16102021 - Southeast Gov INEC top official in trouble over $4m bribe

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32—SATURDAY Vanguard, , OCTOBER 16, 2021
2020 was a special year for the world
at large. It will always have its special
place in the annals of history. It was
the year a humbled, perplexed and
befuddled world literally shut down
when the rumour of a looming
pandemic became a reality. And with
this reality came other realities; that
for all their arrogance, the world’s
leading countries have no answers to
the many problems they are
unwittingly creating; that they do not
have the wherewithal, despite
grandstanding, to play god; that the
seed of the world’s destruction could
be sown by the hands of some of these
megalomaniac leaders who seek to
control the world. It was the year an
overwhelmed world was forced to its
knees in surrender to a force beyond
its control and religious adherents
voluntarily fell on their knees in
supplication to the One who controls
all forces.
For Nigeria, 2020 was a year it would
wish it could forget but which might
be difficult if not impossible to forget.
It started with the lockdown and for
two months, almost everything from
commerce to religion to romance stood
still. Even the air we breathed became
almost suffocating in its stillness. Just
as we were coming up for air and
thanking God that the worst of the
Covid-19 predictions did not
materialise in the country, the
#ENDSARS protest reared its
devastating head. Its after effect on
the economy and in casualties turned
out to be worse than the preceding
Covid-19 pandemic – but it also came
with its own realities.The rest of the
year was capped by insurgency and
terrorism described benignly in selfdenial
by the nation as attacks from
bandits and herdsmen. The solution
to insurgency and terrorism will start
when we stop playing the ostrich and
face the realities of what has hit us
and how we came to be where we are.
It has been a year now that tanks
rolled, guns boomed and bodies
allegedly fell around the Lekki Toll
Gate in Lagos. Before that fateful
October 20 incident however, public
buildings had been burnt, historical
It was a shock seeing Governor
Godwin Obaseki of Edo State
ordering members of the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP opposed to his
plans for harmonization of the
executive of the party at all levels to
leave the party.
He spoke at a gathering of
stakeholders where the decision to
suspend the national vice-chairman of
the party, South-South, Chief Dan
Orbih from the party was adopted.
The developments in the Edo State
chapter of the PDP flow from the
defection of Obaseki to the PDP
penultimate June. It came upon the
determination of Comrade Adams
Oshiomhole to use his position as
national chairman of the All
Progressives Congress, APC, to stop
Obaseki from having the second term
ticket of the APC. The Edo State
governor at that time last
June was practically
reduced to a political
wanderer.
It was a sight to behold
that day last June at the
APC national secretariat
as Governor Obaseki,
clutched his credentials
as he appeared before a
committee constituted by
Oshiomhole to defend
allegations of certificate
forgery.
For one reason or the
other, the Oshiomhole
panel eventually
disqualified the same
man that four years ago,
Oshiomhole had stumped
through Edo State to
enthrone governor.
After Obaseki was
forced out from the APC, and following
flying visits across the country – Uyo-
Port-Harcourt-Asaba- he landed in
Benin where the PDP grudgingly
One Year After: What lessons did
we learn from the #Endsars
protest?
monuments destroyed and commercial
houses looted. Institutions that
embodied law and order like the
Prisons and Police Stations were
violated and desecrated
with their officials
disrobed, disgraced and
in some cases, killed.
Even before all of that,
the nation watched as
the agenda of the protest
changed; as ranks of
articulate youths were
infiltrated by hoodlums;
as peaceful protests
became violent and
friendly protesters
became unfriendly
harassers. It was a
protest that shook the
nation to its core. A
protest of the
improbable that became
possible. A protest that
showed once again, that
the line between order
and chaos can indeed be
very thin. A protest that
offered lessons on both sides.
The first lesson for me is the power of
the digital world and how a protest of
that scale was organised and prosecuted
without the authorities knowing or
being able to stop it. Or that it can
happen again. We always knew the
youths were disgruntled because we
accepted him.
Two men who were crucial to the final
acceptance of Obaseki into the party were
Ogbeide Ihama, the member
representing Oredo Federal Constituency
in the House of Representatives and Dan
Orbih, the man who had built and held
the party in the days of
the wilderness when
Oshiomhole was in
power.
At the time Obaseki
came in, Ogbeide-Ihama
One can only imagine
the imagination of
Comrade Oshiomhole at
this time. After repeated
disappointments,
Oshiomhole may now
laugh as Obaseki who
seemingly betrayed him
and Orbih who
tormented him
government fight one
another.
was in pole position to
emerge as the PDP
candidate for the 2020
governorship election,
having built synergy with
the party structure across
the state that was
effectively in the control
of Orbih.
For a man that had set
his sight to be governor
in 2020 it was unarguably
a bitter pill being asked
by party grandees in
Abuja to resign for the
governor to take the
ticket.
