Simon Ebegbulem
16 November 2008
It was jubilation galore in Iyanmu Uzairue, Etsako West Local Government Council of Edo State, where Governor Adams Oshiomohle hails from. To them, Oshiomhole's victory at the Appeal Court and his subsequent ascension as the third governor is still like a dream. They believe it was the handiwork of providence because Iyanmu is one of the smallest communities in Edo North senatorial district.
Therefore it was a pleasant surprise to the people that this little community that lacks the presence of any government project, as Sunday Vanguard observed, produced the first governor from Edo North senatorial district.
The district has never produced a civilian governor inspite of the fact that after Edo South senatorial district, it ranks second in population. They only produced a military governor in the person of Agbazika Inni. All their sons who tried in the past to contest for the position were allegedly manipulated by the powers-that-be.t
The closest person to clinch the job from the area is former aide to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Professor Julius Ihonvbere, who received support from majority of leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South district for the position but was denied the ticket at the Samuel Ogbemdia Stadium after the leadership of the party led by the former chairman of the party's Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, agreed that the Central Senatorial district should produce the governor last year.
The Central had produced Professor Ambrose Alli before then while the South district produced the first civilian governor, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and later Chief Lucky Nosakhare Igbinedion. The north district had always cried of marginalization. Ihonbvere was the first person to lead a revolution against the godfathers prior to the 2007 governorship election when he refused to step down for Professor Oserheimen Osunbor at the primary held at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium.
He insisted that his people (Edo North) were yet to taste the position, therefore he should be allowed to contest. Ihonbvere is from lluleha, in Owan West local Government Council. However, Oshiomohle who remained dogged in pursuit of his mandate, gave the PDP a run for their money. And unfortunately for the PDP, they have a divided house which could not contain the onslaught of the opposition Action Congress led by the former Labour leader.
Iyanmu community: Sunday Vanguard visited Oshiomohle's ancestral home, last Thursday, and found that the people of the area were Binis who settled there to farm because of the fertile soil. According to the vice-chairman of the community, Jibrin Haruna, who narrated the history of the place, "we came from Benin. When we came, we first settled at Jatu, which is the clan head of Uzairue.
One man called Erhunse, he was a hunter, he was farming in this area and discovered that this place is habitable, so he organized some of our people who are now know as Iyanmu and we now settled here. We are very hard working people. We are farmers and through farming we achieved all we got today." The poor community that was never reckoned with has now produced the governor of the state.
Octogenarian mother of Oshiomhole, Hajia Aishatu, was ecstatic when Sunday Vanguard visited. Almost all the women in the community were in her compound which is few meters from where Comrade Oshiomohle's mansion was located. The grave of Alhaji Aliu Oshiomhole, who died in December 12, 2000, was situated behind her simple bungalow.
The mother of eight children, four boys and four women, lost one of her children few years ago but she gave glory to God for being alive to see this day. She attributed the long legal battle fought by the son to what she described as the undemocratic principles of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. She declared that "even all he tried to stop my son, carrying Osunbor, God has done it today. He will be in Otta and see my son transform Edo State". Any one who got in contact with Hajia Oshiomohole will know where the governor's doggedness came from. She is fearless and declared to Sunday Vanguard that only God owns life and nobody else.
Sunday Vanguard also spoke to Oshiomohle's political mentor and his ward leader.
The mother first: How do you feel today seeing your son become the first civilian governor of Edo State produced by the Edo North senatorial district?
I am so happy and it is God's doing. I am a politician from the days of the NCNC. I love politics but I never knew that any of my children will be a politician. All I had always said is that if any of them decides to join politics I will not object. So when my son decided to join politics after his tenure as NLC president, I encouraged him to go into it.
Can we know how you were able to bring him up while he was a kid?
Right from his childhood, he has always worked hard for every thing. He is very clever. Each time he returned from school, he would not play like other children and that is why he never took second position in school. He was always taking first position.
He looks like a stubborn person. How were you able to cope with that?
Yes, he was stubborn but each time you gave him any assignment, he would not play with it, he will always carry it out. And that is why he was always taking first in school. One major problem he had that time was that he always found it difficult to take his bath. So one day I went to his school and reported the matter to his teacher. But to my greatest surprise, the teacher said he would not flog him because of his intelligence.
