Edo: The Vulture Circles Around Shaibu

By Comfort Obi

Edo State Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, is facing the worst public humiliation of his political life. A basket is being woven around him. The daggers are out. The killers are lurking just by the corner. And the vultures are circling around him. They are waiting for his political carcass.

In the past few weeks, the youthful Shaibu has been fighting the battle for his political life. He is fighting to remain relevant. He is fighting not to be dumped in a political dustbin. The man whose hand is directing Shaibu’s fall is his Principal, Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki. Obaseki is a man reputed to take no prisoners in a war; a man who is comfortable in the midst of war. Check the list of those he has fearlessly “tangoed” with in the past three years. Adams Oshiomhole. Oba of Benin. Nyesom Wike. And now Shaibu.

Shaibu is a former Students Union President, and so prefixes his name with Comrade. A former political godson of “a bigger Comrade”, Oshiomhole, former President NLC, Shaibu learnt from Adams to, most times, wear ill-tailored and ill-fitting pair of khaki trousers and short-sleeved shirt of same material and colour. That is to fit the bill of a Comrade. But Shaibu quite did not learn from Oshiomhole that Obaseki is neither a respecter of Comrades nor of khaki. Obaseki knows that “khaki no be leather”. So he deals with it as what it is – an ordinary piece of cloth. That was how he dealt with Oshiomhole when Oshiomhole stabbed him. And, he is bent on dealing same way with Shaibu.

In Oshiomhole’s case, even though the scar is still there, Oshiomhole had the luck of getting out of the gulag. He is now a Senator of the Federal Republic, and a friend of the President. That may not be Shaibu’s fate.

A few days ago, he tried to save himself by rallying a number of very respectable people, including Clergymen, to bring him out of the dustbin of history he is about to be thrown into. They did, or so they thought, which made Shaibu walk back on his earlier decision of seeking legal action.

Suspecting, strongly, that there were plans by Governor Obaseki and the House of Assembly to impeach him, he approached a Federal High Court Abuja for protection. He got it. Obaseki chided him, and denied there were any impeachment plans against his Deputy. But not true. Proof: Thereafter, Obaseki went after Shaibu in full force.

He began by inflicting on his Deputy of seven years a public humiliation. During a Thanksgiving Service to mark the anniversary of the creation of Edo State, Shaibu stood up from the obscure place he sat and made to access the Governor. Ordinarily, he should have sat close to the Governor, perhaps, a couple of seats away from him. But no. Then, he made one of the greatest mistakes of his life. Shaibu decided to go and greet his boss. And Obaseki bared his fangs. In the full glare of the public, a few steps away from the Governor and his wife, a security personnel blocked Shaibu from accessing the Governor. As Shaibu suffered that humiliation, Governor Obaseki and his wife looked on. Unperturbed. I wonder if Shaibu’s wife was present to watch her husband’s belittling. Must have been tough for her.

Political watchers and those who know Obaseki agree that by the time he finishes dealing with his Deputy, Shaibu will not only be finished politically, almost, he would forget the prefix before his name – Comrade. As I write, Shaibu is not only fighting to remain relevant in a Government he is number two in hierarchy, he is, also fighting to convince Nigerians that he is not a common thief. More on this later.

What is the story? How did the elder-junior brother relationship between Obaseki and Shaibu deteriorate to the level where Shaibu no longer has access to his Principal; where a security personnel would publicly stop him from walking up to the Governor to greet him; where a door will be slammed against his face; where he will be evicted from the office of the Deputy Governor, domiciled inside Government House Benin, to an obscure building outside Government House; where he was stripped of his Media Aides?

According to reports, the story is simple. Shaibu dared say he would vie for the office of the Governor in 2024. He dared dream to succeed Obaseki on the expiration of the Governor’s term in office. He dared dream big. He dared have an ambition. Big mistake.

Shaibu was the President of the Students Union Government in his days in the University. He may have been a good SUG President But he is not a good student of history. I may even add that he is not a good politician too. Otherwise, Shaibu should have known that by aspiring to succeed Obaseki, he has committed a cardinal sin. In Nigeria, Deputy Governors, even Vice Presidents are doomed if try to move a step further than where they are. Their “‘Ogas” see it as disrespectful. They see it as, perhaps, ”this guy wants to compete with me.”

So, they begin to find faults, throw obstacles, once their tenure is ending. Look at it. President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar. President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. Even though the Vice Presidents yearned to succeed their Presidents, it stopped at that – yearning. They were not encouraged to, let me not so allowed to.

