Austin Isikhuemen, a manufacturing consultant who worked across several roles (and countries) in Guinness, as well as the Nigerian Security Printing & Minting Plc until 2019, has been very active on governance issues in his home state of Edo. As the Edo 2024 governorship race builds up, Isikhuemen is rooting strongly for the Asue/Ogie ticket. In this interview with Acting Editor, Chuks Oluigbo, and Political Correspondents, Tobore Jerome and Okoeguale Adolor, held at the Conference Room of the remodelled Nigerian Observer building in Benin City, Isikhuemen speaks on why the PDP candidate, Asue Ighodalo, and his running mate, Osarodion Ogie, deserve to be the next governor and deputy governor of Edo State. He also touches on sundry issues around the forthcoming election. Excerpts:
Keen observers of developments in Edo State are saying that Governor Godwin Obaseki has in the past seven and a half years worked to lay the foundation for a modern Edo society. So, what are the qualities you are looking out for in the person who is going to succeed the governor when his tenure ends in November?
I would like to start from the beginning. Edo State, before it was created, had a parent called Bendel State. Before then there was Midwest State. And before that there was Mid-Western Region, which was carved out of Western Region because of complaints about poor governance of the area that was then made up of the minorities in the Western Region. Our people decided that they were not getting a fair deal. Why would there be Cocoa House but there was no Rubber House? Why was there no Oil Palm House? It was issues such as this that made people say, ‘We need our own region out of the former Western Region’. The Mid-Western Region is the first sub-national in the country that was ever created through a democratic process, because there was a plebiscite held in 1963 where the yes votes carried the day and the region was created and Benin City became the capital.
Since then we have had very good governors. We have also had military administrators. Of all of them today, we remember very clearly the stellar performance of Brigadier General Ogbemudia. Some of the things he put in place are still there today. And indeed, the current governor has completed some of the projects that Brigadier General Ogbemudia started, especially at the secretariat. Another governor that had stellar qualities was Professor Ambrose Alli of blessed memory, whose strides in the education sector are unsurpassed in the country. And then, we had this new era from 1999, and we have had different people in charge at various times. Granted, Adams Oshiomhole did his best. He opened up the main artery roads to the state. And then the Obaseki era came. For those who are thinking clearly without blinkers caused by political party affiliation or whatever, this government has laid a solid foundation for the takeoff of Edo State. I say this because you need to look at the office where we are holding this interview. This was a rat and cockroach-infested area in Benin that you wouldn’t even dare enter. This was The Nigerian Observer premises that was built by Ogbemudia and since then no other governor has ever done anything to refurbish it, to make it better. The newspaper had died, the premises was desolate. Now look at where we are sitting. Even in London, you wouldn’t have a better office. The furnishing, the ambience, the air-conditioning. I’m not even talking of the other ancillaries that have been added, like the Victor Uwaifo Creative Hub, or the printing press, which today is arguably the best in the whole of South-South. Even the way the place is being managed tells a lot of story about the quality of the man we have as governor currently. What they would do before would be for politicians to say, ‘This is my son’, or ‘This is my in-law, make him general manager of the place’. Then they run the place down. But today, some of you who are here are here because of what you bring to the table. Your own quality, your own perspectives, your training, your background and what value you can add. And that is the sort of vision which the current governor has put on the table.
If you look at the recently announced minimum wage of N70,000 per month for civil and public servants in Edo State, it’s mind-boggling that a governor in one of the 36 states can actually make that announcement. Before that announcement, this state was paying the highest minimum wage in the country. The day he made that announcement, I was there in the audience and you needed to see the workers of Nigeria, because that day we had labour leaders from across the country present. Some of them nearly hit the ceiling. And they were doing that because, one, it was unprecedented that a governor would be announcing a minimum wage that is more than twice the current national minimum. And secondly, they knew he would pay because he had done it before and he never failed.
