In this concluding part of his first interview since leaving office, former Edo State Deputy Governor, Comrade Philip Shaibu, has disclosed how his former principal, ex-Governor Godwin Obaseki, allegedly duped him of the sum of $300,000 in a bid to secure a second term ticket.
Shaibu also explained why his quarrel with the former governor was necessary, saying that it was between loyalty and his fundamental rights as a person.
He stated that Obaseki failed woefully for his inability to bring his public sector administrative knowledge to bear on governance in Edo State.
Why didn’t you take it up with your principal?
That was why I said I was foolishly loyal.
Why didn’t you because…?
I applied for those things and at a time when he was ready for me to move to the Government House, when I saw the cost that they will use to renovate that house, I said it is better they bring the house down than to use such an amount of money. And if people hear that I am using almost N1 point something billion to renovate a Deputy Governor’s Lodge, how will they feel? I am sensitive to what my constituents will say. So, at that level, I said well, let me stay in my house. Instead, it would have been cheaper to even pay rent in my house than to do that.
How about your official vehicles…?
My official vehicles, I wrote and wrote and wrote, even security reports going to the… There was a time they started breaking down. There was a time in Lagos, I was on an official assignment, the rickety car that I took, broke down in the middle of the Third Mainland Bridge. There was a time the SSG that became Asue’s running mate, two of us were on an official assignment, at the toll gate between the domestic and international airports, as we were paying for toll fee, the vehicle broke down. I had to come out and they pushed the car out. We had to use drop (taxi) to leave there that day. It was that bad. But I am somebody that will not complain about material things because of my activism background. So, I managed all these and if not for the quarrel, nobody will know. I am not a material-driven person. And in any office that I hold, it is not the money that drives me. The passion that I have for the job is what drives me. And I have appetite for work and not just work, anywhere I pass through, I want to strengthen that office to make it viable. People that know me from school will tell you, even as a student union welfare secretary or member of the parliament, Abuja Hostel Parliament, they will tell you, I am project-driven. As a member of the parliament, Abuja Hostel, I caused Julius Berger to come and renovate our hostel. As NANS President, I brought Julius Berger again when they were constructing Bauchi Road, to come and tar from Bauchi Road to the permanent site. I also got Coca Cola to join to put street lights. I got Zenox to come and equip our ICT centre and they donated, I think, 300 and something computers at that time, Zenox, the only indigenous computer company at that time. I got Plateau Riders and Ifesinachi to come and take over obsolete, already abandoned luxurious buses that were meant for students’ transportation and they furnished them and they were back to life and we ran them throughout. So, I have a passion for work and any office that I occupy, you see crowd of people want to come to that office. As a student union member, member of the Abuja Hostel, when I was leaving, almost the entire hostel people wanted to contest for the office. When I became the welfare secretary, in fact, I was almost unopposed until the last day when someone else contested the welfare secretary with me because it was not a position anybody was interested. But when I was leaving, 29 persons contested for welfare secretary. Welfare secretary was the most contested for. Even the president, nobody was looking at the president. Everybody wanted to contest for welfare secretary because of what I made with the office. That is why I believe when some people said the office; it is the person that is in the office that makes the office. For me, I used my skill with my passion, with what I got from the late Bola Ige, that we must get a lot of young men and women that are good into the system and the number one thing we must do is that every institution that we pass through, we must strengthen it; we must not build super men, we must build and make the institution work. Because he said when we are old, we will rely on the institution. That no matter what you steal, it will not last, and you don’t know when God will call you. But when the institution is working, even if it is 100 years or 120 years you stay, the institution will cater for you. And for me, that is my passion for work.
In the beginning, it was believed that you were having a good relationship with Governor Obaseki. So, at what point did you fall out? What caused the quarrel? And why was it difficult to reconcile?
