Edo 2024: Ighodalo, PDP’s campaign in disarray as APC’s Okpebholo heads for victory

 

By Sebastine Ebhuomhan I Wednesday, August 21,2024

 

ABUJA, Nigeria – Exactly 31 days to the election of a new governor of Edo State, the state-ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaign is in disarray. The mess of total confusion has been identified for the party campaign organisation’s inability to organise campaigns at senatorial district, local government area, and ward levels until now.

The PDP disorder or ‘no show’ starkly contrasts sharply to the progressive campaigns of the All Progressives Congress (APC), whose candidate, the Distinguished Senator Monday Okpebholo, alias Akpakomiza, and other party leaders under the supreme leadership of the former governor and national labour president, Distinguished Senator Adams Oshiomhole, have literarily been sleeping, waking and living in villages, towns and cities all over the state, seriously campaigning for votes.

As a reminder, the Edo State governorship election comes up on Saturday, 21st September, 2024. The organiser, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is doing everything within its human and technological capacity and capability to deliver a free, fair and credible election Nigerians would be proud of, according to its Chairman, Professor Mahmud Yakubu. As part of INEC’s plan, all registered voters yet to collect their Permanent Voter’s Cards are urged to come forward and do so.

An INEC statement signed by the HOD Voter Education and Publicity, Timidi Wariowei ruled out collection of PVC by proxy.

It stated, “The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Edo State, has fixed Thursday, 22nd August, 2024 to Monday, 26th August, 2024 for PVC collection. This five-day exercise will take place at the ward headquarters. Thereafter, the exercise will move to the INEC LGA offices for another three days, from Wednesday, 28th August to Friday, 30th August, 2024. The Commission implores all those who registered or did transfers to present themselves at the aforementioned locations and collect their PVCs. There is no PVC collection by proxy.”

The INEC is now set to test its readiness with a mock accreditation, the Supervising National Commissioner for Edo, Delta, and Cross River, Professor Rhoda Gumus, added.

As stated above, the APC began and concluded its senatorial election campaigns last week in a three-day blitz that started in Benin, Edo South; continued in Uromi, Edo Central; and concluded in Auchi, Edo North. The party and candidate’s unity of purpose as well as focus were complemented by massive love, happiness, crowd and acceptance everywhere Akpakomiza, the humble, respectful and soft-talking man-of-action, goes. Taking a lead from his 5-Point Agenda of: Security, Road Development, Affordable Healthcare, Water and Food Security, and Value-Driven Education, Okpebholo explained his Plan of Action in simple, clear words the voters comprehended and understood. For example, he promised to construct quality roads with drainages and fly-overs to tackle flooding, traffic holdups, drop transportation costs, boost the economy, and reduce general insecurity.

Okpebholo is now campaigning on LGA and ward-to-ward bases. When his campaign train landed in Ewohimi, Ighodalo’s ancestral community, a massive enthusiastic crowd of supporters defied the rains to receive him. They denounced their own Yoruba-speaking son. At Ewohimi, Oshiomhole listed the infrastructure his APC government provided to include: a modern hospital, a long road connecting Ewohimi to Ewatto, Emu, Ohodua, and Okhuesan; and an initiated water project his successor, Governor Godwin Obaseki and Ighodalo, abandoned even after he defrayed 50 per cent of the cost. Oshiomhole asked, “Are you happy that your child comes to visit you, brings an interpreter to talk to you, and runs back without sleeping over?”.

Echoing similar sentiment, Okpebholo questioned why Asue, even as a top official of the Obaseki administration could not persuade him to build a school in Ewohimi. Thereafter, he promised to fix Ewohimi schools and stop its long-time darkness by solving the community’s electricity problems.

Contrary to the falsehood from agents of Edo State government, Okpebholo’s brand-new buses are transporting Edo residents free-of-charge daily. Unlike the PDP administration that could not afford new buses for public transportation in eight years now, Akpakomiza has been doing it at personal level before election into the senate. Even without lacing his speeches with convoluted grammar that plummeted Edo State into unfulfilled Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) under Obaseki, Okpebholo offers a leadership founded on action that translates vision into reality. His positively influential life, politics and leadership affirm, epitomise and underscore John C. Maxwell’s words of wisdom that “Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowery words. It is about one life influencing another.”

In contrast, two weeks after mocking the APC for its inability to campaign even when they stole, hoarded and rebranded FG and Dangote Foundation bags of rice and seven days after their Edo South District campaign was cancelled, Ighodalo and the PDP are yet to rally or campaign anywhere in Edo State. The situation has forced Edo people to ask the whereabouts of Ighodalo, Obaseki and the PDP.

To properly explain PDP’s disarray, the party’s candidate, Ighodalo, is back to Europe and America, yet again, prioritising campaigns abroad over Edo communities, villages, towns and cities, where voters are waiting to ask questions. It was reliably gathered that Ighodalo evades communities because of questions casting doubts on his candidacy status and electability. The government, party, governor, and candidate are virtually living in fear of an impending pronounced disqualification by the court. As a prelude, the Edo State House of Assembly’s loss of appeal against the reinstatement of Deputy Governor (Hon.) Philip Shaibu, is a loud reminder of the looming disqualification of Ighodalo in two other more serious cases in the coming days. The PDP wants a free, fair and credible election in Edo State. But what is free, fair and credible about its primary election that excluded legally elected delegates from voting or its candidate who allegedly forged his voter’s card?

It was also gathered that the PDP has been unable to properly campaign because it has been unable to raise powerful personalities to counter APC’s intimidating leadership behind Okpebholo. Instead, Obaseki has opted to buy time by disapproving APC’s use of the ‘Red Roof Schools’ the Oshiomhole government built.

Indeed, the PDP has lost its biggest voices as Governor Obaseki continues to backstab his benefactors. Furthermore, Ighodalo’s refusal to campaign with Obaseki, despite serving as the latter’s Chief Economic Adviser, is intended to extricate his governorship ambition from the wickedness, pains, promises, failure, and anger that their government has inflicted on people in eight years.

Unlike Ighodalo, who grew up in a foreign land, never associating with his community, never committing to its political process, only showing passive love for his exploitative benefits, but seeking to connect after being ferried to contest, Okpebholo’s attitude, growth, connection, and achievements demonstrate his character, capacity, competence and commitment, making him the best candidate to govern Edo State. Voters should vote for the Monday Okpebholo and Dennis Idahosa APC ticket for a better Edo State.

In conclusion, congratulations to the former Representative of Oredo Federal Constituency, Hon. Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama for his appointment by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Executive Director (Strategy and Commercial) of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC).

 

NB: Sebastine EBHUOMHAN is an award-winning journalist and media consultant from Edo State, writing from Abuja. He can be reached on: [email protected] or 08037204620.