By Lucky Okoedion
Observers have drawn parallels between the Edo political tussle of this year 2020 and that which in 2008 brought in Adams Oshiomhole who doubles as a benefactor and the current main opposition of the incumbent Governor. The issues are the same – a group of state actors are passionately opposed to the form of political corruption called “godfatherism” by which an individual exerts ‘landlord’ powers over Edo State, and uses the bragging right of being the “landlord” of Edo state to negotiate for respect and a comfortable seat in the round-table of similar state landlords at the national level.
The fact is that in the Nigeria of today, your political value is measured by your “landlord” or godfather status. When you lose your landlord status, you are finished. Nobody will take you seriously anymore at the national stage because your status as a national leader was not acquired through your excellence in your profession, not through any particular intellectual prowess you have exhibited or any other such merit, but strictly based on your ability to control a state.
This culture of oligarchy begins from the grassroots and it is so pervasive that you almost cannot escape it. Your value is measured by the question of “How many people can you mobilize?”, without regards for the means through which you are able to gather such crowds – be it by use of terror on your people with thugs, be it by systematically enslaving your people and by weaponizing poverty to make them perpetually subservient, nobody cares. You play your people as pawns on a political chessboard, and the system rewards you for it – politicians patronize you to help them win elections, they give you appointments no matter how incompetent you are because you have such “political value”. Once you lose that “landlord” status, you are finished politically. And you are left with the option of either starting your own militant group, illegal mining bandit squad to switch from plundering human resources to plundering natural resources, or you start your own “Boko Haram” and wait for contracts to help fight the same insecurity you invented. Such is the assumption, and the inevitable consequences when a people fail to audit the source of the power of their “leaders”. The type of political influence that prospers a nation is that which is acquired through earned respect gotten from one’s exemplary character, industrial exploits, intellectual strength and leadership competence.
The political movement is the same between Edo2007 of Osunbor versus Oshiomhole and Edo2020 of Ize-Iyamu versus Obaseki – Oshiomhole won in 2007 because he had “true” supporters who were mostly volunteering. From the financiers of his campaign to his legal battles, all he had were volunteers. And the popularity of a politician can best be measured by the number of people who are ready to follow him willingly without him paying for their followership. However in the case of 2007, it was not Oshiomhole as a person the people followed, it was his unique idea they followed. The idea of setting the state free from any “landlord” or godfather. In contrast, in this 2020 race, there are two ideas contesting for the followership of the people. One is that same anti-godfatherism idea that brought in Oshiomhole in 2008, of which Oshiomhole and Ize-Iyamu are now the antagonists. While the other idea is the new one which the “Simple Agenda” of Ize-Iyamu seeks to address, which is to allow the state’s resources to circulate appropriately to career politicians and other stakeholders who need it to survive.
Thus, though many things remain the same between the Edo2007 and this new governorship contest, one crucial element is different – “THE BATTLEGROUND”. There is no guarantee that having an appealing idea alone can grant victory to Governor Obaseki and his PDP because while the “battle” was fought and won in 2007 in the mixed community of regular voters (who consider themselves politicians even in their villages) and professionals who hardly vote but chose to support Oshiomhole’s idea of “no man is God”, the case is different with Obaseki. Whereas Obaseki has the support of the same professionals that Oshiomhole had, he does not enjoy the support of career politicians who are ready to voluntarily support him without being first mobilised or promised a reward. Today, Ize-Iyamu enjoys the support of “Oshiomhole boys” – the aggrieved career politicians who want their share of the state resources – and the voluntary support of the thugs he is allegedly recruiting. Whereas Obaseki’s men will not spend a dime of their own money to print a face cap or t-shirt or banner for his campaign, there are men, boys, girls, and women who are ready to die “free of charge” for the new “paddi paddi” “share the money” Simple Agenda of Ize-Iyamu.
How can Obaseki ensure that the professionals, market women, farmers and civil servants who buy his Make Edo Great Again (MEGA) idea are ready to go the extra mile like the thugs?