Yes, what caused the quarrel was that I didn’t see leadership – Obaseki did not display leadership. I knew from day one when I started working with him that he lacks public sector administrative knowledge. He lacks it. And when I said I was filling the gap, those were some of the gaps we were filling up when we were with him. If you check the last 19 months when the quarrel started, you would see that they fell like pack of cards. There were gaps because I took advantage of that. And that is why you have a deputy and that was why I told you that I, Philip, was not a spare tyre, that when you need me, you will need to come and pump air. There was always air because I was active. I was always covering up. Can you imagine that the Commissioner for Education and SUBEB Chairman, they don’t talk to each other? So, how will the system work? But the governor does not care. I would have to go and make sure the Commissioner and the SUBEB Chairman, they must work together and they must talk to each other. Some of those works were not works given to me, but because I wanted the system to work, I was blocking those things. I was making those things work. Why we had to quarrel and why that quarrel was necessary was because it was between loyalty and my rights. I had to choose between my rights and loyalty. Loyalty cannot offend my rights, but my rights can offend loyalty. So, it was my right by the constitution to say I can contest for the Governor of Edo State. And if that my right, somebody wants that my right not to be exercised, he must show leadership. He must be able to call me to make me see reason I should not even exercise that right at that time and if I must exercise it, I should even wait for another day. But when you have a leader like Obaseki that would say I have my plan and you are not in my plan, and if you contest it, I will deal with you, and I looked at myself, Obaseki, you that I made governor. You wouldn’t have been governor if I, Philip, and some other persons did not pull our weight behind him. So, if we pulled our weight behind him to be governor – because there was no way Obaseki would have been governor of Edo State because nobody knew him.
Even with Oshiomhole’s support?
Nobody knew him! Nobody knew Obaseki. See, this is a team work. It is a team work. Oshiomhole is the leader, we are the supporters and we are the foot soldiers. So, Oshiomhole also would have had problems with us. It took Oshiomhole time to appeal to our conscience. He lobbied us to accept Obaseki. We also quarrelled with Oshiomhole. I quarrelled with Oshiomhole too on Obaseki’s matter. Oshiomhole would come home and say it is Obaseki; I would come and say it is Oghie. It even led to the suspension of Chief Amego that was our state deputy chairman at that time. And I came and said the governor cannot suspend Amego. I was on the side of Amego, with Comrade as governor at that time. But Oshiomhole didn’t say, who is this little boy that is challenging me that I cannot bring my successor? Oshiomhole took time to work on all of us, lobby all of us. In fact, at a time, I was seen as the bad guy and I had to just find a way to remove my name as the bad guy. I would look left and right, I was alone in the matter. And I was telling them that look, this guy will come and scatter our house. I said it from day one. From day one, I said if Obaseki comes in, he would scatter the house. I said it. Comrade insisted and when my traditional rulers were calling me, my friends were calling me that look, we can’t afford not to support who Comrade is supporting, at that level, some of us then said look, it is like you people are not seeing what I am seeing – this guy will scatter this house. This guy will scatter this house because I hear his utterances, I have studied him, I have seen the kind of person he is, I said he will scatter our house. But nobody heard. And that was why I was very reluctant to be his deputy. That was why that first tension was there, like this guy, I opposed you from day one, he knows. He came and I said he cannot be. Now, I supported him, he is and I am his deputy. So, you will understand why the tension occurred right from day one. But at the end of the day, I told myself, I said if we helped this guy to be governor, I am not like every other deputy governor. Obaseki didn’t make me deputy governor, Obaseki didn’t make me who I am politically. I am different from every other deputy governors in some other states where the governor handpicked. I was not handpicked by Obaseki. No! In fact, I contributed to him being governor in his first and second terms. So, I was not just a deputy governor. I was also a major player. I contributed time, structure, finance, so I was never a parasite. I was bringing my own resources too to the table. It was not like I was being sponsored to be deputy governor. No, no, no! I was matching everything that was asked. In fact, it was my campaign facilities that were the major things we even used for the campaigns. So, I was not just a deputy governor. But I didn’t even show it. I was loyal to a fault. If you didn’t want me to succeed you, there are better ways of doing it – the way Oshiomhole did it, maybe. He would have lobbied us, talked to us, make us see reason. In fact, the easiest thing he would have used to capture me would have been, you see, this zoning. That zoning would have been a tool that he would have used to convince me on why I should not even contest. If he had used that tool, it would have