Okpebholo’s Mistakes In Correcting Obaseki

One of the most distressing acts in the suppression of democratic expression since the advent of the Fourth Republic was the inconsiderate lock-out of 14 elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly in 2019.

After winning their elections in the 2019 General Election, the 14 elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly were refused inauguration in an egregious act of democratic perfidy that prayerfully should not be equaled in Nigeria.

Shockingly, the nation kept mute as Governor Godwin Obaseki in a visible validation of accusations of intolerance, nay lack of self-confidence, reportedly formed a ring to keep perceived political naysayers away from parliament.

Interestingly, the refusal to inaugurate the 14 members of the Edo State House of Assembly reduced the 24-member legislative body to a 10-member body.

The bone of contention as speculated was Governor Obaseki’s fear that the 14 members-elect refused to heed his choice of a speaker. The 14 members-elect it was alleged, were aligned to Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the very man who groomed Obaseki and many of the 14 for political office.

Obaseki known for his reprise of “I am governor, I am governor,” is today no longer governor. Commendably, the man who is governor today, Senator Monday Okpebholo has vowed to investigate that violent disruption of the governance space that forced 14 constituencies to go without representation for four years.

It is expected that the enquiry should come up with strict sanctions against all those who collaborated with “I am governor, I am governor” to truncate the democratic expression of the 14 different constituencies.

How one man sitting in his office can willfully exclude 14, nay, the majority of the constituencies from parliament and the country watched agape, goes a long way to show how laidback Nigerians are.

The judiciary which should have been the resort of the aggrieved 14 members-elect was not spared as Governor Obaseki in his fantasies as political overlord refused to inaugurate some of the judges recommended for appointment by the National Judicial Council, NJC.

Thankfully, just as the 14 members elect are getting ‘delayed’ justice from Governor Okpebholo, those justices are also getting justice.

In the light of the vagaries seen in the eight years of “I am governor, I am governor” it is shocking that Governor Okpebholo is in his first month in office being drawn into desecrating the political configuration of Edo State.

His exemplification of Obaseki in the recent suspension of the 18 elected local government chairmen is to say the least inexcusable irrespective of the candour and the fresh air he has brought to the polity in Edo State.

The suspension by the Edo State House of Assembly followed a petition in which the governor claimed that the 18 elected chairmen refused to submit details of their accounts to him.

The instruction to submit the accounts was given through his deputy, Dennis Idahosa when the chairmen paid a courtesy visit to welcome him to office. The governor apparently knowing what was in his mind and not wanting to look them in the face given the popular claim that he is a good man, passed the instruction through his deputy.

Whatever, there is no basis for a governor to demand the accounts of a local government from a chairman. It is just like the president ordering state governors to submit their state accounts to him.

Nigeria must trudge the path of respect for the constitution. Indeed, each political actor must learn to live within his or her space. Just as the governor was elected by a constituency, the local government chairmen were elected by their respective constituencies and must not be subjected to the impulses of any political actor, governor or not.

It is interesting that despite its own foibles, that the Bola Tinubu administration has demonstrated courage in tackling governors on their overlordship of local governments.

The July Supreme Court judgment, untidy as it is, is a beckon to redress the lethargy in our local governments.

Remarkably, the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi has boldly rejected the suspension of the local government chairmen in Edo State.

It may look inhospitable for Governor Okpebholo to tolerate the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP local government chairmen, especially given the rogue election that brought them to power. But the fact is that the elections that brought them to power were not judicially overturned.

Political actors everywhere must learn to tolerate one another and must not because of political fads violate the letters of the constitution to achieve personal goals.

The imprint of the constitution is that the system of democratically elected local governments is guaranteed. It must not be vitiated by anyone, no matter how popular such a person may be.

Obaseki’s politics was particularly noxious, a fact epitomized by his pitiful isolation at the INEC headquarters, the night his successor was chosen. But throwing away his baby and the bathwater is not the way to go.

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