There is no denying the fact that the problem of which contestant to support ahead of any given election or who to vote for at the poll in Edo state have seemingly remained intractable. The problem, no doubt, has been exacerbated by the extant political culture in the state that is so preoccupied with the ideas of celebrity, popularity, and status. The issue of easily deciphering who the cap fits in any political capacity in the state has also been exacerbated by negative campaigning or mudslinging that it is difficult to know who the real leader is among the motley of flag bearers that always indicate their interest for any given political position ahead of an election.
It is even argued that if a good leader came on the scene, he or she would not be quickly recognised on account of the somewhat faulty yardsticks that are usually used to determine who a leader is in the state. For decades, the political heroes in the state have been popular figures, money -bags and media creations who more often than not utterly lack the leadership traits that can be deployed toward the development of the state and betterment of Edolites; both at home and in diaspora.
In fact, the foregoing age-long problem in the state almost made the electorates to miss the opportunity of supporting the incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki in his electioneering and voting for him during the September 28, 2016 governorship election in the state. Viewed from the prism of the foregoing facts, it is not an exaggeration to say that during the 2016 gubernatorial exercise in Edo State that members of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, went about electioneering with then Mr. Godwin Obaseki as the target of their maliciously orchestrated campaign of calumny in order to Pull Him Down (PHD). They campaigned against him by impressing it upon the electorates that the now governor was a political neophyte that should not be voted for as a governor. To God be the glory, their mischievous campaign did not stuck in the minds of the electorates.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the campaign of calumny that was carried out against him during the time of electioneering in the state ahead of the 2016 governorship election in the state was unarguably intensive and wicked. The mischievous campaign no doubt was unarguably carried out to jeopardise his chance of governing the state. I must confess that the campaign was so intense that I was compelled to goggle his background. With my findings, I realised that he stood head and shoulders above other candidates that ran for the governorship position with him.
Given my findings then, “Mr. Godwin Obaseki served as the Managing Director and Director of Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited and also served as its Chairman of the Board. In 1995, he founded SecTrust, the predecessor company to Afrinvest, pioneering major innovations and providing leadership in the Nigerian stock market. Mr. Obaseki has served on the Presidential Committee on the Reform of the Nigerian Pension System. He also served on the Committee on the Re-activation of the Nigerian Bond Market set up by the Securities and Exchange Commission. He is an active member of The NSE and currently serves on its Governing Council. He has also served on many of the committees of The Exchange. In 2001, Mr. Obaseki was nominated Global Leader of Tomorrow (GLT) by the World Economic Forum. He is a Fellow of the Nigerian Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers and an alumnus of the Lagos Business School Chief Executive Program.”
Indeed, his impeccable credential did not end in the money market. On March 17, 2009, Mr Godwin Obaseki was appointed as the head of the Edo State Economic Team. The appointment charged him with the responsibility of coming up with an economic blueprint that will lead to a boost in the socio-economic development of the state. Seven years after, Obaseki was linked to the successes recorded by the Oshiomhole administration, having led the Team that has significantly increased the state’s internally generated revenue from what it was to the billions with which the APC government of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole executed unprecedented infrastructural and socio-economic development of Edo.
Despite Obaseki’s intimidating credentials that best suit governance at both corporate and political levels, politicians in the opposition almost deceived Edolites from supporting him and voting him on September 28, 2016. However, they did not succeed.
Today, the governor is assiduously through his works telling the electorates that what his political opponents and detractors told them about him during the period of electioneering were not true. Yes! He has refuted all the lies they bandied about him through record time service delivery.
For instance, as I recently pondered on his unprecedented record time achievements in the state, I could not help thinking of the level of underdevelopment PHD politicians in the state would have caused the state by depriving him the opportunity to serve as the governor of Edo. However, it is glorious as those in the Christendom would exclaim, that the PHDs in the state were unable to stop him from becoming the governor of the state.
As a leader that believes in working with a roadmap, he organised a 3-day retreat as a way of providing direction and understanding for stakeholders towards the development of the state and also to realise his vision for a new Edo. The creation of the roadmap saw the gathering of experienced administrators, permanent secretaries, politicians, policy makers, members of the civil society organizations, traditional rulers, religious leaders and former and serving officials of the state government to a strategy dialogue themed: “Setting the Agenda for the new Administration”.
At the end of the retreat, the indefatigable governor assured the people of the state that his government would neither indulge in frivolities nor play to the gallery in the implementation of policies and programmes.
He also assured the participants that the reports of the six thematic groups would be comprehensively looked into, studied with actionable projects and programs extracted for implementations.
Finally, the essence of this piece is to advise politicians in the state to eschew from campaign of calumny against politicians that have the capacity to uplift the state to a higher developmental level. It is high time we stopped politicising critical leadership issues to the detriment of the state and Edolites in general. Politicians should always see the development of the state as the big picture.
Isaac Asabor, a Journalist, writes from Lagos.