been easier for him to get me not to even contest the election. And I am not somebody that you want to lobby and I will be asking for money. No! No! I am not somebody you lobby with money to accept a situation. No! I am not. Just convince me. When you convince me, leave the rest. And I came from a school of thought where we discuss and superior argument has its way. I am somebody that subject myself to superior argument and that was why I was able to flourish well and do well in the parliament. I subject myself to superior argument and when you are able to convince me, the way I would take this thing out, you will even think I am the one that suggested that because I am a team player. When we agree, everything that we have brought forward for why we needed that thing, I will even add to it as what I will be telling others, to be able to sell to others. So, when he told me that, my activism came up to say ah, ah, how can this guy? Because when he was talking, I remember when they were trying to convince me to support him as governor. That played up immediately. I said ah, ah, is it not the same guy that they were begging us to support to be governor? This same guy that we made governor is now telling me that he is going to deal with me. I said okay, God, this one is another challenge. There is a song that we sing in activism – Another challenge ooo, another challenge ooo. I said this is another challenge, this challenge, I will take it. And this challenge, it is either I win or he is down. It is either I win or this guy will go down. Two things – I win or he goes down. So, if I don’t win, he will go down. If I win, it is even better for him because I am not a wicked person like him. If I had won, I would have overlooked a lot of things. That is me. I am guided by my religion. I am guided. I have conscience. I am not somebody that can hurt somebody. I can fight, but my fight is not to the level of hurting somebody. I can fight with you and the next minute, I am eating on the same table with you. That is me. When it becomes a matter of principle, I don’t compromise principle. So, what really caused the quarrel was my ambition. Nothing more!
How were you able to endure all the humiliation that followed the quarrel? For instance, your office was removed from the Government House to a location not comfortable for you and your staff…?
(Cuts in) And I still managed.
You were barred from attending public functions with the governor…
I managed.
And you alleged that you were starved of funds to run your office, etc. How were you able to endure them?
Yeah, that was where I started noticing… You know a lot of people, because of the perceived closeness, they thought Obaseki and I were the ones running the government in terms of everything, including finance. But it was this quarrel that made people to realise that ah, this guy did not even know what this guy was doing. Because they made it looked like that. There was a time when anything negative… You know Obaseki employed… There is something that this governor has to do quickly. I will remind him. There are about 300 young men and women that we need to look for their addresses and take them for rehabilitation. Obaseki employed these young men, armed them with gadgets – phones and electronic gadgets. Their duty is to be insulting people and run propaganda, lies. That is their duty. They syndicated a story from his SA Media’s office and they sent it to them and they lie and blackmail people. That set of young men, we need to rehabilitate them because he has groomed a set of young men, paid them for close to three years and all they do is to lie and blackmail people. If this interview was on Channels or AIT, when they know you are there, they start abusing you. You will see about 100 or 200 of them inside there, quickly abusing you and when you check the character of what they are saying, you see that they are similar. That was what he was doing. So, each time I am on the platform, there are some questions they throw at me, I will smile. I knew it was the SA Media that has thrown that question and I would smile. Why I smiled was because they knew that I understood that the question was from them. And I would answer the question because I already told them that each time that they ask question, I smile. Any question that comes from them, I smile because I want them to know that I know that this question is from them and I would answer the question because there is no question that you ask me in government that I cannot reply. The only one that I cannot reply is how much was spent on anything – construction, how much was spent, I don’t know. Going by my upbringing, when I work with you, you are the head. I don’t put eye in what you are doing. It is the duty you give me that I am interested in. So, whatever you are doing, it is your headache. If I see that it will affect all of us, I will come and tell you, this thing, this is what the people are saying. I will tell you the way it is. But I will never poke nose into what you are doing. That is me. I will not even probe you. I won’t be checking you. No! Because it is you, it is your office. How you deal with it, if I discover it will be too bad, I will just drop a subtle advice and I move on. But I will not put eye. And that was how I was able to work with Obaseki. But the truth is that the humiliation I went through actually exposed me to the world to show that these guys were not who we thought they were because, how can you go and luck my