Habit of bathing: He said after teaching and you call Oshiomhole to come and repeat what he was taught last week, he will recall every thing and so will not flog him just because he refused to bath. The teacher said that rather than flogging him he would pet him so that he would develop the habit of bathing. He now advised that we should buy soap for him and that when the time comes he will change. And actually he started bathing even with out asking him to bath. He changed.
While he was the president of the NLC, were you ever scared that he might be hurt while he fought for the welfare of workers?
I was never afraid because I knew he was fighting for the masses and he believed that it is the same soul that he has that others are having, therefore he had to fight for them. It is not as if he does not have the money to buy fuel but he believes that others may not be able to afford it, so he fought the government. So I believed that God was with him because he was fighting for the masses and the same God will always protect him, so I was never scared.
Who sold the idea of joining the governorship race to him?
It is a long story. The truth is that our people were begging him to join the race so as to help bring change in Edo State. Particularly, there is this Ekperi man living in Kano, the principal in one of the Islamic secondary schools in Kano. The man was the first person that came to me, that was about seven years ago. The man told me my son was the only person they felt will be able to lead them in Edo North senatorial district.
The man said that in Ekpoma, when Ambrose Alli was governor, he developed the area, then when Admiral Akhigbe was chief of general staff, he developed Fugar, his area, so he now said that in Etsako West, we are under developed and that if Oshiomohle agreed to join the race, he believed that he would win so that he could develop the area.
That man was here on several occasions but he never met my son. I think at that particular time my son was either in Abuja or abroad. Both of them never met. The man said that all our people in Kano wanted him to contest as governor and lead the people of Edo North who had been denied of governorship by politicians from other areas. The man even took photographs with us so that when comrade returned, we would show him the picture.
The man was very optimistic that if he vied, he would win. And when comrade came back we delivered the message to him. He eventually joined the race but he was rigged out by evil people but the good people were more than the bad ones and their prayers for him gave him victory at last. So we thank God for every thing, He performed his miracle.
How did you feel when he was not declared winner by INEC after the election?
When they did it, I prayed to God that he was the one that touched people's mind to come out and vote for my son before Obasanjo and the PDP came to turn every thing around, that the same God should still fight for him so that he would be declared winner of the election.
I know they stole his mandate but I always believed that it will be given back to him and God has done it finally. When I knew that he would win was right from the lower tribunal. All the motions he filed were accepted by the court and each time my people came home, they would be rejoicing that there was hope. He had many followers and whenever they came back they felt happy. But Osunbor did not have anybody following him, even though Obasanjo was with Osunbor, Osunbor had nobody. But Adams was with the people and he has followers because God was with him.
Do you have any regrets today that your husband is not alive to see this day?
I have no regrets. I pray that God should give him eternal rest. His father was the eldest man in this community before he died, so he was really old. I believe that it was when his time came that he died, he did not die prematurely. He was quite old before he died. Even as I am here today, I will die when my time comes. Every human being must die some day.
What advice do you have for your son?
I will give the advice to him directly because that will help him in leading the people of the state. I will give it to him personally. But it is not as if I will be telling him what to do, he is very intelligent. He has already learnt a lot from me; so all I can do now is to advise him a little. Like I am aware that there are contracts awarded by the Osunbor administration that are yet to be completed.
He has to ensure that they are completed and when he awards his own he will ensure also that the job is done. No body should be allowed to embezzle the money belonging to the people of the state. He should make sure that he monitors every thing so that he will be blamed for any wrong doing. He should continue his good works he did at NLC in Edo State so that Obasanjo will be alive and see how my son will develop Edo State.
How we lured former Labour leader into politics, by Alhaji Bello Unuakhe (JP), Oshiomhole's political mentor
How do you feel seeing Oshiomhole emerge governor?
I am the political godfather of the governor; so I am very glad with the verdict of the Appeal Court. The verdict shows that there is still truth left in this country that will make the truthful people remain in politics, otherwise people were going to abandon politics, those who know what they are doing. Because of the verdict of the Appeal Court , 99 per cent of the people of Edo State are happy. I am retiring from politics now because I have been in politics for a long time now.
I would have retired earlier but I decided to stay when my son declared interest to run for governorship. We know how we campaigned in this state, the people voted for us but we were robbed. Now that God has given it back to us, it is going to be an eye opener in our country not only in Edo State.
