Edo gov race tears Obaseki, Shaibu’s tight cord apart

Chaos generated by the rift between the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, and his deputy, Philip Shaibu, deteriorates as both fail to shift ground, ADEYINKA ADEDIPE writes

Politics is said to be an endeavour where permanent friends and enemies do not exist. What drives those involved in the endeavour is personal interest, which may cause them to fall out with one another if their interests do not align.

More often than not, politicians have shown that they do not have the capacity to manage their differences, which snowballs into bigger problems, with the people they are expected to represent and serve, bearing the brunt of the altercation.

The above can aptly describe what is playing out in Edo State as the rift between the state Governor, Godwin Obaseki, and his deputy, Philip Shaibu, seems to be growing wider by the day over the ambition of Shaibu to succeed his principal as well as other “sins” he has committed. The drama playing out between the first two citizens of the state is absurd, as it was just as recent as the mid-last year that they did things together and carried on like blood brothers. They even fought a former governor of the state, Comrade Adam Oshiomhole together with Shaibu taking the lead role in the battle. They accused Oshiomhole of playing godfather, which he (Oshiomhole) vowed to erase from the political space in the state.

Despite the rift, the governor at different fora said he had nothing against Shaibu's ambition, while Shaibu has also apologised for some of the “wrong moves” he made, but it appears the chaos generated by the rift is not abating.

Trouble started when Shaibu was accused of abandoning the swearing-in of commissioners last year in Benin to attend the inauguration of the National Assembly, where he met and fraternised with a former governor of the state, Oshiomhole, who was not on good terms with Obaseki and Shaibu.

Shaibu also incurred the wrath of his boss when he made public his intention to succeed the governor. At a meeting, the governor was said to have told his close allies of his desire to take the governorship seat to Edo Central, which favours the former chairman of Sterling Bank, Asue Ighodalo, who he is also said to enjoy the backing of the governor.

Fearing a backlash as the rift deepened, Shaibu approached a Federal High Court in Abuja to stop possible impeachment moves against him. In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1027/2023, the Inspector General of Police, the State Security Service, the Governor of Edo State, the Speaker of Edo State House of Assembly, and the Chief Judge of Edo State are the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth defendants, respectively. Shaibu sought an interlocutory injunction restraining the 3rd, 4th, and 5th defendants/respondents, or their agents from commencing an impeachment process against him. He also prayed the court to restrain the governor of the state or another person acting on his order from harassing and preventing him from effectively discharging his duties as the state's deputy governor.

However, the governor denied knowledge of plans to impeach his deputy while accusing Shaibu of planning to defect to the All Progressives Congress. He also said he was sure his deputy was desperate to become governor instead of allowing the government to finish strong and deliver on its promised dividends of democracy.

The governor said, “There is no plan to impeach my deputy, Comrade Philip Shaibu. The move by Shaibu seeking a court order to stop his purported impeachment is pre-emptive ahead of his defection to the All Progressives Congress.

“The deputy governor has been actively engaging with senior actors both at the national and state levels of the APC, negotiating his way into their party, and he is on the verge of finalising moves to defect to the APC.

“Philip Shaibu has never had the courtesy to discuss his ambitions with me. The last time we spoke of my successor after the House of Assembly election, I did say that we should be patient and that our task is to try and finish well and conclude all the projects we started.''

Obaseki seemed to have responded to his deputy's “insubordination” by placing revenue collection under the direct supervision of his office, which will include that of the local governments, which was formerly under the deputy governor's office while the Ministry of Sports which is under the deputy governor's office was taken away and his ally and in-law, Sabina Chikere retired unceremoniously.

The rift between the two came to a head in September as the deputy governor's office was relocated to a building outside the Government House. With the relocation of his office, he was no longer part of the executive meeting and was schemed out of the decision-making in the state. A retreat which took place in Lagos for top government functionaries, was held without the deputy governor. On August 27, a security aide prevented Shaibu from meeting Obaseki at the Interdenominational Thanksgiving Church Service to mark Edo's 32nd anniversary at the Government House.