The case of Deputy Governors is even worse. They are meant to be anonymous. Their names are hardly heard or known outside their immediate environment. In deed, a number of people, even in their States, hardly know the names of the Deputy Governors. The Governors so overwhelm them that they feel small, and look small before them. They are to be seen, not heard.

Nobody has been able to explain why. But that is the norm. It is an unwritten rule. They usually prefer somebody else to succeed them. Some people say it is, perhaps, because they think their Deputies know too much. Or because they treated their Deputies so bad that if allowed to succeed them, they would pay them back in their own coins. So, any ambitious Deputy is dealt with immediately. He could be impeached. The Governor does not need any reason to do so. He only orders the Speaker of the House of Assembly to get “the boys” and impeach the Deputy Governor. It’s that easy. Where a Deputy Governor succeeds his boss, something must have gone wrong.

Years ago at the Protocol Lounge of the local wing of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, I met Dr Rabiu Kwankwaso, just after he left office as the Governor of Kano State. Without knowing the undercurrent, I congratulated him for allowing his Deputy, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, to succeed him in office. Big mistake on my part. When I later learnt Ganduje literally snatched it (by force) from Kwankwaso, and left him with no choice, l asked myself: “who send you sef”? I was lucky the man did not hiss at me in response. When Ganduje began to deal with Kwankwaso, to the extent of literally banning him from entering Kano, it was no surprise.

Perhaps, the Kwankwaso/Ganduje experience is why Governors never allow their Deputies to succeed them. It was the same with Engr. Dave Umahi, immediate past Governor of Ebonyi State, now Works Minister, and his Governor, Martin Elechi. Umahi, Elechi’s Deputy, snatched it from him. Elechi wanted somebody else – a former Minister for Health. For years, their relationship was not cordial. Elechi quit the Peoples Democratic Party because of Umahi. Now, Umahi has joined him there.

As the Governor of Lagos State, President Tinubu did away with three, or was it four Deputy Governors. I forget. As the Governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha had three Deputy Governors impeached, and a Secretary to the State Government sacked, all because he felt each of them had the ambition to succeed him in office.

In Enugu State, then Governor Sullivan Chime had his Deputy Governor, Sunday Onyebuchi impeaced for having a poultry within Government House – the Deputy Governor’s own premises. When asked why, Chime, with a wave of the hand said “We just replaced a bad plug.” And, one can go on on. These guys wake up to hear that their staff have either been withdrawn or sacked by their Principals – without the courtesy of informing them before that.

Problem is, no Deputy Governor has had the guts to quit office on his/her own over the humiliation some of them suffer in the hands of some Governors.

Otherwise, after the public humiliation of being blocked by a Security personnel from getting close to the Governor, Shaibu should have quit office. He should have known he has been stripped of every political power.

Not a few people blame the Constitution for the fate of Deputy Governors. They are of the view that the Constitution neither protected their office, nor gave them the teeth to bite. It left them empty, powerless, and stripped of their liver.

Every conciliatory moves made by Deputy Governor Shaibu’s to appease his boss has been like pouring water into a basket. His public statement where he said he had withdrawn the case he instituted in Court to prevent his speculated impeachment has not worked. He thanked the very highly placed individuals who helped smoothen his path again (or so he thought) with his Governor who he fondly calls his elder brother. That has not worked. Nor has his many pledges of absolute loyalty to the Governor worked. Instead, things are getting worse. The rope around Shaibu’s neck is tightening. And the political vultures are waiting for his political carcass. He knows.

An unconfirmed report on Tuesday, September 12, said Shaibu has moved out of his official quarters. This comes days after he was moved out of the Deputy Governors office within Government House to a not-quite dignified office outside it.

Sooner than later, if Shaibu does not soak his Chaplet in holy water, he could hear his impeachment bell. And one of the reasons would be a big scandal. Here is what.

An Edo State Politician/ business man has accused Shaibu of stealing his wrist watch worth 250,000 USD. In a petition to the Inspector General of Police, Dr Kayode Egbetokun, this man said he caught Shaibu, red-handed, at a function in the USA, wearing the wrist watch which, he claims, one of Shaibu’s Police details siezed from him when the Deputy Governor attempted to plant a gun on him.

I don’t know if Shaibu has responded. If not, it is in his own interest to tell his own side of the story. Did he attempt to plant a gun on an innocent person? Did he steal the man’s wrist watch as he alleges? If Obaseki and the House of Assembly decide to impeach him, and add the alleged theft to one of the offences, the sh*t will finally hit the roof. And there will be no redemption. That will be bad for a young man who still has a long political future before him. Sad.