By Steve Osuji
On paper, this proposes to be a sumptuous election. It looks like one of those elections that presents a crushing landslide. To make it plain, if the Independent National Electoral Committee (INEC) manages to do a decent job, EXPRESSO is of the considered opinion that the Labour Party candidate, Olumide Akpata, will have a clean sweep of the Edo gubernatorial polls, holding in three week’s time (September 21st, 2024). Indeed, in ordered climes, we should expect a shellacking!
Here are 10 reasons undergirding this open endorsement of Mr. Akpata.
INTEGRITY
As they say, integrity is everything. In leadership, in business and in all human relationships. A man’s integrity quotient is the first course. It is said that a man who has everything but integrity, has nothing. Conversely, a man who has integrity but lacks much other things has a lot.
And what’s better than honesty and moral principles in shaping a man’s values and character. This is what Olumide Osaigbovo Akpata has proven even to a distant observer like this column.
One notable example was Olumide’s battle with members of the Inner Bar of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in his quest to becoming president of the body in 2020.
Only 48 years old, Olumide had challenged the all- powerful Nigerian body of silk, also known as the rank of Seniors Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). These men and women are the eminence grise of not just the Nigerian bar, but the judiciary and indeed, the political system. These venerated seniors (inner bar) had hitherto, captured the Nigerian bar and for about three decades, made sure no member of the outer bar led the NBA. Without a written rule anywhere, they created a solid convention that “disqualified” a non-silk from aspiring to the top job of the NBA ab initio.
It was this sacrilegious code that Akpata broke in 2020 when he not only contested but beat two SANs and won by a landslide. The victory was so authentic that if you combined the figures of the two contesting SANs, he still beat them by good margins.
COURAGE
This victory marked a major turning point in the annals of the NBA. It was indeed a paradigm shift. Once again, any eligible lawyer can contest for the top job of the bar. It ceased to be the exclusive preserve of the silky cabal. Olumide made sure of that!
It’s actually public knowledge that the inner Bar made up of the body of SANs were rapidly becoming the vermin of the Nigerian polity and society. As shown in numerous instances, they work hand-in-gloves with corrupt politicians to pillage the commonwealth. Those who by their very profession are sworn to uphold rule of law and defend the sanctity of the judiciary are today, a rapine band of locusts.
From helping in money laundering through untenable legal fees, to masterminds of the malfeasance in election cases manipulation.
Many are known to be negotiators and bearers of bribe, to name just a few. Olumide showed courage in taking on some of these demigod SANs and indeed, exposing and shaming a few of them. Unbeknownst to him, Nigerians like this columnist were watching and taking note as he confronted he helped demystify some of Nigeria’s entrenched goliaths.
CAPACITY
Akpata’s battle against the ancient regime of the Bar and his election landslide victory is a pointer to the fact that he has capacity not only to mobilize but to also get the desired results. Even though he’s not from one of the three major ethnic groups, his message cut across; he was able to win over young and middle level lawyers who saw his vision and keyed in to his mission.
And going by his achievements in office as NBA president, it is apparent that he can deliver on his promises. First, he reviewed the chaotic NBA electoral process that brought him in resulting in over 50% more voters turn-out in his exit election in 2022.
He introduced members of the NBA to national health insurance cover and drove a campaign to improve the wages of young lawyers across the country. His tenure as NBA president was devoid of scandal and indeed, considered an all round success. This suggests that he has capacity and the temperament to govern.
ACTIVIST AND DISRUPTER
Olumide could be likened to a Gani Fawehinmi of the less litigious type. He is not afraid to speak truth to power. Of course that’s the trademark of people of integrity. He exhibited his principled activism when he confronted the body of SANs. It’s probably one of the reasons he’s not a SAN today even after leading the NBA.
It could be said that he’s not enamoured of such honorifics usually hankered after my smaller folks. He is the type to disrupt the corrupt and corruptive structures found in state governance systems across Nigeria.
He was seen calling out INEC during the last election for its shoddy outing in his neighbourhood. In one of his interviews, he said he decided to contest Edo governorship seat because he was tired of complaining from outside. His mantra is that governance is about the people. He harps on the fact that an average of N16 billion monthly revenues accruing to the state, Edo should never be in the decrepit state it is today.
TRACK RECORD
His tracks are well paved and well worn. Both in education and work. Federal Government College, Warri; King’s College, Lagos; University or Benin, Law degree and Law School. All this done in 22 years. He joined a prominent law firm as a fledgling lawyer in Warri, Delta State, then migrated to Lagos to join his cousin in the corporate law firm, Templars. He sojourned there for 28 years, rising to be partner, helping to build one of the biggest firms in Nigeria.
Then he fought a gruelling battle to lead the influential NBA, and now, he wants to serve Edo people . This is as straightforward and unblemished as life’s record can be. A true leaders life must be shorn of dark corners and smudges as we see in many of our political leaders today.
EDO NEEDS A FRESH BREAK
If Edo people won’t vote Olumide on the basis of the above personal traits and credentials, perhaps the poor choices of candidates they are left with might force them to settle for the best of three ‘evils.’
Edo, like most other states in Nigeria has been poorly run since 1999. Whether under the flag of PDP or lately APC, the result has been same of same – mediocrity mating mendacity.
