EDO: Oshiomhole, Obaseki, Akerele: Battle of Warhorses

By Bayo Bernard

Taiwo Akerele, erstwhile chief of staff to Governor of Edo state, Godwin Obaseki Taiwo has been in politics long enough to understand that in politics you don’t wait for your opponent to strike first.

That’s exactly what the former CoS did on Saturday, April 25 when he ‘fired’ his boss, Governor Godwin Obaseki, after resigning his position as one of the power brokers in government.

As chief of staff, he was the engine room of the four year government of Governor Obaseki.

Top Aides Abandon Obaseki

Akerele has left the government barely two months after Solomon Okodua, Senior Special Assistant on Anti-Human Trafficking Issues to the governor turned his back on Obaseki who faces re-election before the end of this year.

The decision by other aides to leave or remain with the embattled helmsman, keen watchers of the state said, will determine whether he will be re-elected for a second term in office as the battle between him and his former political ally now APC chairman rages on.

The erstwhile CoS letter to Governor Obaseki reads “My decision to exit the government is based on administrative and governance grounds.

I am solidly with His excellency Mr Godwin Obaseki in his quest to transform Edo state. His mission and vision resonate with mine.’

He said he could no longer work the governor because they no longer share the same vision on how the state should be governed.

“This is all I have to say, I will like to be given the opportunity to go private as I part ways administratively with the government based on principles.

I thank his excellency for the opportunity given to me to serve in this capacity and also thanks to His Royal Majesty, Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II for his immense leadership and support during the period I served in this capacity. May his reign be long and peaceful. Amen”, Akerele said in the letter.

I’m Not Worried- Governor Obaseki

The initial response of the state government to the resignation was dismissive, suggesting that Governor Obaseki was already done with his service.

According to a statement issued on Saturday by the  Special Adviser to the governor on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie, the administration said it was not rattled by the development.

Osagie said “In the past few hours, it emerged on social media that the Chief of Staff, Mr. Taiwo Akerele, has resigned his appointment with the Edo State Government.

While the governor has not received any formal communication to this effect, he believes that this is a personal decision of Mr. Akerele.

However, whenever the resignation letter gets to the governor, he would accept it, and he wishes Akerele all the best in his future endeavours.”

Akerele’s Resignation Sends Shock Waves In Govt

Further feelers from the government somehow put a lie to this.

The former CoS, it was learnt had initially written a letter to the governor, which he handed personally to him, but was torn by Obaseki who rejected his resignation.

The second letter, the magazine was told Akerele leaked, to the press to fast-track his exit as one of the powerful aides in the state government.

Even though the state’s helmsman has replaced him with Osaze Uzamere, a son of a former senator, it’s very obvious that Akerele has indeed left a big shoe for his successor.

Not only that. There are suggestions by keen observers of the state’s politics that the governor has remained shocked by Akerele’s sudden exit from his government, especially “during his political travails with his predecessor who’s bent on frustrating his second term ambition,” a close associate to the governor told the magazine on Saturday.

The feelings in Obaseki’s kitchen cabinet, the magazine has learnt, is that Akerele has now fully thrown himself into the centre of the state’s political battle, on Oshiomhole’s side.

That Akere left his position at a defining moment in the state’s politics did not surprise many, particularly those that understand his close relationship with the APC chairman.

Former CoS Close To APC Boss

Picked from the civil society by ex-Governor Oshiomhole, the former chief of staff served in that government as Special Assistant to the governor.

In that position, insiders in the state said, Akerele was the ‘chief strategist’ in Oshiomhole’s administration, a position he held for many years, before he was later made chief of staff by Governor Obaseki, who was also a member of Oshiomhole’s inner caucus at the time.

Obaseki was chief Economic Adviser in that administration.

The relationship crumbled for the three political war horses after Governor Obaseki and the APC chairman went their separate ways over who controls the soul of politics of the Heartbeat of the Nation, as Edo is popularly called.

Obaseki Plotted His Removal

But Akerele’s resignation did not come easy as some reports have wrongly claimed.

His ouster has been long planned by the governor, sources told the magazine, who was waiting for the right time to strike.

He got wind of this and decided to leave the government when the ovation is still loud, it was learnt.

“Governor Obaseki lost interest in the chief of staff as soon as his war with Oshiomhole started. The governor has always seen him as a mole, planted in his government by his predecessor.

But Akere had managed to have a working relationship with the governor despite his affiliation to the APC National Chairman.

At a point, the governor’s suspicion has grown, particularly after being edged on by some of his closest aides that ‘the chief of staff cannot be trusted’, and that he needed to be changed,” one lawmaker in the Edo state house of assembly told the magazine.

Indeed, Akerele has informed close associates, that he has been sidelined by the governor “and undermined by some senior officials in government who considered him an outsider that could still be in cahoot with the APC chairman despite his avowed loyalty to Governor Obaseki,” the lawmaker said.

Some close aides of the governor, the magazine was told, had also accused him of running a parallel government, to drive their point home with the embattled governor.

He has also been accused of not publicly joining the governor in his political battle against his predecessor.

An indigene of Igarra in Akoko-Edo Local Government, a border town between Ondo and Edo state, his relationship with Oshiomhole dated back to the time when the APC chairman was the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC and a strong member of the civil society which Akerele also belonged.

The relationship later earned him a position as a special assistant in Oshiomhole’s government, where he worked alongside Obaseki and other as strategists and engine room of the administration.

“Many electoral successes recorded by the Oshiomhole’s administration were linked Akerele, Obaseki and other who were regarded as technocrats. In fact, Oshiomhole, Obaseki and Akerele could be regarded as a troika responsible for the success of that administration,” a member of NDDC Board from the state told the magazine.

Meanwhile, the magazine leant that despite the problem at home, the governor still has a strong support to hang in on: the support he enjoys among APC governors.

This will really count for him when the political campaign for his second term begins after the nation has successfully ended the corona virus pandemic, analysts say.