Samuel Bello, Abuja
Former Deputy Governor of Edo State, Pius Odubu, has promised that if he becomes the governor of the state that he would take actions towards human capacity development better than Governor Godwin Obaseki is currently doing.
He also blamed Governor Obaseki for what his happening in the state, saying that he neglected the political class and failed to carry them along.
Don’t you think the misunderstanding in APC will create electoral doom for the party?
Let me dismiss that it is not the upcoming gubernatorial elections that endangered and caused the misunderstanding in our party. It all came about because of the governor’s attitude towards the very people that elected him. The very people that worked hard, travelling the length and breadth of Edo State for him to win the election. Immediately he was sworn in, Mr Governor developed lethargy towards the political class. Some of us tried behind the scene to bring this to the attention of the governor and the leadership of the party. Mr Governor for one reason or the other simply closed the political space against the political elite of Edo State APC. Now, because we were all interested in the survival of our party, because almost all of us you see here today are foundation members of this party starting from ACD to AC to ACN, and now APC. We worked hard for this party to become acceptable to rise to the epitome of political contestation here in Edo State. So, we are not quite happy. When I say we, I’m talking about the APC political class, the leadership in Edo State, happy with the inclination of Mr Governor. Politics is about the people, for the people and by the people. By the time the leader of the party, in Iyomiri constituency is averse to peaceful engagement with his people, what you have is misunderstanding. The misunderstanding came about because Mr Governor from the go alienated the political leadership of APC. This severally was brought to his attention and indeed we invited the national chairman to broker peace. National chairman will come to Benin, organise a peace parley, the leadership would be there and the governor would not come. He said he was going to retire all the leaders of APC. There is no letter of appointment in politics, you don’t appoint leadership, leadership evolves. The people themselves would decide who their leader would be. By the time someone sitting up there would come down to my local government and say he wants to impose a leader, you are going to fail. As it were, this was completely unnecessary because nobody was after the governor. Nobody was pursuing him. All that the leadership wanted was to be carried along. To be consulted, and this certainly was not the case. Now, for years, the leadership tried their best to ensure that this thing was corrected. It was when all efforts failed that they resulted to the public outcry that you now see in Edo State. Even now, the APC leaders in Edo State desire peace. We want Mr Governor to come down from his high horse, come and dialogue with your people, we put you there. Occasionally, you should revert back to us for our opinion. This is not the case. As for your question if it would spare doom for the party, no. You can see that for quite some time, I don’t think you have heard of one APC member leaving for another party instead the reverse is the case. So, our fortune is quite high, that was our concern and that was why we did our best to engage the governor to reposition our party. APC is a winning machine anywhere in Edo State, but the governor’s conduct was discouraging the leaders that make things happen in Edo State. That was why we spoke out in overall unity of our party. We didn’t speak out because we wanted our party to be negatively affected. Instead we wanted our party to remain strong and remain the winning machine in Edo State. Our party, take it to the bank, will win the upcoming gubernatorial election by the grace of God.
How do you intend to conduct primaries in a factionalised party?
There is absolutely no faction in Edo State APC. Obaseki remains our governor, but what is bad now is whether he would come back for a second tenure. Anytime elections are around the corner, you are bound to have diverse interests, expressing their interests to contest. That does not mean they are creating faction in the body polity of that state. So, please there is no faction in Edo State. We remain committed to the core values of our party and everybody that you see that are referred to as those on the side of the national chairman, it would be a service to the national chairman to bring him to the local politics of Edo State. He is from Edo State, yes but he’s not responsible for whatever is happening in Edo State at all. He has no faction, he does not favour any group. What he has done is try to bridge the gap between the governor and the political leadership of our party. What you see is the gulf arising from the neglect of the APC leadership and the governor. The national chairman has no role in it at all. He has tried to bring the governor to come to talk to the political leadership. There is no crisis, it’s just because elections are around the corner, and various groups are expressing their interest in contesting the primaries and indeed the election. So, APC remains the strong viable party here in Edo State. So, don’t go away with the impression that there is crisis in APC Edo. There is no crisis at all and the national chairman has no hand in what is happening in Edo State. I am too big to be saying I belong to a faction. By the special grace of God, I was two-time national assembly member and deputy governor, director of logistics in President Bubari’s campaign. We don’t believe in factions. What we want is for the right thing to be done. Inasmuch as Mr Governor is not doing the right thing, we would continue to engage him. That does not mean that we hate him. We just want the best for our party and the good people of Edo State.