Especially given the tardiness that
characterized the process at that time,
Ogbiede Ihama had the opportunity to
scupper the emergence of Obaseki as the
party’s candidate by insisting that the
Last year’s protest
could easily have led
to another Arab
Spring with its
consequences –
there are people who
don’t mind if the
country went to the
dogs
had disenfranchised them while ogling
the resources of the land. But the level
of their angst - even from youths in the
diaspora who want to reclaim their
country - was an eye opener. Another
insight is that a protest
is not the only thing the
organisers can use their
digital savvy to put
together. They can use
it to put a candidate of
their choice in Aso Rock
if they apply the same
knowledge, cohesion,
mobilisation skills and
righteous anger - they
have the numbers
anyway, to borrow a
now popular phrase. I
hope they have learnt
that protests can be
stained no matter how
pure the original plan
was; they can be
diffused no matter how
focused the original
purpose was; they can
be hijacked no matter
how tight the original
strategists thought their hold was. I also
hope they have learnt not to stay on the
street for too long and to accept their
victories in small doses. An all or
nothing fight gets protracted, dissipates
energy, diffuses focus, harden lines on
both sides and allows for infiltration. But
Oshiomhole laughs as Obaseki
fights again
timeline for the process had been
breached. He could have affirmed that the
bus had left the station by the time
Obaseki entered.
He was, however, made to withdraw
alongside other leading contenders.
At that time too, Orbih had relinquished
his position as party chairman in favour
of Dr. Tony Aziegbemi, the former member
of the House of Representatives. However,
as everyone in Edo knows, the Edo PDP
had over the years been infused with the
fighting spirit that Orbih brought to bear.
With Orbih as party chairman, the PDP
had put the Oshiomhole led APC to task
in elections winning the majority of
National Assembly seats and numbers in
presidential counts in 2011, 2105 and
2019.
However, Orbih like Ogbeide-Ihama
also kowtowed to the party grandees plea
and became Obaseki’s campaign
manager in 2019. The sight of Orbih on
the rostrum campaigning for Obaseki did
not foretell the kind of development now
ensuing in Edo.
The suspension of Orbih and Ogbeide-
Ihama, the two critical factors in
Obaseki’s emergence as governor must
have befuddled many. Especially given
that it was under the watch of the governor.
Obaseki’s allies allege that the two men
were frustrating the governor’s move to
harmonise the PDP structure. For them it
is especially painful that ahead of the PDP
the most important lesson in my mind is
that these young people proved that a
protest of this nature with people pulling
together from different parts of the world
is doable. Not just to end police brutality
but to also address other specifics in the
country. The brains that put #endSARS in
motion must be careful not to let it get to
their heads. Last year’s protest could easily
have led to another Arab Spring with its
consequences – there are people who don’t
mind if the country went to the dogs.
Getting good leadership that will attend to
the myriad of problems of the youths in
the country and halt the emigration of our
young and talented ones should be the
priority now.
As for government, the speed with which
it acceded to the demands of the protesters
to end police brutality as symbolised by
SARS showed it was taken by surprise. It
soon became clear that SARS was not the
only issue the protesters wanted redressed.
But beyond the initial surprise and
reaction, government had become
characteristically lethargic to other issues.
The elements of surprise had worn off and
the issues that led to the protests have been
buried under the carpet. The committees
and commissions set up to address some
of these issues have been quietly taken off
the radar. It is now business as usual for
our politicians. 2023 is the new focus and
concerns of the Nigerian youths have
become side issues - the propensity of our
politicians to self-destruct boggles the
mind. I advise the leadership to revisit the
issues that led to #endSARS while it is still
possible to do so in a reasoned manner.
Even the blind can see that the youths are
marginalised and the opportunities to selfactualise
are dwindling everyday for them.
Even the foolhardy knows that some
structures have to be tinkered with for
Nigeria to survive. The situation in the
country has become much more volatile
than it was this time last year. The youths
all over the country have become more
restive and more desperate. Violence and
crime are coming more easily to them now.
With what is on the ground right now,
another protest like #endSARS could make
the country ungovernable. An Arab Spring
should be everybody’s nightmare.
Government can nip it in the bud by going
back to – or even beyond - the reports that
are gathering dust. The clock is ticking.
National Convention this October that the
governor would not be in a position to have
a say in the Edo delegate list which they claim
is being dictated by Orbih.
Even more, the governor’s allies allege
underhand schemes by Orbih and the Old
PDP to frustrate the governor through many
court actions and underhand schemes.
The development has led to the new phrase
in Benin that “Obaseki should take his
government and leave our party for us.”
The division has been hampered by the
seeming lack of communication on the part
of the governor. The nomination of 11 new
commissioners all from the former APC
helped to worsen perceptions about a
governor regarded everywhere as a fighter.
“How can you bring all 11 commissioners
from your side after taking deputy governor
and SSG,” many in the Old PDP have been
asking.
Sources say that the governor has promised
another 10 commissioners for the Old PDP
but after harmonization.
However, what Obaseki and perhaps the
Old PDP are not seeing is the role of fifth
columnists in the whole matter. That is the
role of PDP chieftains who lost out during
the congresses in 2020, chieftains with
national reputation but bereft of local
support. A number of these chieftains have
been egging Obaseki on in his new fight with
the intention that what they lost during the
congresses of 2020 that they would get
through harmonization.
In his first fight with Oshiomhole, the
Obaseki crowd was able to get the executive
in Oshiomhole’s ward to suspend him. In
Orbih’s case, that has been unsuccessful
putting the whole suspension drama into a
constitutional nullity.
Social media is now suffixed with Obaseki
as a fighter and a man of ingratitude. It
doesn’t do him good, especially given his sight
towards a legacy. One can only imagine the
imagination of Comrade Oshiomhole at this
time. After repeated disappointments,
Oshiomhole may now laugh as Obaseki who
seemingly betrayed him and Orbih who
tormented him government fight one another.