As the former Edo State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Anslem Ojezua, together with those he described as the “Edo Collective”, prodded Governor Godwin Obaseki to hop on any viable alternative platform to realize his ambition of a second term in office after he was disqualified from participating in the primary. The People’s Democratic Party came handy as the best alternative platform and the governor together with those sympathetic to his cause joined the party, galvanized it and won the election in September 2020. Today, the Edo State PDP is threatened by crisis as a result of the powers that be to allow for harmonization and integration of the APC elements and attempt by the Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, to explain the situation to the party’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, has resulted in a huge face-off between Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike and his Edo State counterpart, Godwin Obaseki. In this interview with AUGUSTINE AVWODE, Ojezua said Wike’s claim of credit for the victory was arrogance taken too far because he was not the common denominator in the contest. He said without the Edo State Governor, Obaseki, there was no way the PDP could have won the election. A lawyer and a community leader, Ojezua also rose stoutly in defense of Shaibu. Excerpts:
How would you react to the face-off between Governors Godwin Obaseki of Edo and Nyesom Wike of Rivers State?
I would say that when a person holds a certain position, there is a standard of behavior that is expected of him, most importantly, when the individual is dealing with other people at that same level. Wike is a governor of a state in Nigeria, so is Governor Obaseki. And I believe that under our Constitution, any deputy governor is capable of being a governor. So, there ought to be some modicum of respect that should be extended to deputy governors. I also believe that at that level, people certainly have avenues through which they communicate amongst themselves. So, unless there is mischief, or shall we say barefaced, honestly I don’t know how to qualify it without sounding insulting. A governor should ordinarily not be seen to be so eager to undermine a colleague of his. With specific respect to what is going on, honestly I have tried to find out what would be Wike’s business, a governor of Rivers State, what concerns him with the internal wrangling in Edo State? You know, when you say people should mind their business, I think this is one of those times when that advice is appropriate. I think Wike is trying to capitalize on his involvement in the campaign in Edo. But, what’s the big deal? However, who becomes anything politically without the assistance and support of others, including himself? So, what is he beating his chest for? He cannot claim credit for the victory because this is the second time he is coming, the first time he was a woeful failure.
He was there to support Ize-Iyamu when Ize-Iyamu contested against Obaseki the first time and in spite of him, Obaseki won.
So, If Obaseki won again and he was around, then he is not the common denominator because in the first instance he lost.
The only common denominator is Obaseki. So, what is the big deal that we cannot hear words again? When there is election in Rivers everybody goes to Port Harcourt to assist him. All those governor and party faithful, even when they’re not from there, that’s the tradition. And I have never heard a governor boast that he was the one instrumental to their victory because it has always been a collective effort. So, that level of arrogance is completely uncalled for. It is unnecessary and it is not even typical of somebody who is hoping to rise beyond where he is politically. One of the attributes a good politician must possess is humility, regardless of what God has done for you, you are required to be humble. So, when you begin to get arrogant, then people will begin to wonder about what will befall you. This is not the first time in Edo we are having somebody who believes he is larger than life, throwing stones into Edo State. And usually when that happens, something bad happens to them. This will not be different.
“He cannot claim credit for the victory because this is the second time he is coming, the first time he was a woeful failure. He was there to support Ize-Iyamu when Ize-Iyamu contested against Obaseki the first time and in spite of him, Obaseki won. So, If Obaseki won again and he was around, then he is not the common denominator because in the first instance he lost. The only common denominator is Obaseki”
The Deputy Governor said there is a plan for all of you who moved with Governor Obaseki to PDP to leave if the situation is not rectified. Is that so?
