Those of us who left APC with Obaseki don’t know where we are in PDP —Idahosa

Honourable Charles Ekhoeutomwen Idahosa, former commissioner for Information in Edo State and PDP Edo South Senatorial leader championed the movement of Governor Godwin Obaseki from the APC to the PDP. In this chat with journalists in Benin preparatory to his 68th birthday anniversary on September 21, Idahosa x-rays national and local issues. He speaks also on the fate of APC stalwarts who left APC with Obaseki to the PDP in 2020 and concludes that they may all be stranded in their new party. ‘SUYI AYODELE, Regional editor, South-South and South-East brings excerpts from the interview.

 

The crisis in PDP as it moves towards the 2023 contests should worry you. What can you say about it?

The crisis in the PDP has been very unfortunate, I have been monitoring and you can see that Wike holds the ace, he is in charge and I can’t see Secondus surviving it. As we are going into 2023, there will be division and APC is just waiting to tap but unfortunately the APC does not know what they are doing as well because one court will tomorrow nullify all that they have done so we are really at a cross road. I left the APC when Oshiomhole started giving us problems but here we are in PDP, there is a lot of crisis. All of us that left APC with Obaseki to PDP, we don’t know where we are. PDP won’t allow us in, they said they have finished their congresses and it is for four years. We said let us negotiate like they did in Sokoto and Borno states, they said they are not interested and next year is pre-election year, we are not delegates so we can’t be part of the processes and APC just completed their own. You see all these my leaders with me here, they come to me and ask where are we: why can’t we go back to where we came from but before they could make up their minds that place is closed. Right now, there is a committee trying to negotiate that is the hope we have in the PDP.

 

What did you Negotiate before you and your people moved to the PDP in 2020?

The time was so short; you know the time Obaseki was disqualified, we had to leave and look for a new party. The time was so short that we did not cross the ‘ts’ and dot the ‘is’. All we just wanted at the time was the ticket so we went there without a proper negotiation like the cases of Ortom and Tambuwal. We were in a hurry all we just wanted was to get the ticket first and we will negotiate those later.

Obaseki’s refusal to form a cabinet almost one year after inauguration is a cause for concern.

It worries me but the law does not say when the governor must form a cabinet. I think the law gives the governors and the president the room at their own time. We are not happy, I must make that very clear to you. This month is making it a year but you see Obaseki cannot be like Lucky Igbinedion, Lucky Igbinedion cannot be like Adams Oshiomhole; each governor comes with their own style but the governor will give you reasons. As I am talking to you there is another committee set up by the party but the governor has just finished moving round the 18 local government areas but my thinking is that maybe he is taking advantage of that to save more funds because he is more concerned about having funds to turn Edo state to an Eldorado and as far as I am concerned, only one person cannot do that. He has a very big dream. A lot of our people are not happy but the truth of the matter is that there is no law that any person can use to hold him.

 

You were quite close to Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. Why did you fall out with him?

I was the chairman of the committee on one man one vote. Taiwo Akerele who later became Chief of Staff to Obaseki was my secretary and we launched it at Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium only for him (Oshiomhole) to turn around to become the godfather himself and I said no. So it wasn’t about him, Obaseki was only fortunate to be the governor at that time so he was the symbol of the struggle. There is no way I would have allowed Anenih to finish his own and another person will come because the Benin are just there watching but I don’t blame Obaseki so much because the leadership is weak, very weak. Look at what is happening in Rivers state, you will just call ward leaders and say suspend Secondus and then ratify. I have never forwarded any of my children for any political office. That is why my people always stand by me despite all efforts to humiliate me. There is no governor that has not fought me because once you tell people the truth, they don’t like it. For instance I will tell the governor your public rating is coming down, he will say no, that is not what I hear but I am telling him the truth. If other leaders will join me but what you now hear is that he has come again so I have decided to just keep quiet. We are not happy but we are just praying that things get better because it is his government. If he succeeds, they will hail, they will not come and hail me, if things go wrong, he is the one that will still be blamed.

Oshiomhole let me down. That is why if I see him today, I won’t talk to him. He knew how I supported him. He was very close to me; he is a very nice person in the sense that he is one man that bows to superior arguments. When he came to government, we were not in control of the state house of assembly, they carried Oshiomhole with the state budget to Abuja; a sitting governor, that was how the fight against Chief Tony Anenih started. When he got to Abuja, they took him to Anenih’s house with late Zakawanu Garuba and Edo State budget and Anenih was cancelling budgets with his red biro and mandated the house to go and pass the budget.

Oshiomhole called me from the airport and showed me the markings by Anenih and there I told him we have to fight and I told him we must take over the house because as long as they are in control of the house, we will continue to carry budgets to Abuja.