Comrade Oshiomohle we know what he did while he was not even in politics. We are very sure that now that he is the governor he will do more for our people and I pray that God Almighty will guide him. The sky is his limit as long as politics is concerned; he is going to climb from there to the Presidency. He is going to be president of this country, I am predicting that as his political godfather.
How did you lure him into politics?
As soon as he retired as NLC president, we started begging him to join politics. We had been begging since 2002 but he said no, he was not interested in the politics of the country. But I told him to think about it. He made up his mind later and called some of us and told us he was now interested, that we should consult our people, which we did.
We started spreading the gospel to the people of Edo State, starting from his ward. People accepted him every where we went. So, as a result, we were very sure of the votes, though people were telling him, "you are going to win but the PDP government will not give you". But he said vote for me I will defend the votes," and that was what eventually happened.
Did you have the fear while the matter was at the Appeal Court that it would be manipulated?
Personally, I did not have any fear because I knew God was with us. Looking at the case from the beginning, about seven motions were sponsored by our opponents, we won all and those motions were part of the case. So, when they went on appeal, I did not entertain any fear because I knew it was not a new case, it was the record of the tribunal that they were going to carry there.
Now that he is governor, what are your expectations?
We are praying for God to guide him to do what is good for the people because the previous governments did not do anything. This man single handedly gave us two boreholes which we are using today. And the electricity we are enjoying here he sponsored it. So, from all those things he has been doing with out being in government, I know that he can make the different.
As his godfather, how were you able to manage his stubbornness?
I do not know him to be a stubborn man, I only know him as somebody who will not surrender his rights to somebody else. I do not know whether that is stubbornness. He does not surrender his rights to somebody else.
There is this fear in some quarters that Labour leaders are not good in governance. Do you share that sentiment?
Well, he was the first Labour leader we have produced here. But from what he has done here in our community, I do not agree that Labour activists do not do well in governance. From how he performed as NLC president, we are very confident. He is not selfish, and, if he is not selfish, he will perform.
Our expectations from Oshiomhole, by Hon. Joseph Ayo Asimegbe, leader of Ward 10 (Oshiomhole's ward)
I am very very happy. Today is the happiest day of my life. I am very happy to be the first ward chairman in Edo North to produce a governor. I thank God for this miracle.
Expectations: Well, as he promised before, he is a man who does say some thing and does another thing. He promised the people of Edo State that he was going to end poverty and, by the grace of God, we will never suffer again in the state. We are particularly proud that we have somebody like Oshiomhole as the first governor from Edo North, so we are all very happy. He will show other governors who have ruled before and even politicians from other areas that we have a better person who can lead us.
Hon. Leonard Momoh, former local government chairmanship aspirant, says it's the end of godfatherism in Edo.
I believe that why our people have been denied of this opportunity to produce the governor is because of godfatherism. And from what the governor said, godfatherism has been abolished in the state. That has been the major problem we have in Edo politics and that of the nation as a whole and that is why government has no moved forward.
New governor will reverse our suffering -Jibrin Haruna, vice -chairman, Iyamu (Oshiomhole's community)
In this community, we have been struggling. We have no government presence here; even the primary school we have here is through our effort. The secondary school, it was also through our efforts that we built it. Honestly, we least expected that we can have somebody from this village as governor. We are very very grateful to God that this happened in our life time.
That is why we are looking forward for the best and we thank the Almighty Allah for his mercy. Now we pray that the Almighty Allah will protect him and give him the strength to lead this state well so that he will from here move to Abuja and become the president of this nation.
And we will be very glad to have an industry sited here for our youths who have graduated from school but are jobless. We are farmers here and it is always very difficult for us to train our children in school, that is why it is always very painful that after suffering and tasking ourselves to sponsor them to school, there will be no job for them. We have suffered a lot, all
we have been doing in this community is through communal effort, no government presence.
History: We came from Benin . When we came, we first settled at Jatu, which is the clan head of Uzairue. One man called Erhunse, he was a hunter, he was farming in this area. He discovered that this place is habitable, so he organized some of our people who are now know as Iyanmu and we now settled here. We are very hard working people.
We are farmers and through farming we achieved all we could achieve. Now that we have a governor, we will be very happy if he can now provide roads for us. We do not have drinking water, we do not have any government presence. We will be happy if the government can assist us to develop this place. We want to enjoy water, light and even school for our children.
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