The National Chairman of the All
Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has accused Governor
Godwin Obaseki and his deputy, Phillip Shuaibu of unleashing mayhem on members
of the party in Edo State.
Oshiomhole also alleged that
Obaseki and Shuaibu do not have a political base in their locality, describing
the two who claimed to have learnt from him as poor students.
Oshiomhole said as a sign that
the duo lack grassroots support, they both lost their polling units during the
last Presidential election, adding that at the moment, the governor is being
represented by a PDP Senator and House of Representative member at the federal
level.
A statement made available to
journalists on Sunday by the Chief Press Secretary to Oshiomhole, Simon
Egbuebulem, said that Obaseki refused all entreaties to build on the gains of
the party by allowing peace to reign, but rather threatens to crush those who
brought him into office.
The former labour leader said he
never taught the Governor and his deputy to lose election or how to unleash
violence on the people and threatening to crush them.
The statement added, “I have read
them on several occasions saying that I taught them all they are doing today.
This is laughable because I never thought them how to lose elections.
“As we speak today, the governor
(Obaseki) lost his ward, Local Government and senatorial district during the
last Presidential election. As we speak, the governor is being represented by
the PDP in his Federal constituency and senatorial district.
“These in my view were early
morning signals about the need to change tactics, stop threatening people and
saying you will crush them. Who are you crushing?
“But I won my entire senatorial
district for Mr President and I am being represented by an APC senator and
House of Representatives member. Then his Deputy, Philip, in Jattu where he
comes from, in his polling booth where he and his family voted, Philip Shaibu
lost.
“He lost his booth during his own
governorship election in which he was standing as Deputy governorship
candidate. So if he learnt from me, he should have learnt well because I never
lost election in my village.
“There is no body in my village
who can work against me because when I go home, I relate with them, I am an
ordinary man. You must know when to talk tough and when to talk soft.
“When I am in my village, I am
just like an ordinary man. I argue and play with my people. The only man that
was in PDP in my village, the youths said how can he be doing PDP? But I said
no, you have to persuade him to join us.
“And today that young man is one
of my PAs. So he (Philip) is one of my very poor students, Kakhi is not a
lesson and fighters must be tactful and strategic. No sensible man will fight
people who voted for them. Those they are fighting now, some of them delivered
95 per cent of the votes in their units while they lost their own areas.
“The other day when Shaibu led
thugs to my village with Okada riders and he said during my court case Okada
people were following us. It shows how poorly he can interpret situations. Did
we ever use Okada riders to intimidate ACN elements then, never.
“And those Okada riders were not
hired by me, they bought into my vision. They have heard of me as President of
NLC and on that basis they all voted for me, so when I was rigged out they took
the fight to the PDP.
“The problem is that Philip does
not know the difference between family disagreement that can be settled through
conversation and political opponents that need to be fought and defeated. But
even my language is defeat my opponent and not crush my party members.
“It is only Philip and his boss
that talks about crushing APC members. If you become a crushing machine and God
enable you to crush your people who will you govern when you win?
“When elections start between us
and PDP unleash that energy, you cannot possibly be making electoral sense by
using your office or position to attack, brutalize and intimidate and even lie
against your party members. And all I have tried to do is to tell him (Obaseki)
that you will never have a political party that looks like a golf course.
“A political party is like a
forest, in that forest you have many animals. The politician is the guy who
goes into this forest, knowing fully well that all the dangerous animals are
there but he is going for the antelope or the grass cutter which he wants to
use to feed his family. He goes there get his antelope or grass cutter home and
feast without being crushed.
“So the minimum requirement of
political leadership is to be able to deal with all kinds of characters, use
them to get what you want. And I said to him, you have to manage these people
because for me as long as they deliver their units on the day of election you
have to manage them.
“In my first term election when I
don’t know the politicians too well, I won Oredo, Egor, Ikpoba-Okha we were
only rigged out in Ovia and Orhiomwon in 2007.
“It is those Benin votes and the
small we got from Edo North that we used to defend my mandate in court. Look at
the way they humiliated Ogbemudia’s daughter for refusing to abuse me, the
woman only said I cannot abuse Comrade rather as a mother I will join hands to
settle the dispute between you people. But they said they don’t want settlement
they want to crush. Three days later they crushed the woman by suspending her
as chairman of Egor Local Government.
“So it is a pity that they don’t
know the difference between internal contestation and internal mechanism for
resolving them and fighting the opposition.
“Killing is out of the kind of
politics we practice, maiming is out of it. Now I told him Mr governor, with
all the reservation people were raising, talking about history, we convinced
them to support you and it worked for you and you got elected, even if the
margin of defeat was not as much as my own, but they worked for you.
“Then why do you now want to
distort the system by creating so called new political structure, is there a
structural defect? He said he will retire all the politicians but I said to him
will you retire somebody you did not hire. Most of these politicians I met them
in the business.
“I have to go to their houses to
convince them that I want their support and when they gave me that support, I
worked hard to appreciate them. So if this is being foolish I want to remain
foolish. As long as they work for me and Edo remain the only state in the South
South that we have APC.
“The only thing I invested in
defeating PDP in Edo state is my integrity and my capacity to persuade and
mobilize. Politics is a leveller, people who are detained by their ego can’t
make it in politics.
“I do not know any political
party where you don’t have disagreement but as leaders all you need to do is to
call them and explain yourself. If it happens they are right and you are wrong,
you apologize. For me this remain the way to go calling everybody together. Not
the clapping society where you selected those who praise you to high heaven.”
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com