By: Amb. Benjamin Udomoh Emmanuel
In saner climes, where everything is done within the context of rightness, the relationship between a boss and his subject is usually that of a symbiotic relationship, both are mutually beneficial and indispensable to each other, this clearly underscores why things are of a better standard over there than what is paraded here in Nigeria.
In contrast, the relationship between a boss and his subject even to the point of a governor and his deputy here in Nigeria can best be described as that of a master and his slave, it demands something more than absolute loyalty and that you must surrender your inalienable rights of association and speech in the interest of your boss, a not too good thing if you ask me.
Whether you are for or against Philip Shaibu, the Deputy Governor of Edo State, one thing you cannot deny him is his absolute loyalty to His Excellency, Governor Godwin Obaseki. In the buildup to the Edo State 2020 gubernatorial election, when it was safer to be against Obaseki to safeguard yourself and your political career from the ferociousness of Oshiomhole’s bullets than to pitch tent with Obaseki whose political career was on the brink of collapse, Philip Shaibu showed courage and displayed absolute loyalty, he was perhaps the lifewire which breathed life into Obaseki who was losing friends and political allies daily.
Before the fallout between Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and His Excellency, Governor Godwin Obaseki, Oshiomhole and Shaibu had an untainted relationship that could be best described as that of a father and a son, they had an unblemished and unbreakable bond but when the Nigerianness of our politics happened, Comrade Philip Shaibu joined forces with his boss, Godwin Obaseki and fought Oshiomhole to a standstill, if this was not the highest show of loyalty, we might have to wait for a new meaning from the owners of the English language.
As outsiders, we might not be privileged to the exactness of what choreographed into the recent alleged grumblings between the governor and his most loyal deputy but feelers are that Shaibu’s dareness to contest the governorship position come next year and his surprised presence during the inauguration of his former colleagues at the National Assembly, posing for pictures with Senator Adams Oshiomhole and a mere handshake was the icing on the cake, me think that all of these are personal things every man should be allowed to do as they are within his rights and shouldn’t cause the sought of cold war which has opened the psychiatric door for one fallowed land, Albert Obaze, a most imbecilic thing with no history of being useful to himself or anybody other than being a pay-as-you-lie dickhead.
In recent history, the fight between Oshiomhole and Obaseki caused Edo State fourteen members of the State House of Assembly who though were elected but were never sworn in, Edo North had the largest share. As if that was not already enough, Etsako with its three local governments have been stylishly carved out from the scheme of things in the State as the cabinet reshuffling of the governor over two months ago has left us with no commissioners even as l write now. Why nobody has raised eyebrows over this, it will be foolhardy to keep quiet seeing another plan being hatched to harass, intimidate, embarrass and then impeach Comrade Philip Shaibu, the Deputy Governor of Edo State.
Why all is fair in politics, however, Governor Godwin Obaseki must immediately do all within his powers to chart a new course for himself and renounce the tag he has allowed his actions to be sewn on his neck, if fighting his benefactors former governor Adams Oshiomhole, Chief Dan Orbih, Nyesomi Wike, members of the Old PDP, etc, did not teach him anything, it should have at least taught him that people are beginning to see him as a man who does not maintain good relationship with those who stood by him during his rainy days, the only way to untagged himself from this inglorious appellation is to therefore prove all of us wrong with Philip Shaibu.
Let His Excellency, Governor Godwin Obaseki show that everything is not about being battle ready and tested, that the hallmark of leadership is the ability to manage relationships and live a name that will outlive your administration, let him wax stronger in all he does but let him be weary of the judgement of posterity where all of us are equal with no appendages.
At a time when other governors are putting on their thinking caps and finding veritable means of ameliorating the sufferings of their people caused by the subsidy removal and other retrogressive economic policies, commissioning projects every now and then, Godwin Obaseki should not confine himself to fighting his deputy and wasting tax payers money and trying to induce the State House of Assembly to impeach Comrade Philip Shaibu, his almost seven years administration has not benefitted the lager majority of Edo State people who had naively thought his supposed technocratic exposure would have opened Edo State for a never-seen-before industrial revolution, for seven years of his administration, it has been a fight to finish with everyone he was dined and wined with before, he must not waste what is left of his tenure to embark on another fight.
Let Obaseki’s case not become that of the proverbial saying that when crocodiles eat their own eggs, what can they not do to the offspring of a lizard, too bad!
Amb. Benjamin Udomoh Emmanuel, National Deputy Speaker, National Youths Assembly of Nigeria (NYAN)