Look at the quality of people that have entered the Edo State Civil Service and the kind of capacity building they have been doing at the John Odigie Oyegun Public Service Academy (JOOPSA). The guys you see working in the Edo State Civil Service now, they look like those who work in blue-chip companies in terms of knowledge and disposition. Edo State is currently the state with the highest level of digitization and no Commissioner or Permanent Secretary goes to do a presentation to Governor Obaseki right now carrying sheets of paper, it has to be through PowerPoint presentation. To some people who are of the old school, those things don’t matter. But the reality is that Governor Obaseki has taken Edo State to the next level of governance.
So, what we expect is, if we are sincere and if we love our state, that the next person that should take over Osadebe Avenue has to be somebody that has this same temperament, this same mindset, this same background; somebody that is futuristic rather than backward-looking; somebody that will not reverse the gains of these last seven and a half years. So, we are looking at the quality of leadership. What experience has this person had? What about integrity? Have there been noises around him regarding integrity issues, corruption issues? Does he have the capacity to lead a diverse group of people? Because, let’s face it, Edo State is diverse. Diverse in terms of ethnic groups, in terms of level of education, the kind of trade that people engage in, even in terms of climate. Benin City or what you call Edo South, for instance, is a tropical rainforest. But as you go towards the north, you start to experience savanna. Even in the endowments of the state, there are differences. You have a lot of mining activities in the north. Here in the south, we have a lot of farming, we have oil and gas and so on. So, we need somebody that has that diverse experience to be able to build on what Governor Obaseki has put on the ground. And that person appears to be, everything considered, Asue Ighodalo by far, and that is why my support is for him.
Could you tell us the specific qualities you see in Asue Ighodalo that make you think he’s the right man?
Number one, capacity. Does he have the ability, as demonstrated in the past, to manage this state in a way that leads to development and progress? The answer is yes. For somebody who has been Chairman of a company like Nigerian Breweries. Incidentally, I can speak a lot about that because I have worked in a brewing company. In fact, you can argue that the two giants in the brewing industry in Nigeria are Guinness and Nigerian Breweries. And I know the achievements he has made there. Therefore, that capacity is not in doubt. And for you to have even been chosen to be Chairman of Nigerian Breweries, that would mean that you have been assessed abroad by the Heineken Group and they will use even Interpol to look at your background. What are you capable of doing? What have you done before?
Second, track record. If you look at the companies he has been a board member of, or where he has even been Chairman, these are quality companies. And somebody could also say a lot of these companies were for profit. But the same man has been Chairman of FATE Foundation, which is a non-profit organization that is focused on humanitarian aid.
You don’t become a Chairman of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group by being a nonentity or somebody who hasn’t performed before. Because that will mean you are heading a group of economists, the best brains in economics in this country, helping the government to navigate very bad economic times. We can go on and talk about that for even one hour.
So, you will find that what Asue has done in the past stands him in good stead to take over from Obaseki. One could even say without fear of contradiction that Obaseki, after he has left the government, will be proud of what Asue is going to do. That guy will surpass Obaseki’s performance without an iota of doubt. And that is why we also have to praise Governor Obaseki for actually sieving through a huge array of possibilities and picking this man. Anybody else would have picked on the basis of, who can I control? Who can I be godfather to? But he has chosen somebody that if you want somebody to be a godson, you will never choose an Asue because his background does not speak to somebody who can crawl on his feet before you. Obaseki chose him on the basis of what he can do.
Another thing is integrity. If you hear all the lies that are being spewed, no one has said anything about this man having been linked in any way with corruption. The same thing about Obaseki himself. Nobody has told us the current governor is corrupt. I’ve not heard that mentioned. And the same thing with the man who is likely to take over from him, that is, Asue Ighodalo. Some are saying, ‘Oh, he cannot speak Esan’. I never heard that they were speaking Bini when Obaseki was there, or Etsako when Oshiomhole was there. So for me, those are non-issues.