office? He does not have the power to luck the office of the deputy governor. He does not have the power. It is a constitutional office. And he does not have the power to relocate it. It is a constitutional office. To relocate Government House out of Edo State to another location, you need a legislation, not to talk of relocating the deputy governor’s office. You need legislation, but because he lacked public sector knowledge, he was just acting arbitrarily. He was just like a dictator. And I know how to fight dictators because with fought dictators. We fought Abacha, we fought all of them. Because he made himself a dictator, it was easy for me to fight him because I have the tools on how to deal with dictators. And he is not up to one per cent of the type of dictators that we dealt with. So, that was how I was able to follow him. I was ahead of him in everything that he was doing. I knew he was going to impeach me because the day I took the challenge that I was going ahead to contest the election, that you cannot tell me not to contest an election that is my right. If it was a privilege, it is a different thing. This is not like the office that you went and with executive fiat, you said you were relocating which you don’t have the power. This is not my overhead that you stopped; this is not my salary that you have stopped, this is not the assignment that you gave me that you have withdrawn. This one is my right by the constitution and if I must not exercise this right, you must be civil. You must have respect. That you are a governor does not… We are one. The office is one. The office of governor is one and the office of governor is governor and his deputy. Without governor, there is no deputy and without deputy, there is no governor. But I was civil because I needed to respect the sanctity of the office of the governor. I needed to also make him realise that I am respecting that office and he too, should respect my office. The office is not Philip Shaibu, it is the Office of the Deputy Governor of Edo State. So, if you rubbish it, you are rubbishing the Deputy Governor of Edo State’s Office, not Philip Shaibu. Philip Shaibu is not the Deputy Governor of Edo State. Obaseki is not the Governor of Edo State. He is only acting for that period as the governor. The office is there, permanent. He didn’t know the difference between Philip Shaibu and the office. He could not separate the office from me. So, that was where the whole thing started from. I survived. Do you know why I survived? Why I survived was that I did not depend on government to finance my activities. Bendel Insurance that everybody was clapping, Insurance is back, Edo Queen is back, do you know how much Obaseki was releasing for Bendel Insurance monthly? N20 million, N80 million in a year. Every other month, we got N20 million for Bendel Insurance, N80 million. Go and check the books, N80 million. Then the year we did very well, he increased it to, I think, N150 million. From that N150 million, we were getting N20 million in a month. Bendel Insurance. How much is the salary of Bendel Insurance? How much is the jersey? We got to a level where we were flying the players to go and play matches. They were receiving subvention of N20 million from Obaseki. Edo Queen were receiving N15 million subvention from Obaseki. But Bendel Insurance jersey is Tri Fit jersey with the same quality of that of Man-U…
That is expensive…
Yes. Tri Fit jersey is what Bendel Insurance was using. We signed a contract with 14 Africa. How did I make it work? Because what I expected him to bring into governance, his private sector knowledge, which he could not bring, was what I brought into sports. I brought private sector into it. The coastal buses that Bendel Insurance and Edo Queen are using were purchased from sponsorship, not by state government. If you ask Obaseki how those two buses came, he doesn’t know. They were not from state government. A subvention of N20 million that was not sufficient for Bendel Insurance, can it buy a bus? We waited for two years for him to buy bus, he couldn’t. So, I had to raise money to buy the buses. I bought buses for Bendel Insurance and Edo Queen. How? Through jersey sales and through working on sponsors; we were able to get Sterling Bank to join us, we were able to get Peculiar to join us and we started getting some of the big shots to buy our jerseys for sponsorship. I, for instance, my jersey is N500,000; the governor wants a jersey for himself, N1 million and some of our big men too. But the cost of each jersey, because of the partnership, was for N13,000. So, we were able to create a new economy for Bendel Insurance to be able to run Bendel Insurance. To fly Bendel Insurance the first year that we were flying Bendel Insurance, to and fro was about N35 million. Then two years after, it was N46 million and you give us N20 million in a month. And sometimes, these players, we fly them for two or three matches in a month. So, we were spending close to N80 million, N90 million in a month to fly the players. Flying alone! People won’t understand. Because of my loyalty, I was not blowing my trumpet because I saw it as Obaseki-led government which was the way it was. So, everything I was doing, I credited it to Obaseki which was how it was supposed to be. But the details were never out in the media because they were not meant to celebrate me. They were meant to celebrate his government. And for me, that is the hallmark of loyalty which he couldn’t pay back.
