Kennedy Ifeh
In 2016, a personality who I significantly respect called and informed me that mayhem is about to visit Edo State. He said that the ignorance of the ordinary man in the understanding of progressive ideology and its vendors has led to a person of questionable ideological depth and perverted personality assuming a very sensitive position in governance in the state. His fears, however, was not for the immediate. He was worried that if this ideologically bankrupt personality grew to become governor of the state a few years later, Edo State will be run by the Sword of Damocles and every votary of truth will either compromise or face death the unpleasant way. He called not just me, but a number of us who have been together in the students’ movement and outstanding in the battles against military dictatorship, bourgeois capitalism and poverty in Nigeria.
Many of us who were active in the National Association of Nigeria Student (NANS) from 2000 to 2004 and knew the antecedents of this personality, took this warning seriously. Today, we can confirm that Edo State is under siege with the gun pointed at any voice of dissent in the social space. It is an insult to the institutions of government in Nigeria for a Deputy Governor or the aides of a serving governor to argue that they are on the part of executive lawlessness because that is how they were taught. Trading on deception exploited from all fronts, they got an order from the Inspector General of Police stopping a legitimate gathering of Nigerians. If they gave a false narrative on the security situation in Edo State for whatever reason, the inability of the police to confront their lies drawing from genuine police report, gave them space to thrive. The police took the information supplied by the governor and his cronies uncritically and acted on it as if there was a state of emergency in Edo State.
Sadly, the right of the people to organise and associate was violated by the misinformation of the law officers of the country. While the police issued an official statement stopping the rally organised by Osagie Ize Iyamu’s supporters to celebrate their decision to join the APC, it went ahead to put its respected personnel on the ground to enforce the said instruction of the Inspector General of Police. On the other hand, interests and alliances not too far from the government, organised thugs to whom were assigned various roles targeted at disrupting peace in Edo State. Some of these hired thugs, set fire on the tarred road, violently barricaded the airport road in the city on Thursday December 12th. On Friday, the 13th, others went about with vehicles, brandishing guns and firing indiscriminately in Benin City. Vehicles were destroyed, people were robbed by hoodlum who have been given legitimacy from government house. Organised hoodlums took over some roads in Benin City, openly burning tyres, endangering the asphaltic layer of the road. More ominous was the blocking of roads by hoodlums who openly engaged in shooting in their territory of occupation. One of the scenes that experienced this brazenness was the road leading to the house of Pastor Osagie Ize Iyamu in the New Ugbor axis of the state.
On the part of the police, a vehicle conveying attendees to the event which was relocated to the private residence of Osagie Ize Iyamu was arrested and detained in the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Benin City and only released on Saturday, December 14, 2019.
If there was any credibility in the story of the induction of the Edo State House of Assembly as told by His Excellency, Godwin Obaseki before now, recent happenings confirm the fratricidal dimension of the induction of the Edo State House of Assembly. Questions have been asked: why will the elected legislatures take flight to Abuja and stay away? The unfolding indulgences of the governor and his aides reveals the higher wisdom of the excised legislators. It confirms that they are not only staying away for the love of their lives but to protect social order and save Edo State from crises.
The Edo State political space has suffered severe criminal assault in recent times. Many have been macheted, inflicted with all kinds of bodily harm because they dared to gather for purposes considered hostile to the position of the state government. Just like it happened on Thursday, December 12, 2019, none of the criminals that have attacked gatherings that the governor perceive as hostile over these years have been arrested.
Even when the house of Adams Oshiomhole was threatened with attack by some political thugs, the Commissioner of Police in Edo State then, came out to deny that it happened. Yet a young man openly validated the information and posited that it was the intervention of youths organised by him that saved that day. The contradictory indulgence of the police in the Edo State issues leave much to be desired. It is, indeed, worrisome.
We must take serious note of the role of this government in the growing indulgence of Edo youths in cultism. The level of cult activities and inter cult killings in Edo State has assumed an alarming dimension in recent times. The government owes the people of Edo State and, in fact, the Nigerian people an explanation on the growing trend of cult violence in Edo State.
When a government has lost the confidence of the people on its capacity to protect them, when the people are more scared of the government than the street criminals on the security of their lives, then a major calamity has befallen that state. This is exactly the present locale of the social space in Edo state today.
It is obvious that the present government in Edo State is not bothered about what the people think on the coming elections. It is relying on the thugs who will maim and kill before and on election day. Yet, it is better for them to know that no matter how brutal and repressive a government might be, confronted with the resilience of a people, its capacity to kill in the election, might not return the government to power.
It is funny that these Machiavellians whose only path is evil, could accuse Adams Oshiomhole of bringing thugs into Edo State on Thursday and Friday. We never saw Adams could not have hired thugs to stop himself from entering Edo State neither would Osagie Ize Iyamu have hired thugs to shoot at those who were welcoming him into the APC. It is important for the governor and his aides to know that the people’s patience to study the fact of a matter does not indicate foolishness. You, definitely, cannot fool the people forever. This is the crux of the matter.
Let it be known that those who ride on the tiger’s back, will end up in the tiger’s stomach. In Christian cosmology, it is said that those who live by the sword shall die by the sword. Those who rely on violence to suppress the will of the people will definitely be victims of its own inherent contradiction. The state is suffering from a serious debt overhang. There is no effective working plan to curb insecurity in Edo State. The level of poverty in the state is getting worst as the government lack the capacity to industrialise the state. The state Universities have not witnessed any government thrust in infrastructural development. Ambrose Alli University is threatened by extinction due to the self sustenance policy of this government which compel the institution to fund itself. Most of the tertiary institutions survived by past governments are shut down. The state is in continuing regression in all dimension of the development index.
The indulgence in blackmail, name calling, and violent assault on opponents only have a momentary impact. In the long run, the triumph of truth and the will of the people would determine the final end. The final judgement is not in the hands of the police or any accomplices built and bought by the government. The final judgement will come from the electoral will of the people expressed in the ballot.
Kennedy Ifeh, wrote from Toronto, Canada