Right Of Reply: Between Ikhide And Obaseki By Erasmus Ikhide

ON the 17th of December, 2021 a traditional newspaper and an online medium published an article against my person written by Governor Godwin Obaseki’s media aide, Crusoe Osagie titled: “Between Ikhide and Obaseki.” The author whom I have tutored in our previous exchanges is gradually learning  how to write — albeit negatively — using the word ‘defanged’ and others words in the wrong context.

Crusoe Osagie in the piece under review raised a couple of concerns that got his boss and government pain-ridden in my previous articles; agonizing at the depth of exposure of the rot in governance of Edo State and the facts contained in my constructive criticisms of the absence of deliverable governance in the state. For Crusoe Osagie, instead of focusing on the issues of misgovernmance raised, he became caustically abusive, propulsively scandalous and brazenly manacled.

For a fact, Governor Obaseki is the first true demagogue to have been Governor of Edo State. He is one of the pretentious politicians who claim to be tribunes of the downtrodden against corrupt establishments that are replete in Nigeria at the federal, state and local levels that turned out to become pure disasters. As a form of politics, demagogic populism flourishes when large groups of citizens feel that conventional politicians are ignoring their interests and values. Regrettably, this is Obaseki’s selling point!

For the records, criticizing Governor Obaseki on misplaced priorities and aborted chances is purely issue-based and not as Crusoe Osagie will make the badly affected Edo people believe it is an unfair, and viscious attacks, and that’s not about to stop until the grand deception parading itself as governor comes to a halt. As it is, the government of Godwin Obaseki is not accountable nor transparent and it is the duty of every single Edo man and woman to ask for accountability, including Liborous Oshoma who has taken it upon himself to task the government on issues.
To start with, how come anyone asking for accountability of Governor Obaseki is being tagged as an enemy of the government?

Yes, thousands of Edo State citizens voted for Obaseki based on the propaganda he peddled that he was being victimised by the godfather, until he turned himself into the ultimate godfather, suspending the people that accommodated him in his new found political party, the PDP. Today, the people are regretting their decisions because they have nothing to show for their staunch support for him against the APC candidate. The party, PDP, he ran under after begging from pillar to post was his first victim. At the moment, nobody is ever spared of his politics of bitterness.

The ‘we rather die’ Crusoe, who call himself a pastor cannot hide the fact that Obaseki has paid members of the old PDP with a wicked coin. Did he not organize the illegal suspension of Chief Dan Orbih, Rt. Hon. Ogbiede-Ihama, Hon. Segun Saiki and others in a shamefully televised manic rant where he was heard arrogating unto himself powers of an Emperor in the Party he just joined? Did Obaseki not attempt to stop these same leaders of the Party from attending the PDP National Convention that held in Abuja recently, where he was disgraced? It is on record, even when Crusoe Osagie is a Living Lie, that Obaseki betrayed Chief Dan Orbih who went round 192 wards repairing his battered image from lack of performance.

“Ikhide will find the words of ancient Greek philosopher, Sophocles in his play, Antigone, useful when he said “Who the gods want to destroy, they first make mad,” in salvaging himself from his recent adventure of trying to create a phantom crisis between Governor Obaseki and his Royal Majesty, Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II, Ogidigan. This is because the way our forefathers deal justice to liars and warmongers may be radically different from how politicians may do so. So Ikhide should be guided and thread softly on such matters that are too high for him”, a part of the piece written for him by the Government House correspondent of the Edo State Government owned Observer Newspaper reads.

“Besides being completely ambivalent, Crusoe refused to tell the reading public the reasons Governor Obaseki avoided the Oba of Benin Palace in such crucial and historical event of the return of the stolen Artefacts. Crusoe need to tell the world why Obaseki was not invited to the palace for the Artefacts public presentations and the five year anniversary ceremony of the Benin Monarch. Where was the Governor when the political figures he claimed to have suspended from the PDP in his lonely mind took the shine on that day while he was locked up in his quiet recesses of his self delusion and abnegation?”

