By Crusoe Osagie
Ordinarily, this piece does not deserve any reply, and the reason is simple, reading through it, it is immediately obvious that the author has absolutely no clue to what is happening in Edo State.
However, I am compelled to respond because as a journalist with about two decades experience, the first thing I do before reading a piece is to check the name of the author and in this case, I am excited to find that the author is well known.
We worked together at THISDAY for several years. So for me, this reply is just an intellectual exchange with an opponent I know fairly well.
Firstly, Ojeifo, you may be from Edo State, but you and I know that apart from the jaundiced brief you received from Dan Orbih and other actors within the Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), you have no clue to what is happening in Edo State. For the purpose of safeguarding the little professional regard I have for you, I will like to assume that you were conned by Orbih and his bedfellows to do this piece that has seriously belittled the supposedly high standing of journalism expertise which you acquired during your days as a crack reporter for THISDAY newspapers. But of course, a lot of water has gone under the bridge since you left and you probably are not quite the investigative and critical journalist you used to be. The first shock I received from reading your opinion piece was when you seemed to suggest that Obaseki needs to load his government with political jobbers, who you quite eloquently described as “experienced grassroots politicians.†In your own words, “The dearth of experienced politicians in his government is obvious in his political and strategic misstepsâ€. My question to you is, do all these experienced politicians have to be in Obaseki’s government as political appointees? Like you seemed to suggest before they can play their roles as political leaders within the ruling party in the state. Or has my comrade journalist become so degraded in his idealistic struggle for the good of the common man to begin to make such a shameful case for ‘job for the boys’?
On the preposterous allegation of the diversion of rice meant for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to a Senator in Ondo State and to a certain house after the by-pass in Benin City, for which Orbih literarily, thumped his chest and boasted on a popular pidgin English radio programme, Man Around Town, I wonder why Ojeifo cannot understand that if any one makes such a definite allegation that a crime has been committed and goes on to state that he has incontrovertible evidence, then naturally, the police and other security agencies have a job to do on that matter.
I am sure Orbih did not tell Ojeifo while he was priming him to write his piece that he has been sending emissaries to the government to plead that charges should not be pressed against him.
As for the petition allegedly sent by the PDP to the police claiming that myself and the Honourable Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Paul Ohonbamu Esq., may have incited the public against the Edo PDP because we have called them a party of bandits and rogues, I would like to remind Ojeifo, in case his journalist note pads have been misplaced in the pursuit of other interests, that a court of competent jurisdiction, in December 2008, in Enugu, convicted a former governor of Edo State on the platform of the PDP, for fraud and misappropriation of funds.
So, if we therefore say that such a political party in the state that produced a governor who was convicted for fraud is a party of bandits and rogues, is there no logical premise to draw such a conclusion?
Finally, for your information, assuming that a section of your journalism ethics which seeks truth and balance persists, I would like to remind you of the recent local government elections where the “Team PDP†who you have described as being on rampage in Edo State, seeking for goals, chickened out of the process and could not as much as feature even one candidate for the council polls. The 18 council chairmen from the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and all the councillors from the party have since been sworn into office and have commenced governing at the grassroots level.
If this zero sum political outcome is the result due to a political party “on rampage, seeking for goalsâ€, then this sort of rampage may be the most desirable by any ruling party from the opposition.
Edo State is no longer a fiefdom ruled by a few lords. Hard as this might be for you to accept, considering your relationship with some of the unseen forces that held the state to ransom, and who were famously retired from politics by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, there is a new order in the state, in which governance is about the ordinary people of Edo State, as against the old order of a privileged few. The new order is the new normal and will remain for a long time to come.
Governor Obaseki is committed to sustaining this new order by safeguarding the interests of the ordinary Edo people and residents in the state.
Osagie is the Special Adviser to the Edo State Governor on Media and Communication Strategy
