom, an outsider who understands the beauty of tradition, a well brought up Omoluabi, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has taught us all how to dignify, respect, and celebrate a Monarch of such magisterial stature.
The social media was awash with commentaries about how President Tinubu clenched his fist as he bowed to receive the Benin Monarch in Aso Rock. When one sees a man who is well brought up, who has respect for the African tradition, who understands the importance of royalty, no crystal gazing needed. By their fruits, we know them!!. May God bless our president.
Governor Obaseki is making frantic effort to desecrate a kingdom that has survived all manner of conspiracies, betrayals, sell outs and knavery. In about sixteen months from now, he would be past tense in the exalted office of Edo’s number one citizen. His actions would be reviewed and some of his decisions would be upturned. Some of his Certificates of Occupancy would be revoked, his lapdogs would be fired, and the paraphernalia for his office that presently makes him behave like a conquistador would depart from him. I do know he will return to his Afri-Invest Company that was to say the least, dead before he became Governor, but has now built its 8-floor Headquarters on Gerald Road in Ikoyi. All the stolen Edo money would be retrieved and all the blackmail would stop at his doorstep.
The reality of life will dawn on him, and the ephemerality of transient power and its crazy aphrodisiac would leave him dazed. If he so chooses, he can retain his present mouthpiece, Crusoe Osagie, to continue his trade with him. Crusoe might be able to defend him when the decayed pot of soup he had cooked for himself begins to pollute the air in the state. We will remind Governor Obaseki that he might be sleeping beneath a thick cottoned duvet, but we can still see the loose end of his backside, that exposes the rotten underbelly of his governance. The chicken will surely come home to roost.
In trying to situate Governor Obaseki’s persona, I need to raise some posers to undress/unveil his stained underwear. How is it that Governor Obaseki has ditched those who laboured so hard to birth his governorship? Those who truly assisted Obaseki to climb to the exalted position of governor are now distant from him. Take a roll call: Senator Oshiomhole, Odubu, Patrick Obahiagbon, Henry Idahiagbon, Dan Orbih, Nyesom Wike, Ogbeide-Ihama, Lucy Omagbon, General Cecil Izekaigbe, and the list can go on and on. His former aides: John Mayaki, Taiwo Akerele and lately, Adaze Ewanta, all left him when they could no longer stomach his hypocrisy. Adaze Ewanta was particularly miffed at the many failures of the Governor in delivering dividends to the good people of Edo. The litany of woes that permeates the entire gamut of the State, from fake projects to opaque initiatives that could easily pass for an “Obubuyaya”(the more you look, the less you see) scenario is what Edo State has been in since Obaseki took office.
The State is in the hands of a man without a destination. Untold bathos is the fate of Edo in his hands. He has a Commissioner for Roads and Bridges, such laughable nomenclature in a state where bridges are never built, where roads are in a parlous state. It goes to suggest that the Governor is trapped by his self-inflicted maladies. He was tempestuous in APC, and succeeded in blackmailing the former APC chairman, Senator Adams Oshiomole, who was his benefactor, just to whip up sentiments. People thought that his getting into the PDP would change the narrative. Alas, the worst case scenario reared its ugly head, and a man who begged to be accommodated has now become the party’s albatross. The journey has indeed turned out to be a bathos.
His fan-fare about Education in Edo state is the most bizarre. His EdoBest initiative is at best EdoTrash; manned by persons who cannot connect to the state. There are so many schools without teachers. There are even others that can only boast of two, three or four teachers at best, depending on the stature of the school and whether the school is in the good books of the Commissioner.
Many of the schools exist without chairs and tables; yet, we hear so much noise from his social media urchins, to almost make one think that Edo state education has attained an eldorado status. Back in the day, Education in Edo state was so high and the pupils so smart that the cutoff marks allocated to the state for their pupils to enter into the unity schools was lofty. Today, the pupils from Edo state cannot be boasted of in terms of academic achievements. They rank very low. The World Bank needs to have a second thought about Edo, and its involvement in gifting Governor Obaseki a $75m ( Seventy Five Million Dollars) grant for the education sector. The World Bank officials should create time to drive around Edo state, to ascertain what the Governor has invested the money in. At best, they will see that Edo State educational system has remained where Senator Oshiomhole left it. The red roof revolution remains a positive impression in the minds of the people. They cannot forget it in a hurry. While Obaseki’s private business interest is growing, Edo State is getting rotten by the day. The Ekpoma end of the popular Benin-Auchi Road is an eyesore. Senator Oshiomhole fixed the Federal Roads while he was Governor, and Edo State under Obaseki, was refunded N18billion ( Eighteen Billion Naira) for those projects. What did Obaseki do with that money? Today in Edo, once the clouds are gathering, the people begin to fidget; flood, yes flood is one of the scariest monsters in the state. The reclamation works that Oshiomhole started have been abandoned. The more floods the state gets, the happier Governor Obaseki gets; maybe he is spending money on CONSULTATIONS, to arrest the floods; just anything that is not empirically verifiable. Instead of facing the challenges before him, he’s busy fighting over artefacts.
And now the latest: the Benin Port; another white elephant project like the SOBE FARMS that never saw the light of day. They said Obaseki has broken a 75year debacle, as if there was an independent Nigeria by then. Seventy five years ago, there was nothing like Edo state or even Bendel State. Revisionists behave like under- performers; they turn a mountain into a mole hill or an anthill into a mountain, edifying it at will, to suit their desired narratives. Benin Port was conceptualised in 2017 when Obaseki had just assumed office. We all thought he meant business, until his real character was unveiled. We saw the manifestation of deception and subterfuge from a man who was a hard product to sell ab initio. When APC showed him the exit door, Senator Matthew Orhoghide, Clifford Ordia, Tom Ikimi, and their collaborators hurled Godwin Obaseki at us like a poisoned chalice. Today, they are all still licking their wounds. Senator Orhogide has left PDP for Governor Obaseki. Labour Party, an opposition party controls Obaseki’s Senatorial District, ditto for his Federal Constituency. Power, has a way of making men blind to their intentions. If by now Governor Obaseki does not see the ginormous handwriting on the wall of the Great Benin Kingdom, that his leadership has become a curse, he should at least understand that the people have departed from him in his PDP. He lost support in the state for his beleaguered candidate in the Presidential election woefully; even after he pronounced that “Nigeria will break if President Tinubu of the APC wins”. Tinubu has since become the President of Nigeria; and Nigeria has become stronger. The fragmentation remains within Obaseki’s circles. Until I come your way again shortly, this is another assignment for Crusoe to chew on.
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