There was something at the time when you and Obaseki were going to the PDP. The story flying around then was that Obaseki was the one who was even begging PDP to bring you in as his deputy. Can you just shed light on that?
Actually, when the issue of moving to PDP came and when there was this question about what will the PDP get, if we are given governor, why they should take deputy, for me at that time, I told him if deputy will be the issue, let it go. Let them bring deputy and you go. In so far as they give you the ticket, go ahead. I sacrificed it.
Even after he had treated you that way?
For me, I was not in government for self-aggrandisement. I am a team player. Anything that will make the team function, any team that I belong; I can sacrifice everything to keep that team working. That is how I was brought up. Anything that I am in, for the benefit of the team, I am ready to make sacrifice to make the team functional. For me, it was not about me, it was about our team and he was the leader. For me, give him the ticket, we will follow. Even if I didn’t get it, I was ready to give it. Ask the people that were in our team. Some of them said ah, Oga, why you go talk like that? I said no, let them give him the ticket. If they give him the ticket, fine. So, it was not about whether he begged for me for deputy. No, it was about me saying I am ready to even sacrifice it in so far as they give him the ticket. And I said it to many of the leaders. I said, let him take. I contributed money. I contributed $300,000. He collected $300,000 from me to say he was going to add to $700,000 to go and lobby them in Port Harcourt. But we later found out from the zonal PDP Chairman that he never gave them any money. So, he even duped me (general laughter). And it took me like seven months to be able to pay back that money where I collected it from. I was paying instalmentally to be able to pay that money. That was why I had to raise alarm because I was paying for money that they said was not used. And this money was not returned back. Till today, he didn’t return the money back. You can ask Chief Dan Orbih and Ogbeide-Ihama. I am calling names now.
And in the end, you even got impeached…?
That is what I am saying. That is the wickedness. Each time I say Obaseki is wicked, people don’t understand. You cannot imagine somebody that went through that for this man, and this man will pay back that way. That is an act of wickedness.
That is what I am saying. At the end, you got impeached and you were returned as deputy governor. You saw it coming because from what you have been telling us…
(Cuts in) Yes, I was ahead of him.
Why didn’t you move to avert it?
I started. When I saw the impeachment coming, I went to court. Don’t forget I went to court to stop it.
That is legal. We are talking politically now…
No, no, no. I was ready for the battle. I was ready for fight and I knew that the battle will get to a level that he would want to activate a tool for impeachment as a carrot. I saw it as a carrot for me to step down. He actually sponsored people to tell me that if I stop contesting, they can find a way to withdraw the impeachment. And even when they did it, they were still using people to tell me look, if you support Asue, we can find a way to reorganise things and you are reinstated. So, they were using their tool to send people to me to tell me, it is just a tool, if I accept. I am not somebody that you threaten. You don’t threaten me to get the best of me oooo! If you want to get the best of my strength, attempt to fight me. But I can be like a woman when you just sit with me and discuss. Just have a discussion with me. Convince me. I am easy to convince. If you are able to convince me, sorry I am using this word, I will fall like a woman. But I will not if you threaten.
So, in the midst of all that, the governor did not reach out to you personally?
