Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City
Ahead of next year’s governorship election in Edo State, the Esan Assembly last weekend reached a resolution to lobby the other two senatorial district of Edo North and Edo South to get them concede the governorship contest to persons of Esan extraction.
In view of this, the Esan Okpa Initiative (EOI), the umbrella socio-cultural organisation, has set up a 24-man Mobilisation and Contact Committee to carry out the task.
According to information released by EOI’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Tony Iyare, the committee which is headed by the pioneer Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly, Mr. Mathew Egbadon, is composed of former Edo State Governor, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor; frontline business man, Chief Leemon Ikpea; former President, Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mr. Peter Esele; a retired Army General, Cecil Esekhaigbe; former President, Association of Esan Professionals (AEP), Mr. Efe Akhigbe; former Special Adviser to Governor Godwin Obaseki on Post Primary Education, Dr. Roseline Etiti Okosun; and Iyare, former Special Adviser, Media & Publicity to ex-Governor Adams Oshiomhole, among others.
Apart from engaging prominent leaders of the two zones, the committee is also to have sessions with leaders of the political parties particularly the major ones: All Progressives Congress (APC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) as well as traditional rulers, women and youth organisations.
In the strong move to put forward their best hands for the forthcoming governorship contest of Edo State, the Esan ethnic nationality, located in the Central Senatorial Zone, has also listed criteria that aspirants from the zone must meet to enjoy overwhelming support.
This they argued was to ensure that only viable and capable aspirants who would equally elicit support of the Northern and Southern Senatorial Zones of the state, would be endorsed to angle for the number one seat of the state as Governor Godwin Obaseki’s eight-year term winds down in November 2024.
Rising from a meeting of the Esan Assembly under the auspices of the EOI and attended by some Esan groups in the country and the Diaspora, it endorsed the criteria presented by a six-man sub-committee headed by a Constitutional Law Scholar, Prof Mike Ikhariale, which makes the possession of a bachelors degree, as opposed to the constitutional provision of a secondary school certificate, as the minimum for persons of Esan extraction contesting for any political offices.
Other members of the sub-committee earlier set up by EOI’s Political and Strategy Committee, included Prof. Friday Okonofua, Prof. Ekeikhomen Ejele, Prof. Sylvester Odion-Akhaine, Dr. Roseline Etiti Okosun and Dr. Onoohomen Ebhohimhen.
The two-hour meeting also disclosed plans to engage other senatorial zones with the hope of getting them to concede the governorship ticket to persons of Esan extraction on the basis of justice, equity and fairness.
Stressing the altruistic nature of the group’s intervention at the meeting, the President, EOI, Mr. Matthew Egbadon, said “we are non-partisan, we are only interested in putting forward our best hands,” pleading with unserious aspirants who have joined the hordes of contenders for the governorship ticket to quit the race.
He noted that while Edo Central’s reign under Osunbor was cut short after 18 months in office, Edo South with Mr. Lucky Igbinedion and Mr. Godwin Obaseki would be completing 16 years in the governorship saddle by November 11, 2023 while Edo North has also had two terms of 8 years under Mr. Adams Oshiomhole.