I told him let’s start the fight by firing the four commissioners he (Anenih) gave you but Oshiomhole was reluctant, I told him if he doesn’t want to do it, I will do it. It was a heated argument in his office but as I was leaving, I called the Press Secretary to give me his crew and I addressed the press because I know Anenih very well so I criticized him seriously in the press conference and immediately the conference was aired, I knew he would not like it and immediately it was aired, he called the four commissioners and instructed them to go and resign from the government.

It was Oshiomhole who also instructed me to reverse the choice of Chief Tom Ikimi as the pioneer Chairman of the APC and replace him with Chief John Oyegun and that was how I also started to hit Oyegun for him to become the national chairman of the APC; he knew all these roles I played and I also told him I am not far from him when he became the national chairman.

I cautioned him in the presence of a commissioner that he was shielding Obaseki and I warned him that when Obaseki is through with the leaders, he will come for him and ruin him.

 

Your assessment of Obaseki’s performance in terms of infrastructure?

I am very comfortable with him, he is doing very well and like I said, he has a very big dream, he wants to do so many things but the resources are not there. But I am happy with what he is doing, though I am not happy that we are not enjoying it in my local government area, I want him to extend it to our local government area.

 

There is the speculation on Edo South fielding a governorship candidate in 2024 as against Edo Central

That is a lie. Can only Edo South bring a governor? We need votes from other parts of the state. The issue is that we need to sit down and talk. Edo South has the population and anywhere we swing, will pull weight but my joy is that I don’t play tribal politics I talk about the individuals. What makes Edo beautiful is that there is no ethnic group in the state that cannot trace their origin from Benin. 2024 will be determined by the strategic position of the two political parties. Let me ask you this, if APC decides to field Osagie Ize-Iyamu again in 2024 who is from Edo south, what do you want PDP to do? The two parties must be able to agree so that the governorship will go to a particular region. These are the things we should be talking about. If APC picks Edo South, would you expect PDP not to do otherwise? If they do, they will lose because there will be tribal sentiment. It is for the leaders in the two parties to agree that we are one and what we need is fairness and justice. Professor Ambrose Alli who was from a minority became governor of Bendel State because the Benin voted for him massively against an Urobho candidate from a majority ethnic group. The Benin man to be governor, he needs Edo Central, he needs Edo North so it is the leaders in the two political parties that will agree but it is something that will be perfected before 2024.

 

What are your views on the VAT controversy?

As far as I am concerned, restructuring has started and I am very happy about that. Let us go and test the constitution in the court. How can you raise N15b and they give you N4b?  Meanwhile, those practicing Sharia say no alcohol and a major part of this VAT is from alcohol. Let each state take what it can generate, that is what late Obafemi Awolowo did. The only problem I have with Awolowo that is still very painful to me, because he was the greatest thing that happened to us in this country, is that he did not pull us out of the Nigerian federation. When he discovered that the north was not ready to go at his pace he could have pulled us out of the federation. You can imagine that we had the first television station in Africa, we had the tallest building in Africa, we had an Olympic stadium all to Awolowo as Premier of the Western Region, we were better than South Africa and others, Malaysia was coming here to borrow money, he should have pulled us out to become the Republic of Western Nigeria; we would still have been bigger than over 30 countries in Africa. We would have been like Singapore.

 

How do you feel at 68

I don’t feel any difference, at 68 by the grace of God I still feel as if I am 50, it is just that there are certain things you want to do that you cannot do again; the body is not as strong but outside, we are happy, we thank God. I am very grateful to God that in my 68 years I have never been hospitalised, I have never slept in the hospital, I have never been rushed to the hospital, I hear of people saying last night I was sick and I was rushed to the hospital, it has never happened to me so I am grateful to God. The body is strong, the children are doing well. Politics has been disastrous in the sense that it is a game that is littered with ungrateful people ; you fight battles, you defend people, you fight for people and at the end they pay you back with ingratitude so that is politics. I have suffered a lot of embarrassment in politics. I wanted to go to the Senate and without primaries, they dashed it out for a pot of porridge. I wanted to be governor, I contested with Adams Oshiomhole, they massively rigged the primaries; he was too new in the party to beat me. He was barely two weeks old after he transversed all the political parties in Edo State. But thank God we are still alive, we are not begging for food, at 68 I am very fulfilled. I have served my people, I was a local government chairman elected on zero party basis where you have to put your integrity at stake and the people voted for me, I have been a commissioner, I have been DG Edo Liaison Office, I have been a political adviser and I have been several other things; I have been a member of the board of NTA which was very satisfying to me haven started my working life as a reporter with the NTA, today I am on the board of the Nigerian Railway Corporation so I am satisfied I am not looking forward to any political contest, I am contented and I am grateful to God.