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| How Oshiomhole’s one-man one-vote demystified Anenih |
 With the reverberating echo of the victory by the ruling Action Congress (AC) in Etsako Central constituency into the Edo State House of Assembly re-run election held on Saturday January 23, the political firmament in the state has started flowing with ominous interpretations.
The historic contest, though, was held in a single local government out of the 18 councils of the state. Four political parties took part in the contest. They are the ruling Action Congress (AC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) respectively. The outcome of the exercise no doubt was challenging, instructive and revealing in all ramifications.
According to the results of the election rolled out by the electoral officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) , Mr. Glenn Ugomadu, amid tight security, heightened expectation and anxiety, the AC candidate, Mr. Johnson Oghuma, defeated his opponents to be declared winner in the race. With a pin drop silence except for the repeated and uncontrollable beeps of GSM calls from anxious callers who wanted to know the outcome of the election, the declaration by Mr. Ugomadu showed that AC won in eight wards of the 10 wards in the agrarian council while the opposition PDP came behind in two wards. The results showed that AC led in wards one, two, three, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten with 624, 915, 498, 1024, 743, 2076, 566 and 497 votes. The PDP had 443, 466, 326, 291, 75, 402, 242 and 268 votes. From the available record, the ruling party’s candidate Johnson Oghuma polled a total of 7, 884 votes to outshine his PDP opponent Mr. Chris Umogbai who scored a total of 3, 712 votes. The two wards won by the PDP were the wards four and five with 762 and 336 votes respectively. The candidates of the ANPP and the DPP also polled one and six votes respectively out of the 13, 337 total number of votes cast by voters. The commission disclosed that total number of registered voters stood at about 29, 971 in the area. Also out of the entire votes, about 2, 146 votes were voided. The INEC staff, declared therefore that “in my capacity as the constituency returning officer in Etsako Central local government, I, Glenn Ugomadu hereby certify that I was the returning officer of the re-run election held in Etsako Central constituency”…and that Johnson Oghuma is hereby declared the winner of the election signed this day”
The rest today is history. However one thing stands sure that the election marked the end of the over one month and few weeks of scathing fire of brinkmanship, propaganda and power show ignited by the forces within the ruling AC and those of the major opposition PDP in the state. Both sides have engaged each other in a battle of wits that left no one in doubt that caution was thrown to the wind between the Governor Adams Oshiomhole and the former Chairman, Board of trustees of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih and their foot soldiers. The gridlock centres on the ownership and control of the political Heart Beat of the nation.
While Anenih considered the sitting governor a political neophyte, he was short of the knowledge that Oshiomhole’s name is synonymous with politics and his character irreversibly consistent with struggle and war that has never been lost. Testimonies of Oshiomhole’s influence on matters of getting things right abound during military jack boots and civilian political dominance and insensitivity to the plight of Nigerian workers and sensitive petroleum issues. Analysts believe that far from the paranoid of hatred on Oshiomhole for puncturing the PDP dream at the Appeal Court in the members unfettered will to continue in their tight hold onto power, the opposition took it far to have downplayed and equally belittled the unbent cruise of the former labour leader and Etsako born politician when he thinks it necessary to descend on an unrepentant obstruction that stands on the way of the people. ‘The Peoples Governor’ for 21 months passed through an excruciating pain of a long wait in the law courts, denials and psychological trauma in his desire to regain his lost mandate for peoples will to prevail.
When he finally got through judicial affirmation, the opposition never realised that the game was up. No wonder then the man of many wars vowed to make the PDP and its members secure more crying buckets of tears when he starts to visit them with political horse whips from the AC stroke desk. Part of that onslaught began in 2009 when tasted defeat considered costly at the battle of Akoko Edo moments the appellate court sacked Mr. Anselm Agabi of the PDP and ordered for a re-run, the outcome that saw Alhaji Kabiru Ajoto merging victorious at the end. The leadership and member of PDP swallowed the pill of that defeat with much regrets of miscalculation and self inflicted injuries from the personality clash occasioned by greed and dictatorship as well as the split of the party into two factions.
While the caustic verbal and titanic war progressed with the approach of the Etsako Central House of Assembly rerun polls, Messrs Chris Umogbai of the PDP and AC’s Johnson Oghuma became the attraction of all. Towards the build-up to the election and feverish campaigns held separately by both the PDP and AC at Usagbe primary School, Fugar, and other leaders of his party including the immediate past governor Osunbor, speaker Zakawanu Garuba, Chief Mike Ogiadomhe had vowed to stop Oshiomhole from office as governor for failure to deliver dividends of democracy as promised the people after over 18 months on the saddle except according to them the sole planting of flowers in the capital city.Oshiomhole said: “It is on record that Chief Anenih’s
party, the PDP, was in power in Edo state for 10 years and the good people of Edo state knew the rot they left behind. They could not even plant the flowers that Anenih is bellyaching over in the whole of these ten years.” He added “Chief Anenih was the Minister of Works and despite the billions of naira allocated to that Ministry under his watch, he could not fix the Benin – Ore expressway nor extend the dualisation of the Abuja-Okene road to the state.”
