Since after the just concluded September 19, Edo 2020 Governorship Election , I have been inundated with phone calls and messages from fans seeking my opinion on the outcome. I believe my views before the election were well documented and in public domain but for the avoidance of doubt, I didn’t just predict Obaseki’s victory, I was categorical that his winning may even be more dramatic than was being anticipated.
The odds favoured him and nothing other than a landslide victory would have been acceptable. I am happy that my call was right. Obaseki won a landslide and may have surprised himself by the outcome.
INEC and the security agencies should be commended for their rare discipline. An improved INEC ensured a largely free and fair election that resulted in a credible outcome. With such a credible outcome, post-election litigations and crisis were minimized. This obviously reflected in the conduct of the losing party and their candidate who didn’t just concede defeat but also congratulated the victor. President Buhari showed statesmanship and sportsmanship by congratulating the winner even though they are of different political parties. The APC as a party also congratulated Obaseki. Finally, Iyamu congratulated the winner bringing the episode to a joyful end. That’s the spirit , that’s the game , that’s politics. I commend INEC and Mahmood Yakubu for a job well done.
Politics for those who understand the game is not a do or die. It can be likened to Olympic sports where at the end of the competition both the winner and loser hug each other. I have often repeated on this page that losing an election is also part of the beauty of democracy. It’s a misnomer to want to win at all cost. This is why I must sincerely appreciate and commend President Buhari for allowing the government of the people , by the people and for the people to prevail. I know he did this against the will of the hawks around him. Posterity will be kind to him.
On this note, I join all lovers of peace , freedom and democracy in congratulating, His Excellency, Godwin Obaseki for his well- deserved victory . I wish him a fruitful next four years in office. I need not remind him that he owes Edo people good governance. He has no excuse not to deliver on democratic dividends especially now he is beholden to no earthly godfather but to God and the people.
I have heard speculations about him returning back to APC. I have no words or advice for him other than to wish him luck, otherwise he doesn’t need such distraction to perform his duties as governor. He has a duty to work for those that voted for him and those that didn’t. He should also work to harmonise the relationship between himself and the rest of the members of Edo State House of Assembly as all of the elected members of the Assembly must be allowed to perform their constitutional duties of representation and oversight functions. The three arms of government must be allowed to function at their full capacity for the benefit of the State.
I also wish to commend Pastor Ize Iyamu who swam against the tide. The election wasn’t a very bad outing for him. The result showed he still commands very large following across the state despite the excess baggage of Oshiomhole. This is a followership that can be built upon. This election wasn’t his sunset. In my view this is just a beginning of a new dawn for him. He can claim victory in defeat by rising above self.
If I were to advise him , I will ask him to put behind him all issues concerning this election. He should discontinue all the pre and post-election matters. Those are cases that will come to a useless end and cause further bruises for him if pursued any further. He should join hands with his brother governor to usher in good governance . I am not asking him to join the governor in PDP or to have the governor join him in APC. Both can keep their different political platforms but should join hands and work for the progress and development of the state. The future belongs to him. Everything being equal, I will offer him free political consultancy services in this regard.
Pastor Iyamu is still young and appears to be in good health. The future beckons him and he must set his eyes on the future. Four years from today is a short distance. He has a lot to be grateful for; the just concluded election which more than anything helped him to clear his good name. It is not often that we are lucky in life to have an opportunity to clear our soiled names, especially to have it cleaned by the very people that smeared us. Before the election, Adams Oshiomhole used the cover of politics to assassinate the character of Ize Iyamu .He painted him as evil. He told the world that Iyamu is a thief, that he is incompetent to hold public office. In fact, no one that listened to the loquacious former governor will accept Iyamu for free.
Character assassination is worse than physical murder. When you put a bullet in someone’s head, you may cause an instant death, but with character assassination you cause death by instalment and continuously kill the person every single day even after death. That was what Oshiomhole did to Iyamu. Only God will judge him and visit him with appropriate reward.
However, Iyamu should count himself lucky that he lived to watch Oshiomhole eat his own vomit by going around Edo confessing himself as a serial liar. He said that everything he said against Iyamu is politics and a lie. He confessed that Iyamu is a clean man, a competent hand and a very dependable technocrat who Edo can trust with leadership.
With Oshiomhole recanting, Iyamu becomes the real winner. The future beckons on him. Edo 2020 election was a referendum for Oshiomhole and his politics of godfatherism. In his pursuit for vengeance, he refused to gauge the mood of the people. He became dangerous not just to himself and the state but to his party and the nation.
In his blind hate and pursuit for vengeance, he fell flat in his politics, ruined his career and booked himself an early retirement from politics.
He injected himself into Edo politics this time to, ‘play God’. He wasn’t there to proffer solution to any single problem of the state but to prove the point that he made Obaseki governor and can by himself unmake him. He assumed the position of the god who must ultimately destroy Obaseki if he cannot convert him to his personal boy to be buoyed. Imagine for a moment if the people hadn’t thought differently. Imagine if they had acquiesced him and handed Edo to him. Democracy would have died and with it the future of Edo State.
Thank God, the people did the right thing and roundly rejected him. Thank God they cut him to size and reminded him, ‘Edo no be Lagos’.