To be sure, the pathetically sly, serpentine and hallucinating Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State actually saved his caricature of humanity from being used as burnt offering at the celebration of the return of the Benin stolen Artefacts a few days ago in the Palace of the revered Monarch. What seems like a dysfunctional thought process on the part of the blundering Governor of Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) extraction, was actually premeditated.

While the meaningless battle as to the
appropriateness of the return of the stolen Benin Artefacts to the old Benin Empire was raging — precisely to the Benin Monarch’s Palace, where it originally belonged — the now subdued and humiliated Governor Obaseki sought to conscript me into the conundrum with his dirty, illicit money to which I objected. The reason Obaseki entangled himself in such a senseless and futile war of attrition with the Benin Monarch was to corner the hundreds of millions of dollars attached to the return of the Artefacts for the building of a new Museum in the state by global governments, UNESCO and other international organisations.

If the Oba had not rebuked him, the Governor was ready to pick another rounds of fight with him over the artefacts because he was told money was involved.
Osagie is basically uninformed to the point that there are no matters too high to discuss when it comes to the issue of Obaseki picking unnecessary fights, even with the revered Monarch. The response of the Benin Monarch towards Obaseki’s enfrontery was published in the dailies, so I am not revealing any sacred information.

So, when a former advert agent with the ThisDay newspapers like Crusoe Osagie works for a failing governor, what you have is a total disaster with catastrophic consequences. That’s the acidic combination of Obaseki and Crusoe that have been visited on the Edo people unfortunately with lies and concorted stories of being a performing Governor.

The history of how Comrade Oshiomhole made Obaseki the governor of Edo State against all odds and against himself is a public issue, so Crusoe cannot cure history at this moment when it is already a known fact that Obaseki pays good with evil. It is also a known fact how Obaseki orchestrated the removal of Oshiomhole through his ward chairman who was lodged in a Benin hotel for the job well done, an act which will go down in history as one of the worst forms of ingratitude after Brutus stabbed Ceasar.

What about Governor Wike? If Crusoe is not blind and deaf, he should have seen the TV interview where Emwanta was casting aspersions on Governor Wike. He should have seen the last interview on AIT where Wike made reference to the frosty relationship he has with Obaseki after all he did for him. If Crusoe is not suffering from mental collapse and a State of learned helplessness, he should have known that of all the Governors of the South South geopolital zone of Nigeria, Obaseki is the only one that is being alienated as a black leg because of their mistrust for him.

Governor Obaseki was among the Governors who co-signed the agreement on the Anti-Grazing policy but went back to betray them. He is the only one supporting a northern candidate for president when they had all agreed that power must come to the South, even by all the APC governors. The likes of Governors Okowa, Wike, Orton, Makinde, Udom, Diri…no longer enjoy his company because they now know him as a serial betrayer, if he could agree with them and then go to Buhari begging for money for livestock gambit when he should have signed the Anti-Grazing Bill into law. History will be unkind to Obaseki and it won’t be too long. I leave Crusoe with this smashing hit now that Governor Obaseki have been shamed by his backward politics as he is about to be frozen out of power and confined permanently to the dustbin of history.

Firstly, the Benin Monarch defeated him over the Benin Artefact. Secondly, PDP defeated him over harmonization. Thirdly, Kabaka defeated him over demolition in the court of law. Fourthly, Edo people are waiting to defeat him over his succession imposition plan for 2024, where he’s secretly pledging to allow his political postal child to snatch the PDP governorship ticket.

This axiom suffices for the inordinate Governor of Edo State: “those whose palm kannel were cracked for by a benevolent spirit must not forget to be humble”. The outgoing Governor Obaseki must not abuse the privilege of being a Governor of a backward and vanquished state he has made Edo State became.

Ikhide contributed this piece via ikhideerasmus@gmail.com from Lagos, Nigeria.