Of Obaseki's Tantrums, Theatrics And Do Or Die Game

 

                    Obaseki: Down in supplication 

By Chris Azebamwan

Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki believes that Saturday, September 21 Governorship Election is a do or die game of who blinks first. Expectedly, he refused to sign the pre-election Peace Accord. 

Last Saturday, at the People's Democratic Party (PDP) grande finale in Benin, he didn't mince his words. He bellowed that the party is facing an existential threat following the disbandment of his storm troopers, Edo Security Network (Vigilantes) and as such the election is a do or die!

Governor Obaseki thinks bravado and filibuster approaches that worked very well for him in 2020 will pay off again. But the political setting this time around is different, and the variables have shifted. 

The governor cannot keep playing the victim card in the vain hope of whipping up sympathy. Furthermore, he deployed the state sponsored security outfit, Vigilantes during the last local government elections to intimidate, oppress and harass the opposition and planned to do so again. 

The carpet was, however, pulled from under his feet when the Police High Command in Abuja barred the Vigilantes from election duties on Saturday. He understandably, feels castrated without his attack dogs. 

Again, Governor Obaseki is unable to compete on a level playing ground in a stable environment. He has since resorted to media blackmail of the police and other federal agencies by crying wolf where none exists. 

In the words of the Psalmist, there is a time and season for everything under the sun. He knows this is the season of reckoning. The governor, no doubt, has a poor performance rating, and Edo people will, on Saturday, call him to account for his abysmal outing in the last eight years of accumulated MOUs that didn't translate to any developmental strides or structures on ground. 

His "perceived" grievances exist only in his imagination. It is not within the purview of a state governor to direct the police in the way and manner to conduct a criminal investigation.

He complained that he instructed the Edo Commissioner of Police to detain those arrested in Benin and charge them to court in the state capital. Is there any such provision in our administration of criminal justice system? Not at all.

Surely not. Governor Obaseki had boasted prior to this, that Nigeria would burn if his loyalists were arrested. His ongoing tantrums are borne out of his inability to live up to his posturing.

               *Azebamwan, a Political Analyst, and an                           Activist for the defence of the rights of                          minorities, is the immediate past                                   Publicity   Secretary of APC, Edo State.