Dr Asue Ighodalo: The Collateral Victim in the Edo 2024 Governorship Election

By Ernest Omoarelojie

On Sunday, September 21, 2024, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, announced the outcome of the Edo Governorship Election. It named the candidate of the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, Sen Monday Okpebholo, also known as Akpakomiza, as the winner. It was against the widely held view by members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, whose candidate, Dr Asuerinmhen Ighodalo, came second.

Without any doubt, the outcome has left a bitter bile in the gullet of both the announced loser and leaders of his ruling party, including the state governor, Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki. However, if truth must be told, the outcome owes so much to the combative, disdainful, pugnacious and all-knowing disposition of the governor, the same that saw him pitched in needless battles and eventual fall-out with everyone that matters, including chieftains of the party, old and new.

In the end, the election did not just become a referendum on the governor, it snowballed into making Dr Ighodalo an unfortunate victim.

A good General, they say, choses his battles and is never disposed to fighting every war. For whatever reason however, the import of the axiom did not quite register with the governor given the manner he jumped into every fray, beginning with the celebrated one he had with his predecessor, Sen Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, which ultimately led to his ouster from the APC, the party on whose crest he rode to power.

Thus excused from the APC, the governor found his way to the then opposition PDP where he was readily welcomed with open arms. Among others, he quickly found favour with then Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike, who wanted to add one more governor into PDP's South-South Governor's stock. In gratitude, he wasted no time in opening his state's oil-rich vault and war chest for the prosecution of the second term bid of the governor which he won convincingly.

But no sooner had Obaseki settled down for his second term in his new party than he picked up his temporarily laid down fighting gears. This time, it was a no hold barred contention with leaders of the party in the state, including the National Vice President, South South, Chief Dan Orbih. The outcome caused major disaffection within both the leadership and the entire party structure, one that had the party structure torn down the middle. In no small measure, the war snowballed into a more expanded conflagration that that took a national verve, quickly sucking in his major external benefactor, Wike.

Several other wars between, the governor also decided to take on his erstwhile strong ally and deputy governor, Philip Shaibu, over the latter’s decision to run for the governorship position in the just concluded Edo 2024 governorship election. But the governor insisted he was not welcomed in the race. In the end, the latter was impeached although the sack was later reversed by a court decision, one in which an appeal is pending.

However, while Shaibu has since returned to the APC fold, the party from which he decamped to the PDP, alongside the governor, Wike announced that he had decided to apologize to Sen Oshiomhole having confirmed that betrayal runs in the blood of the state governor and that truth was a scarce commodity with the governor.

Beyond the Wike and Shaibu rebirth, observers are united in the belief that the trouble in Edo PDP begins and ends with the the governor. It therefore goes without saying that whoever he identified as his successor, capable or otherwise, would not only inherited his sins, he would also become a victim of accumulated quest fir vengeance, even by proxy. Certainly, the election would be nothing but a referendum on the governor, any which way, hence there is hardy any debate over why Dr Ighodalo became a collateral victim. However, the reasons are not far to seek.

One of the fallouts of the Governor's unnecessary battles is that his enemies were in agreement to obtain a pound of flesh, blood dripping, from the governor’s armory during the election. Aware that he would want a chosen successor to take over from him, they made a counter plant to deliver cold proxy vengeance. It didn't matter who as long as it dealt a blow on his acclaimed huge ego. That way, it was hardly a surprise that Sen Oshiomhole, Wike, Orbih, Shaibu and a host of his other foes too numerous to mention, all found a common ground in unleashing a collective vengeance on an equally collective and formidable foe. The message was well delivered despite accusation and counter rigging accusation, in several quarters.

Ab initio, the governor’s face-off with his predecessor simply made it impossible for him or his party to have any electoral foothold or headway in Edo North Senatorial District. Sen Oshiomhole made sure of that. With Orbih and Shaibu and other erstwhile PDP members teaming up with the former governor, the chances of the party making any headway in the district went with the wind.

The scenario was no different in Edo South, comprising mainland Benin City and immediate environs. In addition to the faceoff he had with party chieftains, including Sen Matthew Urhoghide, who became APC’s Director of Campaign, the governor expanded his war mongering side to his relationship with the revered Bini monarch, Omo N’Oba N’Edo. Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II. The immediate cause is said to be the dispute over who, between the state and royal Bini Palace, should take ownership of the royal artifacts stolen from the royal palace during the famous 1879 or so Bini invasion.

In defiance of pleas from the palace that they be returned to where they rightly and originally belonged, the governor insisted on creating a state-own but consultancy-run museum for the purpose. The underground but very serious supremacy face-off between the Royal Palace and Osadebey Avenue was so bitter that the governor allegedly withheld the monarch’s allowances for half a year under the pretext of conducting an audit on the accounts of the royal palace. But as far as the average Bini person is concerned, any perceived disrespect on the Oba is not only an insult on the Bini royal institution personified by the Oba himself, it is also a collective insult on all genuine indigene of the ancient kingdom. As it is wont, the insulted was not one to be overlooked. However, the governorship election was chosen as the right place and time to deliver the message to him.

Sadly so, the governor’s frosty relationship with the Royal Palace, interpreted by many as a mark of his disdain for the Bini monarchy, was taken to a new level when he led the creme of his party's national leadership of the party to the residence of the Esama of Benin, chief Gabriel Nosawaru Igbinedion, on a courtesy visit, deliberately ignoring the Oba. It was the height of his deliberate disrespect on the monarch, one that was taken by the Binis as the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

Once agsin, the governorship election was chosen as the surest venue to deliver the message of disapproval. Thus, it was not a surprise that the governor and his party lost the ballot in Oredo Local Government Area, the hitherto heartbeat of the party in Edo South. Rather than the lack of quality or inappropriateness of the party's governorship candidate, the reason for the victory of the APC in the district is attributable to the needless combative attitude of the governor who is reputed to see nothing good with the views of anyone else except his and those of aides and cronies who readily concur with whatever he decides.

In other words, the 2024 Edo governorship election in Edo South was a referendum on the governor himself rather than the quality of the flag bearer of the governor’s party, which was not in any doubt. The assumption, rightly or otherwise, that the election was rigged, is very immaterial because it is pointless denying both the claim and the fact that all the parties, including the ones crying wolf, were deeply involved innit. It would be expedient to conclude that the biggest rigger won, if that is permitted.

The other side of the rigging factor is that the governor and chieftains of his party entrusted the funds for the purpose to selfish party front men who decided to keep a chunk of the fund to themselves, believing that the election would follow the same trajectory of the 2020 governorship election where the governor had a smooth sale. How wrong they were.

In one instance, one of the conduits told offshore voters, mobilized from outside the state, 24 hours to the election, that monies meant for their welfare were no longer available because events had overtaken the purpose, whatever it was. Out of anger, majority of them delivered a protest vote, further accentuating the fact that Dr Asue Ighodalo was an unfortunate collateral damage or victim in the election that would have easily gone his way. Give or take, it is likely that those the PDP and the governorship candidate will be taking to court will present the same rigging evidence they will be banking on.