Oshiomole’s nightmare: Chief Dan Orbih In November of 2008, a controversial Appeal Court judgement delivered in Benin City, the Edo State capital, saw the emergence of Adams Aliyu Oshiomole, as the third elected governor of the State, in the current dispensation. Oshiomole, a former NLC President, had challenged the INEC results, which declared Professor Osereimen Osumbor winner of the 2007 governorship election. Having been sworn in, Osumbor was sent packing and Oshiomole was sworn in as the new governor. Once sworn in, Oshiomole began his “development programmes” of sub-standard renovations and furnishing of secondary schools, as well as expensive expansion of major roads in Benin City. He has also attempted road networking in Edo north senatorial district. These, and other moribund projects in the health sector and drainage projects, have resulted in a deluge of controversial claims of performance. Be that as it may, Oshiomole may have made an impression, albeit mundane, on the people of Edo State. On the political front, Oshiomole focused his attention on desecrating the institutions of governance, especially the rule of law, upon which he rode to Osadebey Avenue. He engineered the forceful change of leadership in the House of Assembly, ousting the legitimate Speaker, Hon. Zakawanu Garuba; went about berating and vituperating his predecessors and the Peoples Democratic Party. He rained unspeakable insults on Chief Tony Anenih, who, as the Chairman of the BOT of the PDP, had earlier associated with Oshiomole, in the spirit of political harmony to set the state on a path of cooperation for development and had nominated 4 commissioners to Oshiomole at the governor’s request. Sooner than later, the commissioners resigned voluntarily, in solidarity and due respect for an elder statesman whom Oshiomole continued to insult publicly. Oshiomole did not start and stop with the Leader, he had words for all opposition elements as well as other prominent Edo indigenes, who did not join his charade, or were just onlookers. He even publicly said that Professor Osumbor was never a governor of Edo State, disregarding the Supreme Court ruling that there can be “no vacuum in governance”, and that whatever acts a governor had performed in office before his governorship was nullified, remained “valid”. Thus was the repugnant aroma of Oshiomole’s first term in office. It is noteworthy that State Governors are usually revered, because they are the appropriators of the peoples’ commonwealth and they rule directly over of the majority of the citizenry. They dictate the pace of local governments, which form the closest tier of government to the people. Based on this they usually get away with anything, even murder. This seemed to be the trajectory of the Oshiomole administration from inception. The fatal demise of Bar. Ikhabafe, erstwhile PDP Chairman, led to the emergence of Chief Dan Orbih, as the State chairman of the PDP. Chief Orbih, a formidable politician, hails from the same Edo north senatorial district as Oshiomole. He rose up to the challenge of opposition chairman and has turned out to be the “one” many progressives have been clamouring for to revamp the image of the PDP. After the court ordered victory for Oshiomole, Dan Orbih threw his hat in the ring, in the fashion of US opposition parties. Though the PDP eventually lost the governorship election in 2012, the Oshiomole administration couldn’t have had it any harder. Instead of playing ethnic politics, while currying favours from the governor, as is usual with many politicians, Chief Orbih retreated and created the first ever opposition shadow government in the state. He set up research departments and teams in various sectors to objectively check and balance governance in the state. For the better part of the last 6years and during the last election, Dan Orbih has provided Edo people with accurate info about Edo State government affairs, never before heard or seen. His “factometer” has so enlightened Edo people that nothing is in secret any longer. The average market woman now knows that Edo state has squandered over N8 billion on the construction of a 7km Airport road. Orbih has awakened a psychological revolution in the minds of Edo people. This feat, unknown to him, has driven the current administration to the precipice of anxiety, standing on its toes. It has revolutionised the government/governed structure and cast a shadow on the impunity with which most governors operate, and with which Oshiomole was riding roughshod on Edo people. Orbih’s parade has daunted the Oshiomole administration and prompted it into involuntary activity. Most observers think this watchdog role of Orbih may have stampeded a rabble-rousing administration to rush into projects to showcase before the last elections, rendering sub-standard construction and low quality of delivery. This has also deterred Oshiomole from taking many illegal steps to defraud the state. For the records, it was Dan Orbih who led protests against the sale of Edo House in Lagos. It is Dan Orbih’s fight for the people that led to the recent u-turn by the Oshiomole government on the teachers’ competency test, which has put the state and teachers at loggerheads in recent months. His fight against illegality also led the governor to commit more illegalities in his typical stubbornness, by housing an illegitimate group of Legislators to hold sessions in government house. This is an unacceptable anomaly and is unconstitutional. The theory of Separation of Powers has been turned on its head by Oshiomole’s administration. A former APC leader who decamped recently, noted that whenever Orbih was in the news, they (government stalwarts) would either eat their dinner before the news or else they risked losing their appetite after listening to Orbih. This