The Ondo-Edo trans-border impeachment banditry

When my mother died, my colleagues in the Correspondents’ Chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ekiti State Council went with me to Awomukwu in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State to bury her. The chairman of the chapel, Mr. Rotimi Ojomoyela led the Ekiti Correspondents on the trip. With them around to add the Ekiti verve, it wasn’t all gloom as we mourned my dear mother. We mourned as Christians and Muslims who have hope that the Almighty in His infinite mercy will look kindly upon her and grant her eternal rest. As the living, mercies of the Lord should not depart from us too in our daily struggles. So, we also partied after burying her. There was revelry during which one of my colleagues found out that the compound, a few meters from where we sat, was “in another village and their variant of the Igbo language is slightly different.” He was curious and I was serious. “It’s a fact. That is Ekebedi-Oboro village”, I weighed in. By way of reminiscence I offered an explanation and joked: “So, what it means is that during our primary school days, when we routinely went to that village to fetch water from their stream and, sometimes fight with the children of the village, we were committing trans-border banditry.”

The strength and full paraphernalia of the word ‘banditry’ in this circumstance are not the matter here. Its true meaning also isn’t in consideration either. Indeed, cross-border banditry is not a joke. It is not a laughing matter. It is such a phenomenon to not trivialise because it is a sad, painful reality in Nigeria. Considering the infinite devastation the activities of armed bandits have caused in parts of Nigeria, it should be a matter for serious lamentation. It is more disheartening that, going by reports, most of the criminals who became bandits and terrorists in our country strolled through our land borders. They sauntered into our country with our gatemen and women greeting them ranka dede. They are the cross-border bandits who came in from our neighbouring countries to savagely deal with us.

Sadly, we have been so helpless. Some states in our country have towns and villages which have been under the terrifying influence of bandits. They are the kings in such places and they are the dictating authorities. Helpless citizens regularly pay them obeisance – in cash and in kind and with death. It is that bad. But we are helpless, and in our helplessness, we make a joke of this sad and regrettable spell. As they say, when a situation doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger. We seem to have adapted to life with bandits and life with their excesses. When you act in certain ways, we now can make a joke of your acts and say that you’re committing ‘cross-border banditry’ just like in our primary school days of football, fights and fun in the village.

In the news now are Ondo and Edo states of Nigeria. They are two Nigerian states that are experiencing political fights and froths. Edo and Ondo are in the midst of their own ‘trans-border banditry’ reminiscent of the type of our primary school-days ‘trans-border banditry’ – senseless bickering. Theirs are relentless and are tailored to have the same effect. The two states share boundaries and have several crevices through which Ondo can enter Edo and vice versa. One seems to be impacting or teaching or copying the other. That is how similar the current political squabbles in the states appear. Right now, across their boundaries, they are reeling in their man-made political banditry, mischief, rivalry and all that. Edo and Ondo states have the same type of slates they are writing on. On their slates, they are both creating their own kind of modern-day templates for political growth and advancement of their states and the country. Interestingly the two states have handed their citizenry and all of us the same kind of scripts: How to blatantly impeach the deputy governor.

Recently, Edo State suddenly descended into a political crisis that is centred on Governor Godwin Obaseki and his deputy, Mr. Philip Shaibu. The Edo debacle took many people by surprise because until reports of their – again – bickering became public, all seemed well and smooth with the duo. A quarrel usually transforms regular songs to allegories – people in or from polygamous relationships will understand what this means, especially when you think in Yoruba. When the governor and his deputy fell out, they soon began to sing in parables. The colours of the problem between Governor Obaseki and Shaibu seem discernable only to the Edo State citizenry. The grey areas are clear only to those who know the beginnings but please can the Edo people have some peace! Who becomes what after their tenure is actually not in their hands and both powerful men must take it easy, especially Mr. Shaibu.

Reports from Edo point to haughtiness and conceit as well as ambition in the state’s matter. Governor Obaseki and his deputy had been coming from 2016 when they were the darling couple of the people of the state. Their combo was the wind that swept Adams Oshiomhole’s vestige from the state. They had a very smooth first tenure and now, succession has driven a wedge between them. Politics brought them together and is about to tear them completely apart except Obaseki accepts his apology.

Ondo State is in a class of its own. The state is Edo’s senior in terms of experience in this because Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu had it so rough with Agboola Ajayi as his deputy in his first term. From the current happenings, Akeredolu can pass as troubler of deputy governors because Ajayi had to abandon his office through resignation. It was reminiscent of what Mr. Ayodele Fayose did in his first term as governor of Ekiti State, but it was nowhere near the madness of that era because Agboola Ajayi rode the waves almost till the end of their tenure.

Then came Lucky Aiyedatiwa who was believed to be a man after Akeredolu’s heart. Like Edo, a quarrel has ensued and rival wives have begun to sing in parables. The Ondo State House of Assembly has even hurriedly charged Aiyedatiwa with the usual allegations. We will see where the intrigues would lead the state and the gladiators.

The similarity in the cases before the people of the two states is in the manner through which the crisis quickly unravelled. The politicians obviously want some people out of the way while they plot for the coming elections in their respective states. The deputy governors, in several of the considerations, appear to be the unfortunate fall guys. But why do we have these repeated, similar cases in our polity? Is it wrong to be ambitious and, at the same time, why is it so difficult to be loyal?

For those who are stoking impeachment and destruction, Peter F. Drucker left a profound piece of advice: “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

 

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