Osaze Osemwegie-Ero – This Commissioner Went to Jail

Loud Whispers

with Joseph Edgar (09095325791)

Soft-spoken and gentle, the former Commissioner for Arts Culture, Tourism and Diaspora Affairs in Edo State actually went to jail. I had met him during the 2019 National Festival for Arts and Culture (NAFEST) in Benin where I was showcasing my wonderful play ‘Emotan’.
I suffer o. Edo people refused to give me money. I was just running up and down looking for sponsorship wey no come. Everybody pointed to one man. They call him Captain. Everywhere I went, they said, ”Go to Captain Hosa, na your man. Na only him fit give you the kind sponsorship you dey find.” I pursued that one tire and it looked like the more I chased him, the more the man was determined to evade me.

After days of running around, I would go to Ero’s office and siddon, stretch my leg and say, “my brother, your people hard.” We would laugh and crack jokes. We had a mutual friend Austin Ebose who is now the Managing Director at Anchor Insurance.
So it was Austin that called me last week to say, “Edgar oya come my office, Commissioner dey here”. I asked him which. He said “just come,” and I went and saw my friend. I almost wept.

We had heard the story but we didn’t have all the details. Shortly after the NAFEST, on his way to an official assignment which I am sure had to do with the returning artefacts, he was captured in Amsterdam and was later transported to Italy where he was labelled a mafia king and promptly sent to jail. One year and six months later, he regained his freedom but not without the fight of his life.

As he sat by the pool side of Eko Hotel, narrating his story to a shocked little audience made up of his close friends, I struggled to listen intently. The sumptuous buffet laid out just by my side was distracting me. Come and see the food, all sorts complete with Afang o. The snail was even bigger than Ero’s Head but no be food carry me come there. I came to listen.

He was being prosecuted with an allegedly defective Italian Mafia Criminal Code 416 according to him. The same order that made hundreds of innocent Nigerians like him victims of poor profiling and an unreliable judicial system. By his estimation, there are about 300 innocent Nigerians still languishing in various Italian jails without any hope for justice.
This has now turned into his life’s work. Getting every innocent Nigerian out of the madness that is the Italian penal system.

My own is simple. If a government official on an official assignment can be picked up just like that and our people in government from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Diaspora Commission who for all intent and purposes is just a platform for ego driven ‘boju boju’ opportunistic initiatives to the Presidency can just sit down and fold their hands without saying a word, then we are in a worse situation than hitherto thought.

I am happy my brother is back with no bitterness. He smiles, laughs and hugs thanking God for the experience and showing grit determination to help those he left behind.
As I walked towards the buffet table the third time, Ero screams at me, “Edgar, you no dey tire?”

I didn’t hesitate to fire back. “You no go shut up now before I send Italians come jack you again. Wetin concern you?”
And in Tinubu’s voice, I asked him, “Is it your money? Is it your food?” See me see wahala.