Former Deputy Minority Leader, House of Representatives, Hon. Emmanuel Arigbe-Osula, in this interview speaks on Saturday's gubernatorial poll in Edo state and the need to allow the electorate choose a candidate of their choice. Ayodeji Ake presents excerpts:
The governorship election in Edo State is just days away. You have described it as crucial. How crucial?
This is the most important election I have known in my adult days because of the prevailing conditions across the nation.
In this Saturday's election, the entire Nigerians would be speaking through Edo people. We must reject APC and restore hope to the over 200,000 Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora. Nigerians are looking up to the Edo electorate for that important duty.
We cannot afford to make any mistake in this election, otherwise Edo State will be taken 100 years back, never to recover and will drive a sword through the hopes of the entire people of this nation. It is very disheartening to note that the APC, the ruling party in our country for the past nine years, is participating in this election. The APC has forced on us, unrepentantly, great and grave hardship. And yet, they are campaigning on the same promises they made that got Nigeria and Nigerians into this horrible situation in the first place.
So, Edo State must know that, come Saturday, the country has a common enemy. We, Nigerians, have a common enemy to the progress of our country, and it is APC. We must take our anger against them and not vote APC on Saturday. The only motivation that would make anybody want to vote APC is if they are driven by corruption, not peace, not the development of our state, not the security we have long sought after, not the provision of social infrastructures, which APC has shown they cannot provide for Nigeria and Nigerians. So, in Edo State, there is one party we cannot vote for on Saturday, and that is the APC.
It's not clear whether you have a candidate in the election. But it is obvious you're opposed to the APC...
Oh, certainly, I do have a candidate. I have taken time to review the background of the other two candidates (Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party and Asue Ighodalo of the PDP) and there's no doubt Asue Ighodalo stands out as the person I will ask every progressive-minded Edo person to vote for. My good people of the state should vote for Asue Ighodalo if they want to move the state forward. I've had time to also meet personally with him to review his vision, to discuss his plans for the state. They are very laudable, and he's passionate about them and determined to move Edo State in the right direction. I'm saying this without any reservation: the right person for this job and the right person that Edo people should vote for is Asue Ighodalo.
All sentiments aside, the only thing that should drive any of us to vote and to ask others to vote in this election is the development of our state--not stomach infrastructure that has made a lot of people to congregate under the APC despite the devastation they have foisted on our people nationwide.
One grouse some people hold against Obaseki and for which they cannot wait to punish him, his party and candidate for is his 'contempt' for the Oba? They fear Asue may toe his line of disrespect. As a Bini person, how do you react?
I'm not only a Benin man, I am someone who sees himself as a custodian, an ambassador of our royal heritage that the Oba represents. I would not support anyone who has no respect for the Oba of Benin. However, I have met personally with Asue Ighodalo, and his respect for the Oba of Benin is not in question at all. We shouldn't forget that, unlike Obaseki, the respect for the palace and the Oba of Benin is in Asue's DNA. This is not to insult Obaseki, but Asue is from Ewohimi, and the current lineage of the Oba that I know very well runs through Asue. Every true Ewohinmi child, whether born in Edo or anywhere in the world, has a commitment to and respect for the Oba of Benin in their DNA. Asue Ighodalo has spoken to this. There is no one in this election closer to the root and lineage of the current Oba of Benin than Asue Ighodalo. I believe in what he says; his unwavering support, respect, and commitment to the palace. So, Asue Ighodalo is not one to have contempt for the palace of the Oba of Benin.
Let's take this back a bit. When the Binis complained about Obaseki, when Adams Oshiomhole was pushing for the governorship position, I remember in person hearing him say at that time that nobody should bring up any primordial sentiments that are hundreds of years old. So the contempt for the palace of Benin is more from Adams Oshiomole than Obaseki. Asue Ighodalo is of a different background, one that speaks to sacrifice and hundreds of years of ancestral commitment to the palace. Only someone who does not know the lineage of the current Oba would think remotely that Asue Ighodalo should be held responsible for whatever they have against Governor Obaseki.
Another point against Asue Ighodalo is that he has been with the incumbent governor in the past seven and half years as economic adviser. If people believe that the Obaseki government has not lived up to expectations, it would also mean that Asue Ighodalo can't exonerate himself from the perceived failure of Obaseki, his promoter-in-chief. Can he?
I want to say that Governor Obaseki did not inherit a better government from Adams Oshiomhole. However, Asue Ighodalo is not Obaseki. But Edo State today is in a much better, healthier state than it was eight years ago. Everyone of them complaining in APC today is upset because the treasury of Edo State has not been made an appendage of their personal accounts as it were under Oshiomhole. I have had cause to speak with these people personally, and they will tell you that it is not that Governor Obaseki hasn't performed at all--it is because their homeboy politicians are not having access to the treasury. So, unless we have someone with the background of Asue, his professional antecedents, his vision, we would not get Edo State out of the hole. At least, you've heard from Asue. We've not heard from his opponent, Senator Monday Okpebholo.
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Some people will say, well, the APC has spoken for Okpebholo. He's going to run on the blueprint of the party. Don't you buy into this line of thought?
It would have been better if Monday Okpebholo had something to say, instead of relying on APC. The actors in APC have failed us. The Senate president told the Nigerian youth, who were protesting the hardships they were facing, that they could go on protest while he will be busy eating. Is that someone Edo people should use as a character witness for Monday Okpebholo? Or anyone from the party including Senator Adams Oshiomhole, who belongs to that same institution, that is now an appendage to Tinubu's Aso Rock, that we should take them seriously? Is it the Vice President, who is second in command in this hardship they have brought upon Nigerians?
Nobody in APC has shown the character, vision or compassion to lighten the yoke on Nigerians. We shouldn't even be advising Edo people on this. We feel it in all aspects of our lives. And there's only one culprit, and that is the APC. And they should not be voted for.
