By Sufuyan Ojeifo
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State and his deputy, Comrade Phillip Shaibu are engaged in a macabre dance in the twilight of their giddy eight-year administration, a development that has exposed their underbellies to fatal attacks by opposition elements.
The administration will exit Osadebey Avenue on November 12, 2024, which means the governor, and possibly together with his deputy (if he survives impeachment and consequent removal) has about 14 more months to spend in office.
Apparently, the final lap of their eight-year governance sprint is increasingly and understandably becoming stormy. Political interests are gradually making pitches as to the route or trajectory to take towards succession.
The atmospherics and nuances of their political habitat – Osadebey Avenue in Benin – have egregiously become toxic such that an abode that was once secure for camaraderie, amity and unity, fencing off outsiders, has suddenly become an arena for cloak-and-dagger politics, accentuated by intrigues.
At the centre of the worsening relationship between the governor and his deputy is the issue of succession. Who takes over from Obaseki in 2024? Obaseki has his eyes on who should be his successor. His deputy is interested in the seat and wants to have a go at in spite of his boss.
Obaseki is from Edo South. Reports indicate that he was, ab initio, looking to produce his successor from Edo Central. But recently, he was accused to have changed his mind in favour of his senatorial zone – Edo South. The Conclave is working on that piece of information, the outcome of which will soon be published. Obaseki’s deputy is from Edo North. The political scenario has presented a bedlam in the political ecosystem of Edo State.
The dissonance between Obaseki and Shaibu is fundamental. It is so fundamental that it can only worsen, given their stubborn commitment to their different positions. It fits into an allegory of the battle of two elephants and the grass becoming the victim, suffering in the aftermath of the combat.
Obaseki felt challenged when Shaibu began to have a feeling of exaggerated political relevance in the equation around the governorship enterprise. Feelers are that Shaibu had from the outset underrated Governor Obaseki, relating with him as if he were relating with a political neophyte while he is the strategist and tactician that superintends the command room.
Not anymore. That self-arrogated relevance has now come under intense attack, and is now heavily diminished. Sampler: Observers wonder what would have made Shaibu to run to Court in a pre-emptive move to upend the plot to impeach him. Analysts provide a clear reasoning: Obaseki has stepped in to assume the command room and his political gravitas would support his resolve not to take prisoner.
Shaibu has advertently drawn out the governor and put him on the spot. This is to the chagrin of the governor, who had, at least on two public occasions, reacted to his deputy’s shenanigans. Obaseki has nen livid with Shaibu for embarking on the gambit to demonise him (governor) in a desperate bid to preserve himself (Shaibu).
However, Obaseki, contrary to his seeming claim of innocence about why Shaibu shockingly rushed to the court, was actually prepared to go the long haul to have Shaibu impeached and removed as deputy governor.
The real reason why Obaseki actually decided to make his moves, as learnt, was the plot by Shaibu to produce the Speaker of the House of Assembly. This was the elephant in the room, until now when an official confirmation filtered.
Shaibu had calculated that his chances of emerging as governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and even governor, might be discounted by the emergence of a speaker from Edo North Senatorial zone, from where the governor ceded the position. Hon Blessing Agbebaku from the zone had been anointed by Obaseki to be speaker.
Although, Agbebaku is said to be a close ally of Shaibu, preservation of political interest had kicked in to nudge Shaibu into reaching out, as learnt, to a leader of the APC, whom he asked to support his bid to produce a speaker from Edo Central, claiming that he had seven PDP legislators who were his loyalists and that with five APC legislators, he would be home and dry.
The plan by Shaibu was to discount the chances of Edo Central producing the governorship candidate of the PDP once the speaker was from the zone.
It was learned that a prominent leader of the APC who was in the know of Shaibu’s plot sent a message to Obaseki to call Shaibu to order and to restrain his mischief, the kind that destroyed the amity in the APC that led to the governor’s rejection and his movement to the PDP.
The alert by the APC leader was how Obaseki got to know of the plot by Shaibu to pull the rug from under his feet. This, as learned, was Obaseki’s fundamental grouse about Shaibu and his desperate governorship ambition.
Obaseki had his way eventually, ensuring the emergence of Hon Blessing Agbebaku. The subsequent political moves around the guber succession race have turned national attention and the attention of Edo people in the Diaspora to the “challenged and distracted” governance in the State.
Meanwhile, in a video doing the rounds at the moment, which was circulated by Per Second News (PSN) on Friday, just as ThevConclave was putting finishing touches to its report, has further confirmed the authenticity of the pieces of information at the newspaper’s disposal over the real reason about the Obaseki-Shaibu’s worsening face-off: planned but failed hijack of House of assembly leadership serving as prelude to governorship succession race.
The Conclave