He never did. He never did. He was threatening, he was sending people to… He was threatening me. All the way, he was threatening me. All the way! He was sending people with threats and when I refused, he first took me out of the office, he withdrew everything, he attempted to withdraw my security which he didn’t have the power, I had to come to the IG to say look, I don’t want Government House police again, give me direct police because it is the duty of the IG to provide my security as deputy governor, not him. So, he didn’t understand. When I say he lacks public sector knowledge, people don’t understand. He didn’t know he doesn’t have the power to withdraw my police. He didn’t know because he didn’t have the knowledge. But I that have the knowledge, when I saw it coming, when he said he withdrew police, I said look at this character, he does not have the power to withdraw my police. It is only the IG. Going by the constitution, the IG is to provide security for the governor, deputy governor, president and… So, I went to the IG and I said look, I don’t want Government House security. I want direct posting and they gave me my direct posting in line with the office, not as Philip Shaibu. In line with the office because it is the duty of the police and the Director of DSS to provide security to the president, vice president, governor, deputy governor, senate president, speaker, all of them. It is constitutional; it is not Philip Shaibu they are giving. It is the office. So, that was what happened
This story is one story that people will be saying, are you sure? When I tell my story, people that are close, because I have die-hard people that are still with me, they will tell you they are ready, some of them even lost their jobs, they didn’t care because they knew what we went through in the office. So, I am clean to the extent that if you open the books of Edo State financially, you won’t see my name. But like I told Obaseki when we went to PDP meeting, I told them there that if Obaseki and I go to the EFCC, if I spend one hour in EFCC, it is because maybe there is administrative things that I need to do. I will leave him there and come back because he converted his public sector knowledge into duping and stealing Edo State money. He was transacting with everything, even transacting with the lives of people. That is why I don’t have problem with Asue as a person. I have problem with their attitude, transactional attitude. And I saw Asue as another Obaseki and I even see Asue worse than Obaseki. It is all transaction. And we don’t need transactional people again in Edo State because if he brings another transactional person like Obaseki in Edo, we are doomed for life.
Were you shocked that it was your ally that was used to replace you as deputy governor?
No, no! He was not my ally, he was my boy. He was not my ally, he was my boy in terms of the context of boy and he was the one servicing my wife’s filling station pump. He was one of the technicians that were coming to service my wife’s gas station pump. So, that is to tell you how he reduced the office of the Deputy Governor. And that is what I was fighting, he cannot. I am happy that I was able to fight him to a standstill.
But you brought the young man into politics because we learnt that during the last election, he helped you to win some seats…?
(Cuts in) No, no, no. He has never helped me. Instead, I am the one that have helped him. Yeah, he has never helped me for any politics. He has never been part of my kitchen cabinet.
And he was in Labour Party when he was made deputy governor…
He is still a Labour Party person.
So, how did that happen?
That is PDP for you. That is how PDP operates. That is why PDP has become a Hammer House of Horror.
Does it mean he was already relating with the governor at that time even while in Labour Party?
You see, when Obaseki knows that he can dangle carrot around you and can buy you with money, he makes you a target. That is how satan works.
What I am asking is, how did the governor know him?
I don’t have the details of how they came about him because it was three days to the time that I knew he was the one that they were going to give. On the eve of the impeachment, I got all the information that he was going to be the deputy governor. While somebody else was dressed to be sworn-in in the morning, but he didn’t know he was… I told my ally that they will do the impeachment tomorrow and this guy will be the deputy governor. He said no, it is the other guy. I said no, it is not him, Paschal. They said it was Paschal, I said no, it is not Paschal. It is Marvellous. They said which Marvellous? They were shocked. I said so, so Marvellous. They said that boy that you gave N5 million to Ken Mozia to represent, I said yes. That guy that is fixing your wife’s pump? I said yes. They said it is not true. That morning, they saw it was true and they started asking me, how far? I said don’t worry, I have my sources. So, I was ahead of Obaseki in everything that he was doing.
The House of Assembly, didn’t you have loyalists there who could have fought for you from within?
