On Saturday, September 19, 2020, the people of Edo State spoke. In one voice and in unanimity they sent a message across the country and in the process taught us some very vital lessons. The message was unambiguous and still reverberates. It is a lesson that should prick the consciences of the wise and as well expose the folly of those who hardly consider the place of God and the willpower of the ordinary person in the streets when they indulge themselves in their boastful rhetoric.
In many ways, former governor of Edo State and the predecessor and benefactor of incumbent governor, Godwin Obaseki, was the major loser. If only he had listened to pleas made to him. If only he had taken a quiet time to ruminate and realise that God still rules in the affairs of men, perhaps, his fall would have been mitigated.
Oshiomhole had everything going for him. He had an intimidating profile going into the murky waters of politics. As former Nigeria Labour Congress chairman, he personified the allegory that states that dynamites often come in small packs. Going into politics and becoming the governor of Edo State was indeed the stuff that fairy tales are made of. He probably wasn’t a literature student or probably never read Chinua Achebe’s epic hit, “Things Fall Apart.” If he did, he probably also refused to pay heed to Achebe’s admonition that, “Those whose palm-kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble.”
Oshiomhole had a successful tenure as governor, given that prior to his coming, Edo had remained jinxed with poor leadership since the exit of Ambrose Alli of the old Bendel State. He did well as governor when compared with those who had come earlier under the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party. He rode on a popular desire of the Edo people to change the streak of the bad governance that stalked them until then.
Again, luck smiled on him when the then chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, was booted out of office for no other reason other than for Oshiomhole to occupy that office. And so, he became the party’s chairman and grew several inches in height and became more powerful that he once told an ex-governor like him and the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, that if President Buhari would tolerate any nonsense from him he would not. That was how powerful he thought of himself. Of course, if a man could speak to a former governor and a serving minister the way he did to Ngige, then who needs the Wisdom of Solomon to know that Obaseki, whom he singlehanded made governor, would suffer far more ignominies from him.
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