By: Benedict Aguele
Godwin Obaseki was a relatively unknown quantity in the partisan political equation of Edo state, having served as Chairman of the Economic Team of former Governor Adams Aliu Oshiomhole before he clinched the ticket of the ruling APC to run as their candidate in the 2016 gubernatorial elections. It is safe to say that Obaseki piggybacked on his predecessor and former boss’ political machinery to become the number one citizen of Edo state.
Like the textbook Nigerian political story, having become governor, Godwin Obaseki would fall out with his predecessor, in a move that put his reelection under threat, seeing as he was a neophyte in party politics just 4years earlier. Governor Obaseki took several steps and made many enemies in his party which led to his decamping to the opposition PDP, where he was given the party’s ticket to run in the 2020 election.
After a fierce campaign, which was one of the most rancorous and acrimonious in the history of “the heartbeat of the nation”, Governor Obaseki would defeat his rival Pastor Osagie Ize Iyamu and in effect his former boss and predecessor Adams Oshiomhole. The high octane politicking of the 2020 election, created enemies for the governor, one of whom is the APC Youth Leader, Tony Kabaka, who is immensely popular in the state among the youth.
Tony Kabaka would have his property demolished by the Edo state government a few months before the election, on the excuse that the land on which the hotel was built had been acquired by the state government. While he has since gone to court and gotten judgment against the Edo state government, with the court order that the hotel be rebuilt by the Edo state government, it was clear that there had been no love lost between the two former allies.
It was indeed a breath of fresh air when news emerged that the Edo state governor had presented Mr. Kabaka with gifts in celebration of the yuletide, through a representative in the person of his Chief of Staff. Beyond the quantity or the value of the said gifts is the symbolism inherent in this gesture by the governor, in extending an olive branch to a former sparring partner, which has the potential effect of toning down the heated political firmament of the state, to give way for proper governance.
Despite party lines dividing them to the point of seeming extreme animosity in the past, the Governor has shown that indeed his oath of office supersedes partisanship as he belongs to all Edo people. This move has shown the governor to be a gentleman indeed with the spirit of sportsmanship and healthy contestation, and he would do well to extend similar gestures to others who may have been rubbed the wrong way due to immediate past electioneering campaigns.
This gesture should be emulated and made the norm rather than the exception, as the political contest is not a do-or-die affair, but a game in which all can be winners regardless of who gets elected into office. By this gesture one can expect that going forward the youth will imbibe the lessons of the olive branch extended by the Edo state governor to a fierce rival.
Governor Obaseki has shown that he is more interested in governance than continuing petty politicking after elections as has become the practice among many a Nigerian politicians, who carry on as though governance is a campaign to entrench themselves as perennial lords of the manor.
No doubt the future of Edo state and indeed Nigeria is bright if more politicians adopt this same disposition and the youth would do well not to allow themselves to be used by one vested interest or the other to cause division in Nigeria. Now is the time for all Edo sons and daughters to join hands with Governor Godwin Obaseki to take the state to greater heights, beyond tribal, religious, or party affiliations.