From a certain Lucky Igbinedion to volubly vacuous Adams Oshiomhole and now doodling Obaseki, Edo people have been left with the short end of the stick. Edo, again, like most States in Nigeria sure needs a new lease of life. Of the three major candidates angling for the Edo top job (Monday Okpebholo (APC), Asue Ighodalo (PDP) and Olumide Akpata (LP), the later seems to take the cake.
ASUE’s ANOTHER VERSION OF OBASEKI
Current governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo came with much promise of a much- vaunted technocrat but he has flopped like an even flower. After eight years, he never could be able to lift Edo from the morass of primordialism. Edo wears the same ugly, dirt face as represented by its ancient capital city, Benin.
All Obaseki does is talk and pretend to plan – without end. Just the other day, Obaseki launched with much fanfare, a 30-year master plan for Edo State. Meanwhile he has only about 30 days to effectively become a lame duck governor. A diligent fellow would be telling the world the great feat he accomplished in eight years in office, just in case we missed anything from a distance. But alas, we didn’t miss much, because he didn’t do much.
He’s a bad exemplar of a technocrats as public officials. Very lacklustre.
Now, Obaseki bent on recasting his mold with his kind – Asue.
Unfortunately, Obaseki’s poor aura is already rubbing off poorly on Asue Ighodalo.
Ighodalo, a capital market wonk like Obaseki appears like a corporate weasel. He seems all about the ability to master the money jungle and being adept at feathering one’s nest. A lifetime of grubbing for lucre can never redound positively on public good. Obaseki just proved it.
Particularly astonishing is that Asue seems to be possessed of an especial disdain for his native land. He can’t speak the tongue, suggesting that he didn’t even bother to mix with his people. Yet he live in Nigeria all the while! That’s inexplicable, almost unpardonable.
It’s the opinion of this column that Asue would be Godwin plus or minus a little – powerpoint savvy, workshop governor, delivering little real value to the people (he doesn’t quite know them anyways!)
OKPEBHOLO WHO?
APC is at it again. The only kind of candidate APC hasn’t presented for office is a cadaver. They will do so soon if we don’t stop them. Such is the disdain and contempt with which they hold Nigerians.
They are in a rarefied world of their own. They don’t give a hoot about the people. It’s about the deepest pocket. They would present a primate if that be the highest ‘donor’. Check their specimen from Imo government house to Kogi and Ogun, to name a few…
Now it’s Okpebholo! One who can’t even complete a sentence. He has refused to grant interviews, just like President Bola Tinubu did the other day.
Like Tinubu again, this man who wants to govern Edo State has a most opaque past. His entire bio is written in three short paragraphs; it contains only two dates: when he was supposedly born (1972) and when he emerged from the shadows and became a Senate (2023).
No proper records of schooling, work experience, etc. It’s that eerie, it’s like a ghost seeking to be state governor! This is as ghoulish as it gets! At least we can verify Tinubu’s sojourned in the US, Okpebholo can’t account for 40 years on his life! No wonder he would never stand for an interview!
THE OSHIOMHOLE/APC CURSE
Lastly, have you seen former Edo governor, Adams Oshiomhole on the APC campaign trail lately? He makes an entrée on to the stage bouncing feverishly like balls on fire. He grabs the microphone and lapses into a long gibberish as he is wont. Unknowing electorate would probably mistake him for the candidate. The so-called candidate would only struggle to utter a few words and that’s it.
Oshiomhole desperately seeks a chance to rule Edo by proxy as Bola Tinubu rules Lagos and parts of southwest. He wants to install an ELEYI in Edo as Tinubu installed in Ogun.
But he can’t seem to wrap it around his head that Edo is not Lagos. Edo people long wrote him off. They once ushered him into government house with great expectations. But for eight years, he turned out like the rest of them as he spent the years managing his loot… and yes, marrying oyibo wife too.
Oshiomhole is a shameless serial liar on the campaign trail. He lied about Buhari, he lied about Tinubu, he lied about Ize Iyamu, he lied about Obaseki and now he’s lying about Okpebholo. At 72, you would expect that he would take himself far from the madding crowd. But he has no shame.
Of course, Oshiomhole represents the ugly face of the APC, and that’s speaking both literally and metaphorically. APC has proven beyond doubt that it’s a curse upon Nigeria. After only nine years, it would appear that whoever votes APC again in Nigeria invites a curse upon himself. One supposes that Edo people are far too rational than to wish APC upon themselves. To allow APC in Edo is to wish for a slow death as we are experiencing in Nigeria today!
Without doubt, every Nigerian knows by now that APC never win elections, they are a rigging machine. But of course, Edo no dey gree, dem go die there on September 21st…
ONE LAST WORD
This column doesn’t know Akpata from anywhere. This report is informed opinion based on decades of public affairs analyses; information available in the public domain and a sampling of the opinion of some knowledgeable Edo indigenes.
In the course of this, it also came out that Olumide is highly opinionated, a bit authoritarian and a bit aloof. At a personal level, he also seems to be hobbled by matrimonial issues. All of these would seem like small matter though, considering the hefty baggage being lugged by the other candidates. But he must deal with them; come clean.
Bottomline
Edo must get it right, we must reclaim our country, Nigeria, one state at a time.
Osuji, an accomplished Journalist and Columnist, a former Editorial Board Member of The Nation, was the Special Adviser, Media, to a Former Governor of Imo State, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha
