Nigeria must not despair because of her current democratic challenges. We were in the wilderness for almost 30 years after the collapse of our first democratic experiment which lasted for barely five years. This was because most of institutions democracy that the new imported value system needed to function were absent or at rudimentary stage. Our independent legislature and judiciary easily caved in with the pressure of the executive shortly after independence. The press owned by politicians and tribal groups in fact contributed to the outbreak of the civil war. The abysmal performance of the press during our recently concluded elections only confirmed the usual aphorism that ‘the medium is the news’. Of course we saw how ethnic based civil society groups and their foreign sponsored counterparts openly quarrelled over contents of their reports.
More than this, sore losers who shopped for political platform to contest elections and their unthinking ‘Obidients’ can hardly be regarded as people with faith in democracy or its ethos, described by Aristotle as ‘balance between passion and caution” of political actors. For democracy to thrive, according to him, political actors must be committed to a set of ideals if democracy is to be anything other than the tyranny of the majority.
We must therefore congratulate ourselves for the giant strides we have made in the last 23 years in spite of the ongoing shenanigans in Edo State. Democracy is a difficult process as America recently discovered after over 200 years. In fact when democracy first became an idea some 300 years ago, philosopher Michel de Montaigne according to James Kloppenburg’s ‘Toward Democracy’, rejected democracy saying he did not believe ordinary people were capable of the self-restraint democracy required.
In 2016, Adams Oshiomhole, the then outgoing governor of Edo State, using power of incumbency, imposed Godwin Obaseki at the expense of other APC stalwarts such as Chris Ogiemwonyi (former minister of state for works) former army general Gen. Charles Arihiavbare and former deputy governor, Dr. Pius Odubu as his successor. Asked by reporters on October 24, 2016 the reason for his blind faith in Obaseki, Oshiomhole had said Obaseki was “more competent than him and would bring more development to Edo”.
Little did he realize that Obaseki like many other military-baked new-breed politicians is a man without character. At the centre of the struggle with his benefactor was the control of Edo State House of Assembly where their ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) controlled all the 24 members in the state Assembly.
To prevent Oshiomhole’s loyalists from taking control of the state legislature, the Clerk of Edo House of Assembly, Yahaya Omogbai, was said to have ushered nine members in a house of 24 lawmakers-elect into the chamber at midnight and read out Obaseki’s letter of proclamation with which Honourable Frank Okiye the governor’s anointed candidate for speaker was elected.
Hon. Osifo and the 13 others went to court to file a case against the speaker and the eight others. While the case was in court, the seats of the 14 Oshiomhole loyalists were declared vacant by the minority factional speaker and was about to conduct election to fill the positions before he was stopped by the court. All efforts to find amicable settlement by the party, the National Assembly and the president were frustrated by Obaseki’s minority that was bent on holding on to what it illegally seized.
From then on Obaseki won all the battles. First Obaseki sought and got a relief from Justice Kolawole Omotosho’s Federal High Court Abuja to frustrate the Senate and the House of Representatives resolutions on the findings of committees led by Senator Sabiu Aliyu Abdullahi and Honourable Abdulrazak Namdas for the respective chambers to invoke section 11, subsection 4 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria viz: “In the event that a new proclamation is not issued as recommended within the period of three weeks”, the National Assembly was told “it could not compel Obaseki to issue another proclamation within the lifespan of an existing proclamation”. The court also ruled “NASS lacked the power to take over the functions of Edo Assembly or any other state House of Assembly in the country”.
Obaseki who had earlier attributed the underdevelopment of Edo until 2006 to “non-state actors empowered by political class, collecting revenues as an alternative government and constituted themselves into an army that were used for political activities”, decided to partner with the same non-state actors as 2020 drew near.
He then made peace with Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, the Esama of Bénin Kingdom and a chieftain of PDP who was fought to a standstill by Oshiomhole for allegedly confiscating land and other resources of the state and whose son, Lucky Igbinedion, a two-term governor was indicted for financial crimes against Edo State. He also made peace with Chief Tom Ikimi, a former PDP stalwart, who retraced his way back after a short sojourn in APC. Igbinedion and Tom Ikimi, PDP stalwarts became Obaseki new godfathers.
PDP withdrew its accusation through its publicity secretary, Chris Nehikhare that Obaseki was responsible for the “growing level of poverty, insecurity and unemployment”. The party also swallowed its allegations that “commissioned” Five-star specialist hospital is still home to reptiles; Tayo Akpata University of Education, an unfulfilled political Greek gift, College of Agriculture Ogierieki, a victim of policy lip-service, the Gelegele sea port project is still a mirage and the industrial park is still at the MOU level”.
Obaseki, a blind fighter went on to win his re-election bid on the platform of PDP but not before engineering the removal of his estranged godfather as APC chairman. Obaseki defeated his former godfather with the active support of Shuaibu who ensured that the 14 elected members of Edo State house were shut out of the house for four years.
Now Obaseki, the blind fighter has stripped Shuaibu, his deputy of his official responsibilities including monitoring and reporting the collection of internally generated revenue and supervision of the sports ministry. He did not stop there; he sacked media aides attached to his office and relocated his deputy’s office to Siberia, all because Shuaibu expressed interest in succeeding him.
What goes around comes around. Shuaibu has also been told by Senator Oshiomhole, that “APC has no room for internally displaced politicians (IDP) in search of a rehabilitation camp”. Obaseki like Shuaibu and their other military baked new-breed military baked politicians, are all men without character
But we must not weep for Edo alone. Over 50% of governors elected on PDP platform in 1998 and 2003 were declared men without character by the courts that found them guilty of tampering with the resources of their various states. The first set of senators after the 1998 elections spoke openly about their desire to recoup their expenses on the election. Within three months they had come out with schemes through which fuel import licenses were allocated to over 100 companies fronting for them. A house probe was to later confirm the theft of about N1.7t through the fuel subsidy regime
PDP and APC are no party of saints. Bukola Saraki damaged the fortune of his party by moving from PDP to APC. In APC, he admitted trading off the victory of his party to secure the senate presidency and when he fell out with APC, he again moved back to PDP. In his group were Tambuwal and Rotimi Amaechi, Tony Anenih among others.
PDP, described as “a club of elites for sharing of oil rents and political spoils’ while APC its twin brother formed not on the basis of shared ideas, shared values, shared commitment, have left the nation with only military baked ‘new-breed’ politicians that lack character.