On the political dining table, betrayal is a ready-made cuisine some politicians easily serve their trusted allies and supporters. In one breath, we can say that betrayal is the politicians’ raison d’eter as the French would have it. Anyone in doubt of the truism of the above should check out the scenario around the just concluded governorship election in Edo State.
Governor Godwin Obaseki is the stock market guru, turned into a politician by former Governor Adams Oshiomhole, who is now a Senator of the Federal Republic, representing Edo North. After the former Labour leader had succeeded in installing Obaseki as his successor in 2016, things turned overboard sharply between them, such that by 2020, when it was re-election time, Oshiomhole had become Obaseki’s arch enemy. He was forced to adopt the man who flew the flag of the PDP in the 2016 election, whom he had demonized before Edo voters, Osagie Eze-Iyamu. Oshiomhole was said to have concluded that Obaseki had to be flushed out of the Edo Government House on account of alleged failure to keep the former governor’s legacies intact. In the 2020 scenario, Oshiomhole was well-positioned to determine Obaseki’s fate in the All Progressives Congress (APC). So the sitting governor was rejected in the primaries.
Thus, as Obaseki lost his bid to win APC’s governorship ticket to guarantee himself a second term in office, stories started flying here and there. Political historians made quick comparisons between his situation and that of two governors of this era who had suffered a similar fate. The story then was like Obaseki like Chinwoke Mbadinuju of Anambra State in 2003, and like Obaseki and like Mala Kachala of Borno State, also in 2003. Kachala and Mbadinuju were two governors who were denied a second term in office by political godfathers at the start of the Fourth Republic. The offences said to have been committed by the duo were similar to allegations leveled against Obaseki by the Oshiomhole camp in 2020. It all had to do with the alleged betrayal of the godfathers’ cause. It was claimed that in line with the sense in the globally acknowledged saying, which indicates that betrayal is the politicians’ raison d’eter, Obaseki had entered office and wasted no time undoing several policies his predecessor held dearly. So Oshiomhole waited for payback time in 2020. And he exerted his authority on the primaries process.
With Obaseki out in the cold, and with political oblivion looking the more realistic for him, many had thought that he was set to follow the infamous imprints earlier charted by the duo of Kachala and Mbadinuju, due to tiffs with their godfathers. But the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the State decided to play a fast one. Led by the incumbent National Vice Chairman (South-South) of the party, Chief Dan Osi Orbih, the PDP decided that it was better to provide robes for an unraveled Obaseki, who was already occupying the Government House. The PDP reasoned that giving Obaseki its ticket in 2020 was more or less victory assured. The man was already in the saddle and could swing the fabled incumbency factor in its favour. But there was a big river to cross. The PDP had already picked Honourable Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama, a two-time member of the House of Representatives, who represented the popular Oredo constituency as its preferred candidate before the APC dealt Obaseki a fatal blow.
What’s to be done? Orbih rallied other leaders of the party and coordinated with then governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike to broker a deal. Obaseki would be allowed to fly the PDP’s flag, while Ogbeide-Ihama was to be assured of a shot at the Government House after Obaseki. Attempts to make Ogbeide-Ihama Obaseki’s running mate were rebuffed, as the governor had insisted he wanted to run with Phillip Shaibu, his deputy. It looked like a firmly sealed envelope and the PDP leaders put their all in the campaign. The setup of that election was unique. Osagie Eze-Iyamu, who was defeated by Obaseki when he flew PDP’s ticket in 2016 had become APC’s anointed in the build-up to the 2020 election as the two candidates swapped parties for the famous re-march. At the end of the election, Obaseki triumphed over the chosen candidate of his estranged political godfather-Oshiomhole.
But no one was left to guess for too long as to whether the saying of the elders would come true again as regards Obaseki and the relationship with those you may call PDP aborigines. Not long after he won the election, controversies started emanating as to the formation of the cabinet and the running of the party structure. The situation was, however, patched up until the build-up to the 2023 general election, when nothing could be kept under the table anymore. It appeared as if the PDP was having a repeat of the kind of controversy that played out between Oshiomhole and Obaseki. Accusations of betrayal leading to loss of faith filled the air. Everywhere was ominous, the ground and the air, and just as Obaseki fell out with Oshiomhole and the APC, he again lost the confidence of PDP leaders, who had in 2020 ensured they clothed his nakedness in the marketplace. As the general election drew closer, Obaseki raised candidates to rival those of the mainstream PDP. The party leaders were more than jolted.
Somehow, the candidates he fielded for the national elections were accepted by the national secretariat of the PDP and further endorsed by the courts. The development led to big inroads for the Labour Party and the APC in the February 25 election as the two parties shared the National Assembly positions in the state. The PDP lost the presidential election in Edo State for the first time since 1999, but Obaseki rallied to win the House of Assembly seats for the party in the state elections that followed on March 18, 2023.
With Chief Dan Orbih, deputy governor Phillip Shaibu, PDP’s anointed candidate for the 2020 election, who stepped down for Obaseki, Ogbeide-Ihama, and other notables teaming up to form the Legacy Group, which showed its displeasure at Obaseli’s politics, it was clear that the feeling of betrayal had gone full circle and the combatants are arrayed at the city gate. As a source said, the result of the general sense of rejection among established politicians in the state was delivered to Obaseki and the PDP’s candidate in the September 21 election. But Asue Ighodalo, the PDP’s candidate happened to be the victim of a battle he did not ignite.
For Obaseki, it is a big lesson to learn. Generally, we can see that where politicians serve meals of betrayal and get to score some points, as we saw in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, a fatal consequence could be afoot. It is dangerous to allow many wars on different fronts. Allowing all your enemies to converge on familiar spots could prove disastrous. In the build-up to that election, the roll call of Obaseki’s opponents was top-heavy in Edo North and Edo South Senatorial districts, which was a dangerous signal, and it showed in the results. Though the PDP had claimed that all hope was not lost as it was set to challenge the outcome of the polls in court, the results as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must have profoundly hit the smooth-talking lawyer, Asue Ighodalo, like a baptism of fire. Whatever the outcome of the expected legal fireworks, the Obaseki/Ighodalo versus Edo politicians’ tug of war has taught us it is dangerous for one man to challenge his entire clan into a wrestling match. In life, betrayal might have been labeled the politicians’ raison d’eter, but it comes with consequences.
(Published in the Sunday Tribune, October 6, 2024)
