By Ishola Kayode
As the end of their two-term tenure looms, Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State and his deputy, Comrade Phillip Shaibu are locked in toxic battle.
The administration’s statutory tenure ends on November 12, 2024. In effect, the governor and his deputy (if he survives impeachment and removal) has about 14 months left in the saddle.
At the core of the deteriorating relationship between the duo is the issue of 2024 succession. Clearly, Governor Obaseki doesn’t want his deputy to succeed him.
But Shuabu has his eyes firmly set on becoming Edo State’s next governor.
Obaseki who is from Edo South is reportedly eyeing a successor from Edo Central. His deputy is from Edo North. But recently, he was accused of having changed his mind in favour of his senatorial zone-Edo South.
Curiously some observers wonder what would have made Shaibu to run to Court in a pre-emptive move to upend the plot to impeach him. The key motives are survival and ambition.
Obaseki is allegedly highly angered by Shaibu’s efforts to demonise him (governor) in a desperate bid to preserve himself.
However, Obaseki’s pretensions of innocence as to why Shaibu rushed to the court to preempt his impeachment flies in the wind.
More, the speculated reason why Obaseki actually decided to make his move was the alleged plot by Shaibu to produce the Speaker of the House of Assembly.
Shaibu had calculated that his chances of emerging as governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and even governor, might be discounted by the emergence of a speaker from Edo North Senatorial zone, from where the governor ceded the position. Hon Blessing Agbebaku from the zone had been anointed by Obaseki to be speaker.
It’s been alleged that preservation of political interest had nudged Shaibu into reaching out, as learnt, to a leader of the APC, whom he asked to support his bid to produce a speaker from Edo Central, claiming that he had seven PDP legislators who were his loyalists and that with five APC legislators, he would be home and dry.
The plan by Shaibu was to discount the chances of Edo Central producing the governorship candidate of the PDP once the speaker was from the zone.
A prominent leader of the APC privy to Shaibu’s plot sent a message to Obaseki to call Shaibu to order and to restrain his mischief, the sort that destroyed amity in the APC which led to the governor’s rejection and his switch to the PDP.
A video making the rounds apparently further confirms the slant of the unfolding intrigues put beyond doubt the underlying reasons feeding the Obaseki-Shaibu’s worsening face-off.