greatly summarises how deeply Orbih pricks at the heart of the Oshiomole administration’s ineptitude, with facts. It is clear that, rather than adopt a wait-for-the-next-elections posture, Orbih has acted on the words of late Martin Luther King, that “our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” to us. The state of affairs surely matters to Orbih and the PDP. Orbih says that “soon, only political appointees will remain in APC”. As ambitious as it may sound, it is more real than imagined. In fact, the pressure has prompted him to publicly send a message to the massive would-be decampees, to be patient and wait for the next tsunami-rally, when the President would visit, for them to decamp to PDP. Many of us have anxiously waited for this kind of leadership in our party. PDP has hardly had it so good in Edo State, despite having held power for 9years. The incidents of imposition of candidates which plagued the party in the past are now history and in the last primaries, transparency was the order of the day, thanks to Dan Orbih’s leadership. In the history of Edo PDP, the national leader has never publicly eulogised a State chairman, but he has severally praised Orbih in public and in private correspondences. Its important to credit Dan Orbih with the sustenance of the Edo PDP, and many can attest to his open door policy and hospitality. Indeed, he has made opposition politics very attractive and worth the trouble. The time bomb goes off... The APC may be going into extinction in Edo State, and just as Oshiomole is fast becoming the “Supreme Head”, it now exists as his personal fiefdom from where he could handpick his hatchet men to perpetrate atrocities in the state. The APC state congress was held in May and the results were rejected by the nucleus of the APC. He was given a week to reverse the decision, but typically, he refused and this led to mass decamping from the APC. This is the most aggressive decamping in Edo state history, led by Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, five elected members of the house, Chief Tony Omoaghe (former chairman of the party) and other key leaders like Frank Erewele, Bright Omokhodion, Alhaji Usman Shagady, Chief Alemoh and many others. The spate of decamping which Dan Orbih has carefully engineered, and all of which he personally received the decampees, has prompted a new chapter in the Oshiomole administrations habits of committing travesties of governance. To counter the crusade, Oshiomole and his APC decided to forcefully suspend the Honourable members who have left the APC for PDP, as well as the Deputy Speaker, who is still in the APC. In defiant response, the Deputy Speaker and PDP members suspended the erstwhile Speaker, Mr. Uyi Igbe as well as the Majority Leader. This crisis, orchestrated by the APC members has divided the House to the extent that the APC faction has moved into the State House while the PDP faction sits in the legitimate Assembly complex. This has piqued not a few pro-democracy indigenes. In fact a notable Prince of the Bini kingdom, who was a Director in the Governor’s office, resigned and decamped to the PDP recently, a clear indication that the Bini Kingdom has also lost faith in Oshiomole. It is crystal clear the people have realised that Oshiomole, who rode on their vulnerabilities and empathies, and led a revolution that helped him to become governor, has become an epitome of corruption, high-handedness and corporate deception (like Squealer in George Orwell’s bestselling novel “Animal Farm”). All these, he publicly displayed in his “go and die” drama. Despite claims of delivering on infrastructure, there are no motorable roads in Benin metropolis, except the major arterial roads which he expanded with excessive contracts sums. With more revelations from Dan Orbih’s PDP, one thing remains clear: the people can see clearly now as the rain is gone. The man of the moment... The coming weeks and months are very pregnant. With the recent elections in Ekiti State, where the APC governor was trounced by the PDP candidate in INEC’s freest election so far, more members of the APC are set to decamp, as the House of Assembly has been swept into turmoil. Also even as the APC retained its governorship position in Osun in its governorship elections, Oshiomole and his APC are jittery because of the spate of free and fair elections, amidst his waning popularity. The crisis is also bound to escalate because the governor is bent on fighting desperately to steady his sinking ship. Having falsely accused decampee legislators of collecting N70million each from Dan Orbih, it is clear he will spare no expense to stop further decamping, as last week, he walked the streets of Jattu and Iyorah in Uzairue, personally doling out millions of naira in cash to passers-by. He forgets, however, that 6years ago, many may have decamped from other parties to the ACN, for various amounts of juicy payoffs, but this time, the people can just see clearly. With the national elections approaching, permutations abound for state and federal offices. However, one thing is clear, Dan Orbih and the PDP are set to ensure Oshiomole does not anoint a successor, come 2016. Also “it is audible to the deaf and visible to the blind”, that a new political consciousness of opposition, has been awakened in Edo State and in Nigeria generally. Orbih has received numerous awards and accolades as Edo PDP Chairman. He will go down in history as the most dynamic state party chairman in Nigeria in this dispensation. He is the man of the moment. As Nigeria clamours for leadership roles for the younger generation, we need not look too far in our search... By Henry Oshiobugie (hilliwilli@hotmail)
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 21:56:18 +0000
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