Despite this, the deputy governor pledged his loyalty to his boss, calling Obaseki his elder brother. He added, “My loyalty to the governor remains absolute. I see that everybody is in solidarity. I am also in solidarity with the governor. I am also declaring my unalloyed loyalty to the governor and nothing more. As for the issues that were around town when I was away, I really would not want to talk about them, especially about the governor. He is my elder brother and boss and I don't think I should talk about anything.”

While residents were hoping that the situation would not degenerate any further, on August 28,  Shaibu, on Monday, stormed out of the venue of a government function after some members of his media team were denied entry by security officials. The state government disbanded the media team the same day and placed Shaibu media activities under the office of the Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Nehikhare.

The battle moved to the day of Shaibu's declaration for the governorship seat. The event which was earlier scheduled to take place at Eterno Hotels, GRA, Benin, was shifted a night before when information filtered into town that one of Governor Obaseki's support groups, “Obaseki ending well”, also scheduled an event at the same venue on the same day and time.

This forced Shaibu to look for an alternative venue and he chose a facility at the St. Paul Catholic Church off Airport Road in Benin. Shaibu who said he had weathered unpleasant political stones, noted that nobody could halt his ambition.

The Peoples Democratic Party bigwigs and top government functionaries were absent from Shaibu's event.

The destruction of Shaibu campaign posters on December 11 by suspected agents of the state government, also added fire to the rift. Speaking on Lagos Street after inspecting one of the dismantled billboards, the deputy governor said the destruction would not help

While at the opening ceremony of the Correspondent Chapel on December 19, Shaibu also revealed that his office had not been paid a month's allowance due to the tension between him and his principal, Godwin Obaseki. He said that he had been running the office and doing other activities through goodwill and contributions from friends.

He said, “You know there is tension between the governor and I. And for six months, there has been no allocation to my office. So, you whatever I am doing is from contributions from friends and my goodwill; and I am still standing very strong.

The rift between the two took another dimension as  N354m  was allocated to the deputy governor's office in the 2024 budget. From findings, the governor's office got an allocation of N19bn, the Secretary to the State Government Office got N8bn, the House of Assembly, N13bn while the Head of Service's office got N968m.

Defending the budgetary allocation, the Speaker of Edo State House of Assembly, Blessing Agbebaku said that N354m was appropriated to the office of the Deputy Governor as Shaibu was not expected to carry out too many functions in 2024 since he would be involved in the campaign as an aspirant.

When many thought the rift between the two was dying down, the weekly Tuesday Mass which was held in the compound of the deputy governor's new office instead of the Government House chapel reopened the rift.

An official in the chapel said they got a directive from the Senior Special Assistant to Obaseki on Religious Matters, Rev. Osagie Ehrunmwunse, “to come and remove our things from the chapel including the station of the cross, the pulpit, and other items.

The official added, “I told him I would inform the deputy governor to know where to relocate the items and we went to remove them the following day. I was shocked when I started hearing that I went to do a video. They ordered us to remove our things which we did.”

However, Obaseki insisted that nothing like the relocation of the chapel happened.

A statement by the Special Adviser to Obaseki on Media Projects, Crusoe Osagie, said the video in circulation was fabricated by mischief-makers.

He added, “It is imperative to state categorically that the Government House chapel is very much in operation and attending to the spiritual needs of the occupants of the Government House.

“It is necessary to stress that the governor and his wife are ardent Christians and it is therefore illogical that they will shut down the Chapel in the Government House.

“We urge members of the public to disregard the rumour as it bears no iota of truth. The government will continue to promote religious freedom and harmony within the State,” he added

However, the last episode in the face-off may not have been seen as the outcome of the PDP primaries on February 22 will determine the next twist in this unending rift.