What Philip Shaibu complained about is that those of us who came with Governor Obaseki and himself, we came in a collective and we came with our values. And that value made a difference. Now you would have expected that that difference would be complimented by a political arrangement that will lead to political integration and harmonization of both groups so that we form the most formidable political organization that has ever been in the history of Edo State. So, we had an opportunity to make history. Now coming to the issue, I don’t recall that Philip Shaibu issued a threat; rather he issued a complaint to no other person than the National Chairman in the presence of the Chairman, Board of Trustee. These are the people who have the responsibility to run this party. And he put the complaint squarely in their presence. Now if you say that he was blunt, I don’t think that anybody who knows Comrade Philip Shaibu would grudge him, because he doesn’t know any other way to put it than the way he did it. And if you noticed, since he raised this issue, not one person amongst us has come up to say he is not a party to what he said. So he didn’t speak for himself. Left for him, he wanted to be deputy governor, he got it and he is deputy governor, so you would say he shouldn’t complain. But he didn’t speak for himself, he spoke on behalf of a group of people, a very critical group of people who made the difference between victory and defeat in the history of PDP in Edo State. They held onto power for 10 years and they were out of power for 12 years until Obaseki and Philip Shaibu came with their people to complement what they had on ground. I don’t want to look at the deficit that they suffered through the exit of Ize-Iyamu, because when he left he left with some people. That means that the rank of PDP was depleted even before we arrived. They know this and for anybody who wants to be honest, they will tell you. It would not have been possible for PDP to win that election if not for those who came to meet them. So, for whatever it is, you would have expected that in the euphoria of victory, you would hear my brother come let us sit down, what cannot go to you, if it comes to me is for all of us. When anybody talks to you about anything legal, that means that the person is not with you from the beginning. It is only where there is a dispute that you seek legal solutions. But when you’re talking about politics, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that is not possible if they want to follow the politics of it. I think what Philip Sahibu said is obvious; he didn’t need to say it anyway, but it is about choices. If PDP turns its back against those who came in, perhaps because they believe that having won the governorship everything is now okay, alright, then those ones would be entitled to respond accordingly by also making their own choices. Does anybody need to tell anybody that? I think the PDP chairman put it succinctly when he said PDP has gone through this route before and they suffer defeat and he was not going to allow such a thing to repeat itself. That was the statement made by the national chairman, and when he made the statement, he didn’t say he was angry at a deputy governor who drew his attention to a very salient matter. Rather, I think he was quite happy that the deputy governor was honest enough to raise this on time so that they can deal with this squarely so that PDP can become even stronger. So anybody who does not promote a solution or an amicable resolution of this issue is not talking in the interest of the party.
“I believe that those who think they have power in APC, felt that they could abuse the power, believing that we didn’t have choices. And therefore, we felt we needed to tell them that when they make such arrogant mistakes, they ought to be punished by our collective will to do anything that is necessary, including seeking an alternative platform”
The deputy governor claimed that the collective you referred to earlier was not willing to leave the APC but had to escort Governor Obaseki to the PDP when it became apparent that he was being oppressed and all of you hate oppression. Was that the situation of things back then?
Of course, we were not in PDP, we were in APC and APC was the party in power. Nobody would want to leave a place like that and go into opposition for no reason. But I believe that those who think they have power in APC, felt that they could abuse the power, believing that we didn’t have choices. And therefore, we felt we needed to tell them that when they make such arrogant mistakes, they ought to be punished by our collective will to do anything that is necessary, including seeking an alternative platform to ensure that they didn’t get what they wanted and that they are sufficiently punished for such an error of judgment and I believe that is what has happened.
As we speak, and going by the deputy governor’s claim, there is no harmonization yet. Do you feel short changed as the chairman of state APC then?
But of course! If you believe that you have added so much value to the victory of a political party, are you not entitled to expect integration? If you do that much and then you are being treated with disdain, what would you do? But let me at this juncture, point out that this is not a general problem in PDP. A lot of the members and leaders of PDP are at peace with us, a lot of them, quite substantial. What is happening is that even before we came into PDP, it appeared that the party executive had been already hijacked by a group. If you recall, PDP was itself not one united self-loving family, noooo! They have as many as three groups. One of these groups is the one that has held the party hostage.
What would be your advice to the collective at this material time, as the Commander, so to say of the Collective?
Well, let me say it would not be correct to say I was the Commander; rather I was the Chairman of the party when we took our decision to move. And even at that time, Governor Obaseki was our leader. It was his leadership that made us take the decision. When he was disqualified, I remember that I convened a meeting of leaders of the party in the state and I tried to explain to them that look, the governor has just been disqualified and he is seeking their counsel as to what should be done. One of the leaders said it was not Obaseki that was disqualified or offended. He said it was all of us and because of that we should put out a statement to say that the leadership of the party in Edo State has mandated Obaseki to seek another viable platform and that they would prefer the PDP, and that if the governor decided to go there, we would go with him.
These were the resolutions that emanated from that meeting. And by our calculation, we didn’t believe that PDP alone can win that election. That was why it became necessary for us to ensure that we move everything that we had to complement what was on ground in PDP in order to achieve our objective. Nobody gave us much of a chance but God was just on our side. God was on our side. If it was to be how much resources were available, even with the governor. That’s why I have reached the conclusion that the way they are behaving is as if they didn’t appreciate what God did for us. If they did appreciate it, they will treat their fellow man like a brother, in the hope that we can replicate this victory, over and over and over again. As it is now, it is like somebody who harvested a tuber of yam from the farm, and all of a sudden, he is telling all his family that as from today everybody should go and feed himself. That is the way I see it. Just one victory and you say it is the end of the world? As it is, nobody is thinking about the future; we have a general election coming next year. Some people are just satisfied with their seasonal harvest from primaries. And that is a shame.
