Governor Obaseki and the Ghost of Inspector Akoh

BY TONY ERHA

The Edo tradition is laced in helpful folklores. And one is repeatedly told about the sadism of Uwonria nu Utekon, a reckless deity of Edo’s past. …. Uwonria was not only blood-thirsty and stubborn, but also unforgiving, unpredictable, fastidious and unappeasable. In his unquenchable thirst for pigments of human blood, the deity wouldn’t accept plea-swaps of red blood of lesser animals nor jars of red oil palm. He wishfully killed those well-wishers, who came to him with sacrificial items, whilst he forgave those who despised and rain curses on him.

Those who must seek his forgiveness often got confused at what to ask for. They did not, either, seek Uwonria to kill or maim them, simply because he blessed his haters and harm his appeasers. And so the pliant appeasers were left with the option to tell the dicey-deity “Wee oghi ren”, meaning “It is up to you…”. And when the Oracle of the people incanted a discovery of ‘Oko no ze uza” (One who wrought disaster), it goes with ‘Ebo no gbe omwan ighi mose, (the Shrine that kills humans without mercy is usually ugly).

The analogies would similarly bring one to Mr. Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki, an enigmatic persona, who through inscrutability to be gifted in a platter of gold, the coveted governorship of Edo, the very heartbeat state of Africa’s most prominent nation, for eight long years of fiefdom and monumental disasters. Eight protracted years that had been eaten by voracious locusts!

The governor’s uninspiring handling of the cruel murder of Inspector Onuh Akoh, is a rude testament of the midday darkness the Obaseki’s era had bequeathed to engulf hapless Edolites. Unfortunately, the brazen gun attacks had been alleged to have taken place at the glimpse and akimbo of the state’s police boss and his subordinates, of the nation’s police assemble, that is ever accused of incompetence.

At the precinct of the airport of Benin City, in the state capital, under the watch of the governor and in a broad daylight gun-staccato, Inspector Akoh, a mobile policeman and Aide De Camp (ADC) to Senator Monday Okpebholo (a.k.a Akpakomiza), and flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the forthcoming governorship election, holding in the state, was assassinated in the busy street by gunmen, who waylaid him and Rt. Hon. Philip Shaibu in a joint motorcade. Both top public officers had missed the assassins’ bullets by the whiskers.

Pointedly, the governor, with his widespread comments, that the state “will turn a violent eruption that will spread nationwide, if his men were arrested over the shooting”, bespoke of his well-known uncontrolled temper and volatility.

“Sopkan, Ogie ighi mu ohu gugho ivie” But, a king doesn’t break his beaded crown in anger, the Benins would say.

If not for the immunity article granted state governors, the governor would have been cooling off his feet in jail, for a treasonable offence. Why would a man who is immune to tuberculosis leak the saliva of a tuberculosis patient, in order to demonstrate the elasticity of his immunity? I think some days, very soon, the governor may have to square up with his flammable utterances, which tend to breed bad precepts and examples.

What one can’t right now decipher is the capability of the governor to gravitate a nationwide unrest because of the arrest of some cheap criminals in his Edo backyard, as he had allegedly decreed? It is a matter that must be investigated by the nation’s security forces, because a witch with evil intentions is not alone in the coven.

But, brazenly, Governor Obaseki, the professed first citizen, Chief Security Officer and custodian of lives and property of the state, had failed the humanity litmus test, as his media handlers failed to condemn the dastardly shooting, but pointed accusing fingers at Hon Shaibu as the one who had “organized the gunmen to shoot at himself and his followers”, in order to incriminate or prove a point that the governor’s supporters were responsible for the shooting.

On the other hand, supporters of Okpebholo and Shaibu, supported by the All Progressives Congress (APC), had accused the Obaseki’s government and officers of its State Security Network (the Vigilantes) and hired thugs, as those responsible for the shooting, which the state government also denied.

Although political differences were construed as the bottom-line of the shooting, which was premised on the reinstatement of a formerly impeached-Shaibu as deputy governor, following a court victory, as well as the said election, watchers of democracy were/are more concerned that politically-minded assassinations or its attempts, that are ordinarily condemnable by all and sundry in other spheres, could be deodorized by a governor and his supporters?

They had referred to the United States of America, a world bastion of democracy, where Mr. Joe Biden, a sitting president, recently condemned the assassination attempt on Mr. Donald Trump, his most formidable opponent in the presidential election holding November this year in that nation. In a similar situation, Governor Obaseki was judged as having failed the good public-oriented exhibition by President Biden

Appallingly, the governor’s media aides engaged in counter accusations with the followers of Okpebholo and Shaibu, thus failing to sympathize with the just-reinstated number two person in the state, by the law court of complete jurisdiction. Rather, they were occupied with preventing Shaibu and his supporters from street jubilations of his triumphant reinstatement, which ordinarily is a coulourful tenet of democracy.

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) government and its governor, Mr. Obaseki, had made a grave error of judgement, in its fruitlessness to stop the official reinstatement of the once-impeached deputy governor, through muscle flexing and mere filing to the Appeal Court, which on its own does not mean setting aside the earlier judgement.

“Even khiri khiri keke undemwen idan gba khian”. “Fierce wrestling often accompany thudding fall to the ground”. It might have dawn on the embattled governor that it is a futility to fight real and imaginary enemies, as he had done with all and sundry, in his eight years of stranglehold to power and its official perquisites.

Now, his endless spat with Hon Shaibu, his partner and ‘Man Friday’ of yesterday, has become meaningless, so much so that the governor is susceptible to panicky and thoughtless controls. It is may have also dawn on him that Shaibu is his Nemesis and a horsewhip kept behind the door to flog out the bride and the old wife, as it has finally flogged him.

Forewarning is the alleged fixing of the Appeal Court’s hearing in September, 2024, few days after the governorship election, may stabilize Shaibu as a deputy governor Obaseki detests and his choice, Mr. Godwin Marvelous Omobayo, a dud deputy governor. But, it is the wandering ghost of Inspector Onuh Akoh that is revenging

Tony Erha is a journalist and pro-democracy activist