Dr. Bolaji O. Akinyemi is the Convener, Apostolic Round Table as well as the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT), Project Victory Call Initiative, aka PVC Naija. Dr. Akinyemi, CEO, Masterbuilder Communications, few days ago led some patriots for the assessment of Governor Godwin Obaseki’s tenure in Edo State. In this interview with EJIKEME OMENAZU, he speaks on the exercise, even as he takes a futuristic view on the coming governorship election in Edo State. Excerpt:
You and some experts just concluded an assessment of the administration of the incumbent Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki. Could you let us know your findings?
Well, in the wisdom of the Board of PVC-NAIJA, the Governance Impact Assessment (GIA) Committee was reconstituted to exclude me. This is because the video of my confrontation with the president over the Edo election in 2020 went viral, though I am trusted and by a larger session of the public, too. Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) should have an unbiased view of the Committee. The Committee will now be led by the President of PVC-NAIJA, Madam Paula Bellgam, who is presently away in the UK. The report of the assessment will now be made public in August.
With your findings, do you think the performance of Gov Obaseki will make PDP have an edge over other political parties in the coming governorship election in Edo State?
I can only speak in my personal capacity as Bolaji O. Akinyemi in this instance about Obaseki’s assessments since the expert committee put together by PVC-NAIJA is still sitting. Assessment of governance impact in Edo State in my thinking cannot be limited to professional estimation, beyond the indicator set by relevant global bodies on Governance Impact Assessment are expectations of the locals; those trapped within the geographical space of such government’s influence. I said that to say this: challenge of Governance Impact Assessment is complicated by the benchmark global indicators; freedom of expression, respect of the rights of individuals, the rule of law and adherence to separation of powers. You judge Obaseki with those indicators and rate his performance in the last four years. The next person to Obaseki in the state is his deputy. We don’t know if there are other personal issues between them. But what is known to the public is, Shuaibu’s problem started with him expressing his desire to be governor which, he is, of course, free to. All the drama that followed that is unnecessary. A democrat must learn the diplomacy of practice. Akinwunmi Ambode’s ambition was subsumed through democratic diplomacy. You may say the primary was not free and fair, but he was allowed his right of expression to contest at the primary. Should we talk about clampdown on the legislative institution for the better part of his second tenure? Local government administrators as with other states, were hirelings, stooges put in charge of the third tier of government by their pay masters. The usefulness of the legislative arm for his personal agenda against his deputy is one of the amusements of politicians. Unbelievable! Now, to the context of the needs of the people of Edo State, who voted him to be governor. How has he fared in the eyes of the people? Obviously, he should be above average based on my personal interactions with friends from the grassroots. Reason a professional assessment should be done. Politicians are capable of drilling a borehole beside a river! The people will still travel their usual distances to the river bank to fetch the same water. It may be cleaner in appearance because it has filtered through the soil to flow through pipes but it is still the same water from the river with all its impurities. But the fact that the water is flowing through a tap is enough to excite the poor and illiterate among us! Reason the intellectual elites who are beacons of integrity must come to the aid of the masses to be part of political education platform that Community Ambassadors for Peaceful Elections (CAPE) is setting up in all the wards of Edo and Ondo states.
How do you see the candidates taking part in the coming Edo governorship election?
Absolutely impossible to do what you requested of me effectively on 17 candidates in the race for Osadebe House. Though 2024 is looking like a three-horse race, we cannot ignore the miracle of Daman in a political context where a team presumed to be out of the game plotted a comeback half way into the match to carry the day. The possibility of that can only happen through structures. Osagie Ize-Iyamu has the strongest political structure in Edo State as of this very day. Though he is in APC, his reason for withdrawing from the governorship aspiration is relatively unknown. On which side will he be playing at this election? ADC as a political party has a structure linked to Senator Roland Owie’s stint with the party. Mr Solomon Edebiri, though silent politically, the initiator of Responsibility, Integrity, Transparency and Accountability as value giving virtues in government and he still remains a force to be reckoned with in Edo politics. I am speaking of the very first candidate whose integrity seduced me into the role we are known for today in Edo politics since 2010. He is still very much a portrait of Responsibility Integrity Transparency and Accountability. Those three latent political forces are capable of swinging the pendulum. To my analysis, keeping it to the political parties, it will be APC, PDP and LP, but you know, I do not do parties, but candidates. In order of candidates, it will be Ighodalo, Monday and then Akpata. An ideology fanned the last election that saw Obaseki triumph; ‘Edo no be Lagos’! This is still very much alive. As a matter of fact, it is the Goliath all catapults are swinging and aiming for its forehead. I can say that Ighodalo does not look like a Saul dressed in David’s war armour, but another David with similar profile like Obaseki. Asuerinme Ighodalo, a lawyer from Okaigben, Ewohimi, Esan South East LG, the zone to which the spirit of the streets in Edo have decided the next governor must come from. He, alongside Femi Olubanwo, founded the law firm, Banwo-and-Ighodalo, a corporate and commercial law practice in Nigeria specialising in advising major corporations on Corporate Finance, Capital Markets, Energy & Natural Resources, Mergers & Acquisitions, Banking & Securitisation and Project Finance. He is the Chairman, Sterling Bank; Director, Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA); Chairman, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG). Understand that Asue has come this far, giving advice to corporate organisations who have made success of the inspiration from this individual’s professional counsels. That goes to show the quality of his personality; a round peg for Obaseki’s drilled hole of the last eight years. The twisting and turning of APC primary that saw the governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma, suspended as a party man and Chairman of APC Primary in Edo State. That drama saw Okpebholo emerge as the candidate is a confirmation of how strong the force of justice for equity and fairness is on the streets in Edo State. Aside from APC adjusting to the yearning of Edo for justice for Edo Central, the desperation shown by Mr. President to have control of Edo State in 2020 is far from being over. This may be an asset to Monday bearing in mind that the institution empowered by law to supervise the electoral process, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is vulnerable to the Presidency. There is no excitement about Monday; the only achievement to his name when a quick check was made on Google is a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria since 2023. And, of course, information about his birth: “Monday Okpebholo (born 29 August 1970) and the line; a Nigerian businessman and politician concluded the man APC is presenting as its governorship candidate in this information age. Akpata is looking like the competition against Ighodalo, but the street vibes of Justice for Edo Central is his biggest hurdle to becoming governor. He is on the ticket of a party Nigerian youths are presently in love with at the moment. Not for the party, but for Peter Obi and his phenomenal connection with the youth in the last general elections. Olumide Osaigbovo Akpata is the youngest of the trio, born October 7, 1972, from Edo South Senatorial District, same zone Obaseki is from. A Nigerian legal practitioner and politician. Senior Partner and the Head of the Corporate and Commercial Practice Group at Templars law firm in Nigeria until his resignation on August 31, 2023 to enable him to pursue partisan politics. Akpata, no doubt a political strategist who plotted his way at becoming the first non-Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 28 years to be elected president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in July 2020. He is however at the mercy of the street’s movement for Justice for Edo Central as far as the coming election is concerned.