I can mention a lot of other qualities, but let me also say that a governor can be influenced, for good or for ill, by his spouse. Asue is coming with a First Lady that can even run for governorship. His wife is an entrepreneur of her own. When she attended secondary school, she had the best result across West Africa. And then, of course, when she graduated from the university, she came out tops in the entire university. So she’s not going to be somebody that will be here to share asoebi or looking for where the next burial is happening. She’s somebody that is going to bring to bear on the government her own background of performance. She’s a wife, she’s a mother, she’s a support. She will be a support to Asue, and she’s somebody we’ll be very proud of. And if First Ladies in Nigeria are meeting somewhere, I’m sure people of Edo State will be very proud of the beauty and brains of our incoming First Lady, Mrs Ifeyinwa Ighodalo.
Let’s talk about the PDP’s choice of a deputy governorship candidate. What value do you think the choice of Osarodion Ogie adds to the Asue ticket?
If you read the article I wrote after Ogie was selected, ‘Understanding the chemistry of AiO2’, I said the PDP couldn’t have chosen a better deputy. We saw what just played out when you have an over-ambitious deputy. A deputy is supposed to be a support to his boss. If I ask you today, who was Wike’s deputy? I’m sure you will scratch your head, you won’t remember. If I ask you about our neighbouring state, Kogi, who was the deputy to Bello? You won’t remember. Ondo State, the only reason you will remember is because the governor fell ill and the deputy had to step in and all the issues around managing that relationship. If you go to other states, who is Soludo’s deputy right now? You won’t remember. But in Edo State, Governor Obaseki gave a wide span of control to his deputy, put a lot of government responsibilities under his charge and allowed him to showcase his talent and be visible. And anytime he went on leave, he handed over. And that handover was not just a mere handover, it was full handover where the deputy who was acting was allowed to run the state, award contracts, and do everything that the governor used to do. That brought visibility, and we have seen what it led to.
But in the choice of the deputy now to Asue, here is Barrister Osarodion Ogie who has been Chief of Staff to a governor, who has been Commissioner for Works, and who has been Secretary to the State Government for seven and a half years. And throughout that era, there has been no issue of schism or controversy. Ogie is a silent achiever who does not show up himself. He has been loyal to everybody with whom he has worked. Even when at a stage there were issues between Governor Obaseki and his predecessor, Governor Oshiomhole (now senator), I’m not sure anybody in Edo State heard Ogie’s voice either criticizing or abusing his former boss or taking the side of his current boss in the open arena. This guy is a seasoned lawyer and yet humble to a fault. He’s a grassroots politician. If you go to his house, the gate is open. You just ask those policemen, is Oga around? They say yes, you go in. Open-door policy in practice. Therefore, choosing him to support Asue was a masterstroke, because he brings with him that grassroots network, and especially in Edo South. He’s bringing to the table his experience across various governments in the past, his knowledge of the law, complementing Asue Ighodalo, who himself is a lawyer.
In your interactions with the public, what do you see is the perception of the public towards Asue Ighodalo’s candidacy?
I have interacted a lot with people in Edo South and Edo Central and I have a plan to also go to Edo North because I have serious links with Edo North. My wife is from Somorika in Akoko Edo and I was a teacher there for four years. Even though I haven’t interacted so much with Akoko Edo by way of going there and talking to people, there are Akoko Edo people based in Benin and Lagos and we talk, so I can still feel the pulse of what is happening over there.
So, yes, there are those who are totally sold on the Asue ticket, without a doubt. There are also those who are totally sold on his opponent’s ticket. And there are those who need information to be able to make up their mind where they want to go. And I can tell you those are in the majority, though they won’t say so. A lot of misinformation being spread is reaching some people and some are believing, but when you bare the facts to them, there are a lot that say, ‘Oh, is that how it is?’ I have not seen one that has said, ‘These are things I know about Asue that disqualify him, that will make me not vote for him’.
Then there are those who just feel they need to hear from the candidates. They have heard surrogates of many of the candidates talking. And in this election there are three candidates, really, without disrespect to the other candidates. Just like in the last election, people remember Obi, they remember Atiku, they remember Jagaban. But if you ask them about the other candidates today, they will scratch their head. So, the big three right now are Asue Ighodalo of the PDP and the candidates of the APC and Labour Party. If you look at these three, people will tell you what their choice is likely to be. People also think that the Obidients are totally with the Labour Party candidate. I don’t think that is true, because I was an Obidient, I was very involved in that last election. The Obidients look for qualities of competence, capacity, integrity, track record. If you take those qualities and then look at these three candidates, everybody knows where the pendulum will swing and where it is swinging right now.
