OBASEKI/SHAIBU: EDO PEOPLE FINALLY BURIES THE GHOST OF GODFATHERISM

Yesterday, June 25 at the Ogbe stadium in Benin City, the capital of Edo State, a tornado swept through the awakened city with capital rejection of godfatherism; the magnificent Edo State people overwhelmingly sealed the fate of whatever remains of that spirit and laid to rest the ghost.  In a unanimous fashion delegates devastatingly exercised their inalienable rights by speaking with one voice: Obaseki is our man. And in the process saying a big “yes” to democracy! The Ogbe Stadium extravaganza was preceded by an inexplicable tug-of-war between a termagant godfather and a reticent godson. The godfather—generally known as the bully from Iyahmo—a man blessed with so much despite obvious educational handicap but severely drenched in  temperamental and hard to please toga resorted to stretching his much vaunted reputation too far by undermining practicable reforms; he wanted Obaseki—a performing governor out of the way at all cost—decapitated. Why not? They did it in Lagos, so this one was going to be a walkover.  So in a blistering fashion he subjugated democratic norms and proceeded to install a protégé against the massive opposition of the new generation Edo people; he unleashed his vacuous, senseless and insipid tactics—I won’t call it authoritarian—to muscle his way; He adopted ancient, old fashioned and antiquated tactics reminiscent of the strategy he deployed against the late Mr. Fix It; but the Benin’s are now wiser; they are no longer indolent-- thanks to the proliferation of android phones and the rapid  technological advancement in  the social media—plus a collective will to resist evil. At the zenith of his supposed “victory” over a seemingly helpless  Obaseki; i.e., when he temporarily got his hatchet professorial men to disqualify Obaseki, so elated was he that when asked to comment in the full glare of television cameras, he smiled  evilly and then voiced out “good riddance to bad rubbish”! That was the turning point. Godfatherism had wreaked havoc in Nigeria; through godfatherism, real growth has been suppressed, the people denied their constitutional rights while the promoters steal every available kobo from the treasury—and abandoned the people to hunger and sickness. But as is so often the case in life, judgment day always comes—not like a thief in the night though. There would be signs, appeals and all that; but when you are blinded by obdurate ambition and used to robotic upside down application of rules and values, you may be caught napping—like it has happened to baba Oshio. The Igbo have a proverb that says “the bullet you see coming cannot kill you”; they also say “when a man hurries too much, he may miss his destination”. How true this has turned out to be for the cynical former national   chairman. At the end victory for democracy came swiftly, like hurricane, and sensationally guillotined godfatherism—even in Lagos where they miscalculated the quick shifting sands of the northern political class with their own voluptuous appetite for impractible reforms! This is the year 2020; Nigeria must move on with the rest of the world; we cannot remain stagnant, consistently mired in self contrived controversies by empty, void and reluctant leaders. This editorial is therefore a salute to the people of Edo State for their bravery; it is also a salute to Obaseki/Shaibu for their timely resistance against the wicked; it is a giant leap for the PDP for their enthronement of real democracy; it is a wakeup call to the APC that the people can no longer be fooled; it is an eye opener to the people of Lagos State that their future aspirations is in their hands—not the lion of bourdillion!  Goodbye godfatherism.