By Emeka Alex Duru
By the time the results from Orhionmwon, one of the 18 local government areas of Edo State filtered in on Sunday, September 20, 2020, it was apparent that the All Progressives congress (APC) governorship candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, had lost the election to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag bearer, Governor Godwin Obaseki.
Ize-Iyamu hails from Orhionmwon, touted as his stronghold. His loss in the council eventually sealed his fate in the contest.With Obaseki’s victory, many permutations were shattered, myths bungled and the so-called godfather politics in the state, bloodied, at least for now.
The governor scored 307,955 votes against Ize-Iyamu’s 223,619. 14 political parties fielded candidates for the contest but the two attracted most attention, coming from the leading political parties in the land. Both ran spirited campaigns, addressing major issues of the day but occasionally resorting to name calling and throwing mud at each other. Baring further encounters at the Tribunals and Courts Obaseki, has secured a breather. And he needed it. On the surface, he was contesting with Ize-Iyamu. But in reality, he battled with an army of opponents, comprising former Lagos governor, Bola Tinubu, Kano State governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, Imo State governor, Hope Uzodimma and other external forces. At home, he contended with Adams Oshiomhole, his predecessor, Ize-Iyamu and a coterie of moles in PDP and his cabinet. In all, 42 aides dumped him in the days to the election, in bizarre move calculated to inflict psychological damage on him.
The candidates, the strategies
Obaseki relied heavily on the people, his performance scorecard and a couple of his colleagues in PDP, led by Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike. Aside these obvious factors, the faulty strategies of his opponent and his backers, worked handsomely for the governor. While for instance, the governor anchored his campaigns on continuity of projects and programmes of his administration that were fairly spread in various parts of the state, the APC candidate took to extravagant pledges that easily gave him out as not being in tune with the meager resources of the state. Not many therefore trusted him. Ize-Iyamu’s reputation was equally a major factor that worked against him. Despite the efforts to re-launch himself to good reckon, the damage done to his person and perception by Oshiomhole four years ago, continued to trail him. All that Obaseki and the PDP needed to dismiss the APC candidate at critical turns was a re-play of any of the videos in which Oshiomhole regularly portrayed him as one lacking in trust and integrity. The former governor’s attempt to downplay such outings as mere politics further angered the people who felt he was taking them for a ride.
Enter Bola Tinubu
Matters were worsened for Ize-Iyamu by the misguided entry of Tinubu in the fray. In a televised message few days to the election, the former Lagos governor, urged Edo voters to reject Obaseki. Many indigenes and residents of Edo however saw the directive as unwarranted interference in the politics of the state. By ascribing to himself the fleeting status of the leader of democrats in the country, Tinubu further courted the anger of the Edo electorate and other Nigerians who simply dismissed him as overrating himself and punching beyond his weight. The fears therefore began to gain grounds that Ize-Iyamu was after all, a mere puppet, hence a victory for him would mean a third term for Oshiomhole and by extension, an opportunity to extend Tinubu’s stranglehold on Lagos to Edo. In the process, the campaign, “Edo no be Lagos” (Edo is not Lagos), began to gain traction and worked for Obaseki.
Tinubu’s intervention was considered faulty and tactless. Insinuations have thus, run high since the return of Obaseki, that the failed mission in Edo would rub off sourly on Tinubu’s touted 2023 presidential ambition on the ticket of APC. The poor outing adds to the strings of unfavourable returns he has recorded in recent time. The suspension and eventual dismissal of Oshiomhole as APC national chairman were the first direct assaults on the invincibility of the Jagaban Borgu in the party’s intrigue-infested politics. Losing the Edo governorship which he had programmed as a platform to re-launch himself to reckoning in APC, is certainly one miscalculation too many. For Oshiomhole, the outcome of the poll, marks a sudden end to a hazy profile that he had flaunted since his days as a Labour Leader. Unless help and rehabilitation come his way, he seems on his way to political oblivion.
Undoubtedly, Obaseki is the man of the moment. Messages of goodwill and felicitation have been pouring to him from many quarters since his energy-sapping victory, the latest, being from President Muhammadu Buhari. All are in agreement that he has achieved a feat in the poll. They however advise him to be magnanimous in victory and extend a hand of fellowship to even his opponents in repositioning Edo. That, perhaps, is a charge, the governor should not dismiss with a wave of the hand.