By John Mayaki
A teary article has emerged from the Edo State government of Governor Godwin Obaseki, written and signed by the Secretary to the Edo State Government, Osarodion Ogie Esq. The hollow and lengthy statement, however, lacks substantial ambition except its motive to ’chide’ the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
But in so doing, the article only revealed the spinelessness of the state government which stems from their own misappropriation of law and order. Worse, the article calls into question, the salt and essence of the SSG who prides himself to be a lawyer. The greatest dilemma nevertheless, is how Obaseki’s tyrannical tendencies have rendered him useless to the state and unable to ever get anything right.
From the very first lines of the statement, one sees through the propaganda and the mischief intended by the author of such a statement.
Addressing the rightful and nationwide celebrated chairman of the incumbent party as ’suspended’ immediately threw the article into the true light of its nature, revealing the factionalism and divisiveness that informed the statement. It portrays a side at loss with the fiery stride of a giant who can only resort to setting paltry traps for the victorious warrior.
This fact manifests itself in the terms and structure of the remaining part of the needlessly long and ramshackle statement. Governor Obaseki, through his muppet lawyer SSG, began a shameful revision of facts, appropriating events well known to the people of Edo State all in the bid to achieve his already failed motive. One of the most shameful of that act is the turning on its head, a well-documented incident where the official state government thug group, led by Philip Shaibu, attacked the National Chairman, the Oba of Lagos, Dr. Aderemi Makanjuola, and a number of others at a convocation ceremony. It is a known fact that these men sought refuge in the house of the National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole; but in the government’s statement of lamentation, they presented the strangest narrative of that singular event.
A statement that is embellished with falsehood and misleading details right from the very first paragraph, through all of the sentences, down to the last word, is not worthy of public attention. But understanding the desperate nature of these revisionist miscreants, it is needful to tear apart, the conjectures that they aim to employ to the disadvantage of all good-intentioned people of Edo State.
The logic Osarodion Osagie attempted to use is a simple one: throw in words like ’judiciary’, ’police’, ’public peace and safety’, then make some dare-devil accusations, and then stir the people against the National Chairman. But it is a half baked strategy, one devoid of rigorous thought, as the public which they claim to be protective of their peace are the same people gleefully attending the same rallies the government called ’unlawful’ and portending harm. The strategy is thoughtless because it only achieves the opposite.
It reopens the wound inflicted on the state and her people by this same mindless government which the people have begun to forget. Obaseki clearly rejected by the people and his party, in a dying struggle to maintain a grip on power in the next four years, woke up and made autocratic impositions and restrictions on the state and her people. In a bid to frustrate the real progressives who are destined to run down his unceremonious ’regime’, he abused state power, using state resources and structure to enforce the infringement of human rights and frustration of people’s freedom.
However, no matter the degree of the hotness of tyranny, because freedom is the intrinsic property of man, they will one day rise against the despotism of a tyrant. That is what happened in Edo State and now the tyrant, certain that his days are numbered, is beginning to cry foul. The people he kept at bay, restricting them from expressing their political support to progressives whom they believe, will make their lives better, has arisen and damned the arrant impositions of Obaseki’s wickedness.
And that brings us to the ultimate disgrace and utter shamelessness of this spineless state government: ”We want to stress that the laws of the land are still very potent and the government of Edo State along with security agencies in the state will not tolerate this abuse of power, violation of rules and endangering of public safety and peace.”
Early Greek philosophers argued there are no good or bad, just or unjust laws because it is not law if it is not just and good. Here, Obaseki’s government demonstrates the logic of that argument. If those laws Ogie were referring to are just and legal, then it does not need to announce itself or sound a note of warning. Laws are observatory by nature and once it is contravened, it springs into action, holding to account, anyone who has flouted it.
So the question becomes ’why is Obaseki’s state government not taking action but reminding the people that there are laws and they are still potent?’ The answer is clear: there are no laws that negate the political ongoings in the state so far. Rather, it is a losing man whose tyranny has begun to fall apart, that is just crying, weeping for what is coming for him. The law does not threaten action, it carries it out. For Obaseki and cohorts, their pack of despotic declarations is simply falling apart, and they are confused, not knowing how to react and so they cry.