You see, Obaseki was clever. Those PDP lawmakers that are there today, God used me to make them to get the tickets. There was a fight. I was the one that spent my money and my time to assist them. As we speak, we are still owing one of the major lawyers that helped us to prosecute the case that made them candidates of the party. The Speaker was my colleague in 2007. He was completely down and God used me to bring him back. I started by lobbying for him to become Chief of Staff to Rt. Hon. Okiye when Okiye was Speaker. Because it was difficult for him. I couldn’t sustain him again. I had to get him the job from the Speaker. The Speaker then accepted and made him Chief of Staff. When Okiye was removed, one of the agreements we had with Marcus was okay, no problem, since we have agreed that Okiye was not impeached, he is resigning, you as Speaker, please keep Blessing as your Chief of Staff. And the then Speaker said, Oga, don’t worry. He kept Blessing again as the Chief of Staff. When election came, I bought the form. The first two million that this guy held to go and tell his people that he wanted to contest election, I gave it to him. I bought his form, his nomination form to contest for this election. I bought the form. And why did I buy that form? The previous election, we told him to step down. I mediated to say he should step down for one of my other friend, Ezomo. And we made him to even be the one to go and… We gave him the money to purchase the form for Mike Ezomo. So, when it was that time, we said no, let’s naturally give him. I funded his election. I gave him my truck, I bought Sienna, and we campaigned for him. On the eve of the election, I knew how much that parted from my pocket when he needed serious help. So, human beings, that is why I always tell people, hold on to God, and don’t hold on to human beings. I don’t begrudge him, that is him. If I see him, if I can still help him tomorrow, I will do because I already know his character. I know that is who he is. So, it doesn’t change anything. For him, maybe he is playing politics. But for me, that is not politics. Nonetheless, they impeached me and within 70 days, I came back within that same period. For me, when God wants to elevate you, He uses certain occasions to make it work. You are talking about members of the Edo State House of Assembly that I assisted. Only one was left. Only one from the beginning did not sign my impeachment and he was suspended, Hon. Donald Okogbe. He was suspended for not supporting. And when the final signing came, three abstained – the one representing Etsako West Constituency 1, Donald and one other person. Three of them didn’t sign. But it is not about their signing. My impeachment, I then saw it beyond the House of Assembly. A lot of people then saw it as some that were envious, some that felt that I did something to them, it was time for them to pay back. So, it was a conspiracy of the top. It became a conspiracy of the top because the House of Assembly was controlled by people. The top met and said he must go. But they didn’t know that when they were doing that conspiracy of the top, God was just looking at them laughing. He said, remove him and I will bring him back. And they did it and today, I have set a new jurisprudence as far as the legal system is concerned. As far as impeachment is concerned today, Philip Shaibu is a new legal jurisprudent. So, for me, I have made a name again. They wanted to destroy the name, but I have made the name somewhere else and my popularity is growing everyday. At the moment, I cannot go to the public space without selfies everywhere.
Let’s take you back to the first term. Some members of the House of Assembly were shut out till the duration of that Assembly. What actually happened? And why was it that political solution could not make it work?
That thing was also the conspiracy of the top. It is one story that I will tell in my book. And when I tell that story in my book, people will be shocked. It was conspiracy of the top. Some blamed it on Obaseki, some blamed it on me, some blamed it on…, but I will tell you it was not just about Obaseki. Obaseki is not my friend, anything that will bring him down, I should join it now. But there are certain things that I will not do because we are quarrelling; I will just say it negatively about him. No. That House of Assembly thing was conspiracy of the top. So, the grass that suffered was those 14. The grass was the 14 members. It was conspiracy on both sides.
Your Excellency, you keep saying conspiracy of the top. Are they at the state or the federal level?
All the players were at the state, all the conspirators are all players at the top in the state, all of them.
Why are you afraid to mention them?
Ah! My wife has warned me that look, you are giving us too much headache. She told me that now, I can watch you on TV and you won’t give me heart attack. She said that last week. So, that means for a long time, she was not watching me on TV when I am having interview. She said each time I am on TV, she would be saying my husband would say something… Because I say it the way it is. I just say it the way it is.
Do you want to be like Babangida who waited for 32 years?
No, no, no. I won’t let it get to 32 years.
How soon are we expecting the book?
Very, very soon! That book is important. Why I need to write that book is that it will help the younger guys coming up. It will help them a lot and it will reveal a lot of misinformation out there too. It is going to be a book that is full of laughter, full of sorrow, full of life experience that is uncommon in our present day Nigeria. There is a lot of misinformation and misconception that book will correct and everything about that book will be real. Nobody will embellish anything. Everything that happened will be captured like that because it is going to help a lot of young people. Do you know why? Because we are searching for mentorship, we are searching for role models and until we get those role models, Nigeria will be where it is. We need to change the mentality and the attitude of our younger ones. Let them not pick our attitude in governance. If they don’t pick our attitude in governance and reshape their own, Nigeria is a good place to play politics and be able to transform fast. We can transform Nigeria with speed of light. But there are too many things. We have to first purge ourselves and make ourselves real. There are too many artificial people roving around. So, we must come real and when we come real and we bind ourselves, things will work.