Oshiomholwe did not also spare his predecessor Professor Osunbor when he said: “It was also rather amusing listening to the musings of Professor Oserhieme Osunbor who was ousted for savouring a rigged election. Osunbor has no moral right to sermonise on issues of governance after being a chief beneficiary of a rigged election.”
Anenih though cannot be dismissed with a wave of hand for towering political influence coupled with his relationship with the Nigeria police force where he belongs as a retiree but his versed knowledge in political intrigues did not save the full test for power and might, between resources and influence, contact, reach and courage as well as dexterity. The Esan-born high chief and politician as a no non sense man who hardly allows himself to be spat, a development opinions say is the bitter pill he got from the AC government few months back in the wake of the uncontrollable altercations between him and Oshiomhole and their army of loyalists in the state, was said to be miffed by the outcome of the polls.
Sources close to the PDP secretariat in the state said Anenih was totally devastated and disappointed with the party leadership over soft manner it handled the polls despite considering his efforts at providing the needed logistics to prosecute the election. Among the schemes adopted by the opposition party was the withdrawal of the JTF men and their replacement with strong detachment of mobile policemen from various states of the country. The Delta state government was alleged to have offered financial muscle to the state PDP to ensure it came up strong in the election but it got the process wrong. It was gathered that some top shots of the opposition who perfected plans to rig the process had thumb printed and stockpiled several ballot boxes in wait to move them to INEC but were shocked that security men did not blink their eyes as they kept alert for any fuss to deal with perpetrators.
The stalwarts were said to have dosed themselves with assorted foreign juice, champagne and wine with relaxed merriment that all was well in one of the party leader’s house in the council not knowing that the game was up for them. Chief Anenih was said to be furious about the party’s crash at the polls. The matter was made worse when he learnt that the state leadership of the PDP accepted the outcome of the elction in a press statement issued by the state chairman of the party Chief Dan Orbih. According to Orbih “Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has accepted the results in the just concluded Etsako Central House of Assembly rerun in spite of the widespread electoral malpractices which were perpetrated by Governor Oshiomhole, his battalion of thugs and litany of Edo state government officials as they paraded the polling centres, intimidating and inducing the electorate to influence votes for the Action Congress.”
He added: “The party is of the opinion that the election has come and gone and we must move forward and save the state and our party faithful the agony of an acrimonious reaction to the brutish manner in which Oshiomhole breached established electoral protocol and intimidated our communities in Etsako Central during the election”.
Anenih was said to have raged with fire and brimstone and threatened to sack the party leadership for the obvious failure in its first state assignment that took place in a single council area where the chairman hails from. The matter had forced the party’s leadership to immediately reverse itself at a press conference held last Monday at its secretariat on Ikpoba slope in Benin where Orbih described the rerun election result as “a sham.”
He faulted the media reports that Oshiomhole praised the police for doing a thorough job during the election.
His words: “The fact that almost all the newspapers carried the news of Oshiomhole’s praise for the Nigerian police for allowing a purported free and fair election is a pointer to the fact that he received their full support for the act of mayhem which his men unleashed on our supporters during the election. This was in contrast to Oshiomhole’s verbal attack on the police before the election when he accused the PDP and its leaders in Edo state of planning to use police to rig the re-run election”
With the development, the state House of Assembly will now be a scene of exciting debate and intrigues when the 12 PDP members meet eyeball to eyeball with their 12 AC colleagues. There are strong indications that some PDP legislators who are not comfortable with the overtures in the party are set to dump their loyalty and join the AC. The seat of the soft spoken Speaker, Garuba, who has since 2007 been the pride of all as a trail blazer in lawmaking processes and mature handling of the sensitive issues of the House, no doubt, is in strong contention. The PDP leadership during the Uromi meeting hosted by Anenih in November 2008 had insisted that Speakership slot to the North zone remained unchanged and irreversible. But the slot now is expected to shift to either Edo South or the Central senatorial district. Oshiomhole is from the North zone while his deputy, Dr. Pius Odubu, is from the South senatorial zone.
Apart from the success story of the Oshiomhole’s one- man one -vote strategy, the activities of independent monitoring groups, which were spearheaded by the civil society bodies in the state remain unequalled. |
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