Some people are also saying maybe a particular candidate and his party are not campaigning because they are banking on the federal might to do whatever it takes to win the election.
When we talked about track record a moment ago, I said track record means you are looking at what somebody has done in the past consistently. We had an election in 2020, the same threat was issued, that Buhari was going to use the army, police and DSS to overrun the state and make sure Obaseki doesn’t win, more so when he had just left APC in order to get an umbrella under PDP because a governor who had just done four years was now being told he’s not even qualified to run in the primary. What the governor did then, because I was also involved, was that he campaigned through the 192 wards of the state, and he was the only one that did that. He was talking to people directly, met the traditional rulers, met the opinion leaders without kneeling down because he had nothing to kneel down for. He was discussing with them what he was bringing to the table, what he would do for the state, many of which he has done now. Therefore, I think that this issue of federal might being used to sway the election one way or another is over-hyped, because I remember in that 2020, the current President actually made a broadcast to Edo people and advised them strongly not to vote for Governor Obaseki. The elections took place, Obaseki had his own strategy, and the election was lost by them and won by him. Clear winning. So that is part of the track record.
So, these people who are glibly saying Obaseki’s candidate will be overrun by forces from Abuja, it’s not going to happen. It didn’t happen before in 2020, it’s not going to happen now. The votes of Edo people will be counted and whoever wins that vote is going to be the next governor. And from my own perspective, from what I see and what is going to play out when these campaigns actually go out in full force, it is the Asue Ighodalo/Ogie team. I don’t see how forces outside the state will come and overrun the state.
Looking back at the performance of INEC in the 2023 general election, do you have faith in the Commission going into the Edo 2024 election?
Yes, because the one that was done in 2020 was conducted by the same INEC and Obaseki won, in spite of all the shenanigans people tried to pull. Edo State is a small sub-national within the Nigerian federation. And in that 2020 election, the government of Obaseki had set up a platform through which the collation of results was being done online real-time, and as as collation of results was being done in all the wards of the state, those results were being received in the centre and being displayed real time. I’m not sure this year will be different. As we speak, people have been appointed in all the wards. There are coordinators of various activities in all the wards. And don’t forget the current 18 local governments have elected chairmen. Let’s face it, PDP is better organized in Edo State. It has always been.
The Legacy PDP is still aggrieved. They were recently joined by the former deputy governor, Philip Shaibu. What is the Asue/Ogie campaign doing to bring these people together to work in synergy in order to win this election?
The reality is that there is a Legacy PDP, which is the PDP members that Governor Obaseki, Osarodion Ogie and Philip Shaibu came to meet that gave them the platform to run in 2020. Those ones actually feel that there were new people that came to join them as a party and, therefore, they deserve to have some benefits coming from that government. At the beginning, I think they actually thought they should bring the deputy, so that the joiners bring the governor. That was a fair point, but for whatever reason, that didn’t happen. Dan Orbih, the arrowhead of that group, was very visible in the election of 2020. He was there on the platform, you know the 192 wards campaign that I mentioned earlier. So, if he feels aggrieved, there is some semblance of reason for that. But I think over time, the governor has tried to merge the two tendencies. And as we speak, PDP is in power in the state. And if you still feel strongly that as part of that Legacy group, that you have lost out for some time, I also think that going to join the opposition right now is not going to do you any good, because those you are going to meet there are also going to say you are just coming because you were hurt, not because you love them; you are trying to use them to soothe the grievance you have against another group. So, the best place for that tendency to be is PDP, where a new leader of the party is going to emerge after the elections. And that leader is Asue Ighodalo. What they need to do, in my view, is look at the qualities of an Asue. He has been talking to every tendency. He moves around. You have seen him talk, you see him engage. I am sure what he is doing behind the scene to reconcile those tendencies may not be known to everybody, but he’s doing everything to unite the two tendencies, and I can assure you he’s succeeding.
