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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) has come very hard on the governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, describing him as an irresponsible and reckless leader.
PCC maintained that for a man who swore an oath of allegiance to Nigeria’s sovereignty and unity to be a purveyor of ill-will towards the same country because of partisan politics is unbecoming of a governor who has a constitutionally sanctioned duty to preserve the unity and indivisibility of the country.
In separate statements signed by both Festus Keyamo and Bayo Onanuga, the Directors of Public Affairs and Media and Publicity, Tinubu/Shettima PCC, they noted that they were not surprised about Obaseki’s outburst about Nigeria breaking.
“Obaseki told his band of jesters that Nigeria will break up if our party, the APC wins the 2023 presidential election which our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is primed to win as the best among the candidates seeking the mandate of Nigerians.
“For a man who swore an oath of allegiance to the sovereignty and unity of Nigeria to be a purveyor of ill-will towards the same country because of partisan politics smirks of total irresponsibility and recklessness unbecoming of a governor who has a constitutionally sanctioned duty to preserve the unity and indivisibility of Nigeria.
“It is worth stating that we are not in any way surprised about Obaseki’s outburst about Nigeria’s breaking. He is, by nature, a divisive, obnoxious and toxic human being that lacks the introspection and contemplation expected of a person occupying the office of a governor. He is obviously a man bereft of any iota of emotional intelligence and perhaps a misfit for the role he currently occupies.
“At his ill-fated event in Benin on Monday, Obaseki also repeated the earlier false claim he made in April 2021 on Nigeria’s debt and his accusation that CBN was printing money to share directly to state governments as if state finance commissioners hauled the billions of naira that is due to them by cash from Abuja every month. Only a disconnected and diseased mind could imagine this scenario that Obaseki concocted.
“While playing his politics without honour and integrity, Obaseki didn’t remember to tell his crowd that Edo State benefited and took advantage of all the CBN/FGN windows and interventions via loans, and restructuring of loans. The policy has helped to save his state and other 35 states from economic cataclysm because of their terrible fiscal positions, which made many of them unable to pay salaries and pensions for months,” the statement read.
Reacting further, the PCC wrote: “We advise Obaseki to stop his scaremongering and concentrate on how to save his faltering, failing, the disconnected and unpopular government in Edo State. He should stop abusing his office and stooping so low into the dirty gutter of bitter politicking and crisis-baiting.
“After more than five years in office, Obaseki does not have any landmark achievement in Edo State other than paying those on whose shoulder he rose to political relevance in Nigeria with evil. One of his mentors, the energetic Governor Nyesom Wike has expressed the deepest regrets in ever helping Obaseki to retain power in Edo State.
“It is quite amusing when Obaseki said PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar will rescue and rebuild Nigeria. We want to ask them how? How can the same people that destroyed the country and created the mess that the APC-led Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is working day and night to clean up and rescue Nigeria? It is the height of absurdity that Obaseki would recommend to reasonable Nigerians that his party could add new value to Nigeria after it superintended over the looting of over $5b in arms procurement contracts when Boko Haram ravaged the country.”
Reacting similarly, the Spokesperson wrote; “We read with utter amusement the outburst of the governor of Edo State claiming Nigeria will break up if the APC wins the Presidential election. This is coming from a governor who turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the outrageous and divisive statement made by his presidential candidate in Kaduna a few days ago calling for Northerners not to vote for Yoruba or Igbo candidates.
“This is also coming from a governor who has so far callously, heartlessly, and undemocratically “broken up” his own state by denying many constituencies of adequate representation in the Edo State House of Assembly by denying the members of their right to take their seats, even though the members were duly elected.
“By making this abhorrent statement, Obaseki has clearly shown that he must be one of the elements within his Party not only misleading his candidate and party but also enabling them towards inevitable electoral doom. This is to our delight, but we worry that if elected, they will inflict the same divisive spirit on our country as a whole.
“It is little wonder then, that his exit from the APC to the PDP was a signal of peace within the APC and the beginning of the unending crises within the PDP. It reminds us of the story of the Biblical Satan whose expulsion from heaven restored peace to that realm and pronounced woe upon the earth. Obaseki and his cohorts, like Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, obviously sold their souls for the Biblical pot of porridge by violating the zoning principles in their own constitution, thereby causing the present implosion within their party – an implosion that he now wishes to project on the country.
“Compare that to the historical stance of the APC northern governors who insisted on the unity of this country by rejecting power offered to them on a platter of gold, but rather insisted on power shift to the South to keep this country together.
“We are shocked by the shallowness of thinking, the sheer temerity, and the obfuscating arrogance that pushed Obaseki to make such an outrageous statement against the APC. We call on him to apologise to the people of Edo State, to the people of the Southern region, and to Nigerians as a whole for making such an insensitive and reckless statement in the face of PDP’s insensitivity to the principle of power rotation in the country.
“Certainly, the day of reckoning with the masses is coming for the likes of the Judas of our time, Governor Obaseki!,” Keyamo noted in the statement.