How will you assess Governor Monday Okpebholo’s 100 days in office? And are there things that Obaseki didn’t do or neglected to do that Governor Okpebholo should correct?
He is already correcting one.
Which is?
His relationship with the Federal Government. His relationship with the Federal Government was not good at all. So, that didn’t make us to enjoy the benefit of the Federal Government in Edo State, especially in road infrastructure where we had to spend tax payers money erecting gigantic billboard to say bear with us, this is federal road. There was no relationship. Okpebholo is correcting that and we are seeing the benefit. Education – Education was very cosmetic. We were having cosmetic education. We were just centred in few areas. We were not able to spread and we made too much noise about EdoBest. Good policy! Don’t get me wrong. EdoBest policy, very good, but very expensive and at the same time, we did not spread. And he got carried away with too many seminars. Every day, seminar, no implementation. So, we spent the entire eight years doing seminars. There were more seminars than governance. That, I don’t want Governor Okpebholo to toll that path because the problem of Nigeria and the problem of Edo State is not that there are no policies and documents, the problem is that each time we do these policies, we keep them under the table. We are not able to implement. So, implementation is just the key. Okpebholo should just come and be implementing. There are a lot of documents that are there. We don’t need too many seminars again. Okpebholo should not continue with that seminar attitude Obaseki did. He talked about reform. Modern ways of doing things. Modern ways of doing things can be quarterly and it can be bi-annual seminar. He can do bi-annual seminar, bi-annual conferences to teach civil servants on modern way of doing things. But when every week, every week there is seminar, the workers were no longer in the office. Seminar, seminar, seminar! And all these seminars, no one is implemented. The other one is, Okpebholo should not behave like Obaseki where you have quarrel with one of your staff and you forget that the office and the person is a different thing. He should not take that. Obaseki did not know the difference between the office and the person. Why I like him is that he is a natural person. He is not a packaged person. He is natural. So, such a natural person will not fall into those kinds of things. I don’t even need to advise him on that. He will be good.
The other one is security. Security is one of Okpebholo’s five-point agenda. He should try and make that thing work, in conjunction with the traditional institution. If we involve them in our security architecture, I did it as an acting governor and I transformed the security overnight. The Edo Security Network that you later heard was all my idea and in one month, in fact, in 23 days, I chased out all the bandits from our bush. This thing I am saying, ask any Edo person. Train station hijack happened in Kaduna at that same period. Till today, we are still looking for the people. The Igueben train station hijack, I gave one week. I relocated Government House to Igueben. When I mean relocating Government House to Igueben, it is what we used to do as NANS president. When we relocate NANS secretariat, the secretariat is the president and the secretary. So, when we want to deal with any institution, you hear that NANS has relocated its secretariat to that institution. Until we achieve our aim, we are not leaving that institution. It was that same method that I used to get all those kidnapped victims out. Only one person was hurt and we even saw other people that were kidnapped that were not part of the train station hijack. And we were able to arrest 19 of the bandits, with four not alive as at the time they came out. Those four, according to the military, was as a result of exchange of fire. They injured one soldier and they killed four of them. But 19 came out from the bush alive and we were able to rescue over 96 persons. So, practical governance is possible. If you are real, it is possible. It is not a rocket science. Governance is not a rocket science. If you devote your time and you want to achieve good governance, you can achieve it. Let nobody deceive anybody. We can achieve good governance if we are all tuned to it. Let us forget about unnecessary luxury and let’s also ignore this attitude of I want to build estate for children yet unborn. These children don’t need it. What they need is education. So, if we are able to focus on ourselves and the education of our children, not focusing on building estate for children yet unborn, Nigeria will be a better place.
(The Sun)
