As should be expected in this political silly season, politicians will maximise the window to test wild narratives and launch personal attacks aimed at distracting voters from the substantive issues that confront them. There is nothing particularly wrong with that as long as such antics are within the ambit of the law. But most Nigerian politicians like stretching the limits of such propositions. The result is that politicians are now banning others from straying into their self-appropriated fiefdom with impunity, knowing that there will be no consequences. To be fair, such bullying tactics didn’t start today. But it has worsened because political buccaneers, who exploit public office for personal gain, would rather break bones than play by the rules. In this malfeasance, Edo State takes the cake.
Despite the fact that the 1999 Nigerian Constitution guarantees freedom of movement, a fundamental human right, some political actors, mostly governors and their cheerleaders, don’t care a hoot. They have become exceedingly brazen in their conducts and highly contemptuous of fellow citizens. Last week, one Apostle Kassy Chukwu, a Senior Special Assistant to Governor Monday Okpebholo, the Akpakomiza of Edo politics, purportedly banned Afrobeats star David Adeleke, popularly called Davido, from ever visiting Edo again. “David, we don’t want to see you for Edo State again. If we catch you, if we see you for airport, go there, boys, make sure that you slap, they remove your teeth for you,” Okpebholo’s aide threatened on social media. It is now a fad to ban law abiding citizens for moving around free in the country. So, what was Davido’s crime? Nothing other than the fact that he exercised his constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech by responding to the theatrics of Governor Okpebholo, a political interloper in Osun, his home state.
In the name of campaigns, he went to Osun, to borrow a Nigerian lingo, misyarn. On the hustings, Okpebholo, a man living in the axiomatic glass house, started throwing stones. While campaigning for the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, he ridiculed Governor Ademola Adeleke, who was seeking re-election as being unworthy of the people’s trust, having used his first term in only learning new dance steps. “Before somebody sign paper, he will dance, are you not tired? For four years, this man has been dancing, before he take breakfast, before he drink tea, he will dance,” he said in very poor English. “I was asking my friend now, I said I can’t even remember when I saw this man in our general meeting. Before he even enter the plane, he will dance. Before he gets there, we have closed. So, he won’t know what we are saying, he doesn’t know the reality of today.” Then the sucker punch. “That man is Obaseki’s friend, you know we kicked Obaseki out of Edo, so we have to kick his friend out of this place too. Edo people chop Obaseki’s money but they never vote for him, but they kick him out, so we have to kick his friend out of this place too… A governor that is not working, the best thing to do is to send him out of that state. If he is not working, what business does he have here? Are you not tired of dancing, dancing, dancing governor?”
Davido, Adeleke’s nephew, pushed back by simply posting Okpebholo’s West African Examinations Council (WAEC) result on his Instagram Story without any caption. He need not.
The governor’s picture and the purported August 29, 1972 date of birth, which is different from the August 1, 1977 date on his voter’s card were clearly embossed therein. The result which showed a mixture of grades, including D7 in subjects such as Commerce, Economics, Christian Religious Knowledge and English Language, while Government was listed as E8 and Mathematics as C5, is a disaster. Was that the WAEC result with which he secured admission to read business administration at the University of Abuja? It is instructive that Okpebholo didn’t disclaim the result. Instead, his supporters said what Davido did by posting the result online was inappropriate and disrespectful. That can only be if the governor is ashamed of his academic record knowing full well that it was and still remains an embarrassment. Given the quality of men and women who populate the state, Edo deserves much better in leadership. While it is true that certificates alone don’t make for quality leadership, lack of proper education makes governance a thuggish enterprise, which is exactly what is at play.
It is also good that his supporters met their match in the Afrobeats singer who insisted that he did nothing wrong by sharing Okpebholo’s result, because he was only informing people of Edo State about the academic record of their governor. Speaking in an exclusive interview with News Central Television, Davido said: “I’m not going to apologise. I didn’t do anything wrong. I was just telling people of the state the result their governor has.” Defending his action, he accused the Edo helmsman of leaving his state to attack Adeleke in Osun and told Okpebholo some home truth: “The road to your Government House is not done… First of all, you were not even elected; you were selected. You don’t know what it means to win an election. That’s why you could go there and talk.” And Davido was right. While Okpebholo was busy throwing pebbles at Adeleke, Edo State under his watch has become dead infrastructure-wise. But the bigger irony is that here is a governor who last year banned Mr. Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State and presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), from coming to his state unless he secured a security clearance even when Obi went on a private visit. Yet, he went to Osun to troll a sitting governor who has achieved far more than him in office as affirmed by the people on August 15, without a security clearance.
So, it is not surprising that his aide took a cue from him to ban Davido from Edo. Not only was the musician, a global icon and Nigeria’s pride, declared a persona-non-grata in his own country, those who dare do business with him were also threatened. That is madness. But I doubt if anyone was surprised. Banning perceived opponents from coming to Edo State is in the DNA of the Okpebholo government. Granted, on Friday, the government walked back on the threat. Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Kassim Afegbua, said the musician was now free to visit because Edo remained home to all, regardless of beliefs, political persuasion, affinity and/or legal affiliation. Interestingly, the same state government didn’t back down on the threat against Obi, who, when he dared to visit, gunmen were sent after him. Frighteningly, the Edo madness is being exported to other parts of the country. On Tuesday, August 26, chairman of the Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, Samuel Danjuma Shekwolo, threatened that he would expel residents who do not support or vote for the APC.
And he had the guts to record himself making this incendiary call and posting it online. Speaking during a meeting with supporters, Shekwolo said it would be unacceptable to allow people who would not vote for the APC to continue living in the area. “I have said in my area council that it’s either you vote the APC or you leave the area council. You know why? I cannot have the minister doing what he is doing and on the day of the election you now say you don’t want to vote APC. I won’t agree,” he said hauntingly. Amnesty International Nigeria rightly condemned Shekwolo’s outburst describing it as a call to violence and an attack on residents’ freedom of association and liberty. But sadly, that is where Nigeria is right now. Thugs have overrun the country. And they are running berserk knowing full that they have a godfather in Aso Rock who believes that all is fair in politics. We may have unwittingly entered an era where you either vote ‘right’ or be banished.
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