INSTEAD of wailing about his disqualification from the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election, Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki needs to look in the mirror.
He will see that the things he said about the party’s screening process, after his dramatic disqualification, ironically describe his own governance style.
Talking of democracy and democratic process, Obaseki conveniently forgot his spectacularly undemocratic role in the sidelining of members-elect of the Edo State House of Assembly who were not in his camp, and were loyal to Oshiomhole, also a former governor of the state and his political benefactor with whom he had parted ways.
After a deliberate delay, he eventually transmitted a letter of proclamation to the clerk of the house, which was necessary for the inauguration of the legislature. However, only 9 of the 24 members-elect, loyal to Obaseki, were first inaugurated, then 2 others, in June last year, in questionable circumstances.
With the deliberate exclusion of the others, who were not inaugurated, Obaseki’s loyalists took control of the legislature. What could be more undemocratic than such weakening of a critical arm of government?
It is noteworthy that the political crisis in the state worsened in December 2019 when the House of Assembly declared vacant the seats of 12 lawmakers-elect yet to be inaugurated.
Why did Obaseki wait till the approach of the governorship primary election, scheduled for June 22, and the party’s decision to conduct a direct primary election, which he was opposed to, before trying to normalise the anomalous situation he had helped to bring about in the state legislature?
Obaseki’s wailing after his disqualification shows that he has not been looking in the mirror. It may well be that he reaped what he sowed.
(The Nation Hardball)
