By Gideon Njoku
For Edo Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, these are not great times. The political-crisis breather he thought the birth of Coronavirus in Nigeria gave him has been shattered.
For more than one year, he and his former political godfather, Adams Oshiomhole, former Edo Governor, and now National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, have been in a dangerous battle for the soul of the party in the state.
It was so bad that Oshiomhole was suspended from the party. It took a Court judgement and the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari and some party leaders, to save his neck.
The outbreak of COVID-19, suspended the battle between the two former allies.
But now, the Governor is facing an unexpected battle from another front.
He has been hit below the belt.
His Chief of Staff, Taiwo Akerele, has resigned from office. It is not yet known for how long things soured between the two men, but Akerele is alleging sidelining by the Government.
Ordinarily, a Governor’s Chief of Staff should be his closest aide, but it seems different between Obaseki and Akerele. Akerele, it is alleged, was an outsider.
In his resignation letter, dated April 25, 2020, Akerele said: “My decision to exit the Government is based on administrative and governance grounds”
An indigene of Igarra, Akoko-Edo LGA, Obaseki, appointed Akerele his CoS on November 14, 2016.
The Governor’s loss is, definitely, Oshiomhole’s gain. Your enemy’s enemy is your friend, a saying goes.
However, if Obaseki had been sidelining him, as alleged, to him then, Akerele’s resignation would seem like good riddance to bad rubbish.