As former deputy governor, what would you do rightly that has not been done before?
I’ll do what Obaseki is not doing. Others have done it, it’s just that Obaseki is not doing it. You saw when Oshiomhole came on board. He was all about the people. Government House on a daily basis was besieged by several groups protesting for one reason or the other. He would come out to personally address them or he will send me or Secretary to the Government. The doors to Government House was open not only to the political leadership, but also to everybody, because it is their house. Any successful government must be an admixture of human capacity development and physical infrastructural development. You cannot do one at the expense of the other. For example, we said that during Oshiomhole administration that if you want to sleep with your two eyes closed at night you have to keep the youths engaged during the daytime. That was the underlying factor that led to our constructive engagement of hundreds and thousands of youths. He had the Edo vigilante group, all about youths, men, boys and girls. So, for me, I believe I would invest in human capacity development because investment in human is what this is all about and also infrastructural development. No government can do it all at once that is why we say government is a continuum. You can build on the legacy projects of Adams Oshiomhole. What Oshiomhole did was to lay a solid foundation for succeeding government to build on. One, there was a revolution; two, legacy projects; I’m talking about the storm water masterplan; three, tackling the erosion problems; four, the five star hospital in Benin city. Now, I intend to take development straight to the people. My approach would be from the bottom up and not up down. You don’t go to people who are desirous of having pipe-borne water and you go there and put cassava factory. We will consultatively engage the people at the grassroots for them to tell us their needs. We intend to carry the people along. We intend to carry our party leadership along. We believe in party supremacy. You are not an independent candidate, people brought you there. We will embrace those people and harness their ideas and implement them in such a manner that it would be beneficial to the good people of Edo State.
Something sacrilegious has been happening like pulling down means of livelihood like Kabaka hotel. Another has been marked. Don’t you think this is the beginning of series of attacks?
We have had several behind the scene engagement with the government in power now. It is an abomination. It’s not just about bringing down someone’s means of livelihood, it’s about the spade of violence that is spreading across Edo State now. Firstly, it was the attack on the person of the national chairman when his house in GRA was attacked. It now moved to Owan East where Honourable Ero and others were attacked. It now came back to Benin city. When we were going to receive Pastor Ize-Iyamu back into our party, the national chairman was to attend that function. You saw what happened. They tried to prevent the chairman’s plane from landing. Thereafter, former Attorney General was attacked in his office. Hundreds of bullets were shot into his office. Thereafter, petrol bombs were thrown into the compound of Chief Francis Inegbeniki. Thereafter, petrol bombs were thrown into the compound of our party secretary. Not to talk about several other attacks. It began with the attack of the 14 members-elect at Golden Tulips Hotel. That has never been the case in Edo State. It is unnecessary, it is uncalled for. In politics, contestations should be by words of mouth, not by physical violence. I urge whoever is responsible to refrain from it because they say those who live by the sword will die by the sword. So, coming to the pulling down of sources of livelihood, yes any government can pull down premises, but it is usually done in the overall interest of the people. During Oshiomhole’s time, when he was constructing airport road, there were several houses that were on the way. The landlords themselves came to Governor Oshiomhole and requested that in order for the road to be constructed, they are willing for their houses to be pulled down. I know they will go and say Oshiomhole also pulled down houses. The other one that he pulled down was at the mote because that one was built inside the mote and we needed to dissect the mote then. So, when you pull down for constructive positive reasons, I think everybody should understand. That explains the landlords of the affected houses then to even applaud the move by Oshiomhole. But this one now, there is no government physical infrastructure presently ongoing in that area, Kabaka’s neighbourhood. It is simply pure vindictiveness. It is simply because Kabaka has expressed his opinion of not supporting the present governor if he’s going to seek re-election. All the persons I have mentioned now, please note that they represent those who have one way or the other expressed their willingness not to support Mr Governor again. So, that locates squarely this act of violence in the doorstep of the governor. We urge him as a true son of the soil to bring in all those who are responsible for the violence because violence will not do anybody any good. To the good people of Edo State, my plea is that do not lose hope yet because the best is yet to come. Change is constant. This situation will not last. Tough times do not last. I urge them to take solace in the fact that in participatory democracy, there are timelines for change. Down the road this year, there would be elections. That would be the time for the people to speak loudly and clearly as to what they want. That presented the opportunity to express themselves using the ballot paper. They should not result to physical violence. They should not result to anything that would disturb the peace and tranquillity of Edo State. I urge them to keep the faith because a better tomorrow is around the corner.