APPOINTMENT OF EDO’S NEW DEPUTY GOVERNOR By Austin Isikhuemen
The former Deputy Governor was impeached on 8th April 2024. Same day, a mere few hours later, a young, 38-year-old, took the constitutionally prescribed oaths and became Deputy Governor of Edo State. It was the crescendo of the much talked about feud in the executive branch in Government house which had reached a stage of analysis paralysis in the media – both social and orthodox. The guessing game was over.
Arguably the youngest Deputy Governor in Nigeria today, Marvelous Godwins Omobayo’s ascendancy was facilitated by someone else’s alleged disloyalty and recalcitrance! He would have remained an embittered former candidate for the Federal House of Representatives who was rigged out, allegedly. He quit the fight after the elections petitions tribunal stage and was bidding his time to run again in 2027 when, like a bolt out of the blues, fate dealt him a good hand in a fashion that had the feel of restitution!
Even the Akoko-Edo federal constituency voters, who felt shortchanged after the shenanigans that saw Marvelous Omobayo denied of victory despite their alleged overwhelming vote for the young man, heaved a sigh of relief and felt a sence of justice. I have no proof, but I do feel that the Governor, His Excellency Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki, must have felt triumphant after the man who challenged his status and his position in the State Government’s power calculus bit the dust! The House Speaker’s gavel put a seal of finality on the impeachment and exit from the government house. The DG logo must have been yanked off that Lexus SUV seconds after the pronouncement. That’s the way of power.
The sins were said to have been many, according to the fertile rumour mills – disloyalty, insubordination, vaulting ambition that discountenanced the communicated consensus of Edo Central’s fairness deal, rumours of unconscionable wealth accumulation way beyond the reasonable pecuniary benefits and fair business ROI’s, e.t.c., e.t.c… When it came to it, the House of Assembly, some say GGO, chose a little stain that will stick. A totally provable, self-evident illegal act of revealing State Secret to the public! That’s what the gavel struck and the boastful cookie crumbled. When accused students were brought to our school principal those days, he will simply ask “Pip, did you or did you not?” Then the lashing will begin…..
The scene at the house was surreal. After a no-show anti-climax at the investigative panel constituted as required by the 1999 constitution, as amended, (I wonder why they do not just call it ‘amended 1999 constitution’), the house voted 18:1 in favour of impeachment. I wonder if that level of drubbing can be described as overwhelming landslide or monumental earthquake of a conviction! Social media, that construct with elephantine memory, reminded us that the Speaker who presided over this eviction was once evicted with this latest evictee presiding as majority leader! Could that explain the loudness of the struck gavel that simultaneously removed from office, removed immunity and removed impunity? We will never know for sure.
Enter Marvelous. The young man they used gun-toting aluta to prevent from being addressed as “honourable’ became “His Excellency” after repeating a few sentences from the oath book. Standing there resplendent in his white attire and befitting red cap beside his beautiful wife, a lot must have crossed his mind than he would be willing to let on. From then on, his friends and officials would alternate between calling him DG or Your Excellency. DSS guns, with shooting capacity of one hundred rounds per minute, escorted him home to his new abode! The stuff of Nollywood blockbusters.
Those asking what value His Excellency Marvelous Godwins Omobayo brings to the table need to think deeper. They surely do no think GGO will pick just anybody to fill that inevitable vacancy. Or that those he said had joined him in arriving at a consensus are not strategic – in an election year. One commentator I will hate to describe as shallow went as far as to state that “Obaseki chose someone he can control”. What an inebriated brain analysis!
Marvelous is an Obidient, a REAL, GENUINE YOUTH who brought change to Akoko-Edo politics but was stopped in his tracks with manafiki, gbirigbiri and gbas-gbos Kogi-style, after he had won. Most voters in Akoko-Edo resigned to fate after the heist. Surely, this young man must know a thing or two about popular democracy and winning of elections. The one he obviously does not have capacity or inclination for, is violence. Violence could not have been what Governor Obaseki was looking for among the capabilities of a new Deputy Governor.
The youth of Akoko-Edo, Edo North and even Edo State at large, as well as the Obidient movement now have a “representative” in Government House and a voice at the State Executive Council. The majority voters of Akoko-Edo who felt shortchanged after the last legislative elections are exhilarated by this elevation and recognition for their candidate. The Speaker who spoke hails from Owan, another area that has, like Akoko-Edo, hitherto considered themselves marginalized in Edo North politics. If these are not considered significant and revolutionary and capable of impacting voter turnout and positive outcome for the PDP in September and beyond, then such pundits need magnifying glasses, in my humble view.
