Professor Oserheimen Osunbor was the immediate past Governor of Edo State, whose tenure in office was short-lived following the pronouncement of the Court of Appeal in Benin in 2008 in favour of incumbent Comrade Governor Adams Oshiomhole of the Action Congress of Nigeria, A C N.? The frontline aspirant? on the platform of the PDP in the forthcoming 2012 governorship election in this encounter with PATRICK OCHOGA,? alleges that a high powered conspiracy by Late President Umaru Yar’ Adua and Oshiomhole robbed him of his mandate.
2012 IS AN ELECTION YEAR IN EDO STATE, AS A MAJOR STAKEHOLDER AND AN ASPIRANT OF THE PDP, WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS AND WHAT ARE THE OBVIOUS CHALLENGES?
Well my expectations is that the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) would be able to put in place a system that will lead to the conduct of a free, fair and credible election. INEC demonstrated during the last general elections in April 2011, that it has the capacity to organize and conduct credible elections. It has been acknowledged that those elections were quite acceptable, although there were a few hitches here and there; the general result is that INEC did well to the acceptance of not just Nigerians but also the international community.
For observers who came to witness the elections, INEC had ensured that there was enough security presence at the polling stations and where there are incidence of ballot box snatching such as we had in two wards in Igueben local government area of Edo state, the INEC ensured that it didn’t announce the result even though they were under pressure to announce those result, they organized a bye election in those two wards and we thank God the PDP won when those bye elections were conducted. That was quite commendable on the part of INEC and my expectations is that they will build upon that very credible and acceptable exercise and ensure that the 2012 election in Edo State has all the test of fairness and acceptability as well as credibility.?
On the challenges, of course we know the attitude and antecedents of those who are in power in Edo state now, although they profess ‘One Man, One Vote,’ we know that in their conduct and in reality they are just the opposite of ‘One Man, One Vote’. They are apostles of violence. The incidence of violence and ballot box snatching in Igueben local government areas were directly attributable to them; the ACN. They didn’t want PDP to win but when INEC and the whole nation attention was focused on them in that area, the ACN thugs were not able to repeat what they did and PDP of course went on to win. I expect that INEC will be on the alert to ensure that all those kinds of gimmick which they are known for are not allowed to come into play during the 2012 elections and that the will of Edo state electorates will prevail because that is very essential. Not the will of some other persons outside of Edo State. But that Edo State people will be allowed to choose for themselves who will be their governor not some other persons from other State deciding who should be the governor of Edo State.
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CONSIDERING THE INTRIGUES THAT LED TO YOUR EMERGENCE AS CANDIDATE OF THE PARTY IN 2007, HOW DO YOU SEE YOUR CHANCES THIS TIME AROUND?
Well, am not aware that there were intrigues that led to my emergence, if you know of any intrigues that led to my emergence, I will be glad to be educated. What I can recall vividly and the people of Edo state can attest to this, is that we held a very free and fair primary in the night. The contest was between me and Professor Ihonvbere. People were allowed to come out on their own volition; that is the delegates to cast their votes and by the end of the day I won by a huge land slide. Professor ihonvbere was there, the votes were counted in the presence of everybody and I was declared the winner and therefore the flag bearer of the PDP during the 2007 general elections. So I do not therefore see where there was any intrigue during that exercise but you know that there were intrigues in ACN. We know that the person whom they eventually fielded in the person of Oshiomhole started his campaign as a PDP aspirant, am sure you know that.He saw that the terrain in PDP was not favorable even by his own account he has narrated this account by himself in several occasion from there he went to the ANPP, from there even went to the palace to introduce himself as the governorship candidate and at another time he was the Labour Party governorship candidate until intrigues within Action Congress (AC) at that time,? led to them rejecting Kenneth Imasuagbon who was the front runner that time and from nowhere Oshiomhole was brought in and giving the ticket without any primary. Am sure nobody can tell you where the primary which led to Oshiomhole’s emergence was conducted as there was no primary. He was a product of the intrigue within the AC. There was no intrigue in the PDP.
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AS ONE OF THE VISIBLE GOVERNORSHIP ASPIRANT WITHIN YOUR PARTY WHAT GIVES YOU THE CONFIDENCE THAT YOUR PARTY THE PDP WILL GIVE YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO FLY YOUR PARTY’S FLAG CONSIDERING? TALKS IN SOME QUARTERS? THAT THE POLITICAL MISFORTUNE OF THE PARTY IN THE STATE WAS CAUSED BY YOUR INTEREST TO CONTROL THE PARTY WHILE IN OFFICE AS GOVERNOR.
Well the reason for my confidence is that I am a member of the PDP right from inception in 1998 to the present time and I believe that the PDP is fair to all its members, so I don’t see any reason why the PDP will not give me a level playing field in which I can present myself to the people and if they so decide, they will give me the ticket. But you are right that there were certain people who were not sufficiently informed, who were looking at my direction as the source of the problem which led to my removal as a governor but every discerning person will now have come to know the truth since after Oshiomhole made his confession during the book launch on the 13th of December. If you look at the newspapers of 14th of December including the Punch newspapers because the Punch’s account was much detailed. Oshiomhole confessed to the world that while I was campaigning for Yar’Adua to become President, Yar’Adua was giving him money and supporting him
to be governor of Edo state. That after he lost the election, Yar’Adua was the one who encouraged him to go to the tribunal and that while the matter was in the court, Yar’ Adua influenced the court of Appeal to decide in his favor to win the election. So in spite of this confession and revelations by Oshiomhole if anybody is still looking at me as the source of the misfortune of the PDP in Edo state, then am sorry for that person.
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ARE YOU NOT WORRIED BY PERMUTATIONS THAT ZONING WILL FAVOR A CANDIDATE FROM EDO SOUTH SENATORIAL DISTRICT?
Well in politics there will be permutations and permutations. I am yet to come across any Benin person who says he will be influenced to pick PDP governorship candidate on ethnic basis.
However, your question is two prongs; one is the issue of zoning. Zoning is part of the PDP constitution. Zoning is a fundamental principle of the party which I belong to so there will always be zoning. But at what point do you do the zoning? That is the issue. And these arguments played out during the Presidential primary leading up to the election of the President. The position which I take is that, yes there is zoning but you will decide first who will be the candidate that will win this election for us. Once you identify that person whether at the Presidential or governorship level or at the local government level, you have identified that person, you then zone the other position around that person. That is the meaning of zoning in the PDP constitution. The other issue which you talked about is that Benin people would vote for a Benin man irrespective of his merit and I think that is wrong and I have seen a lot of Benin people who feel insulted by such a suggestion. Benin people are not that daft that they will simply vote for somebody because he is a Benin man. Even though he is very incompetent that they are enlightened and for anybody to be thinking that they are so primitive to the extent that all they know is tribe is a disservice to the pride of Benin people.? We are all Edo people;? it’s only people who want a short cut to success that throw this kind of kite but this kite cannot fly. They are people who are afraid to stand on a platform and sell their candidature, sell their personality that beginning to look at other things to hang on to, I am running not because I am from Ishan but because of who I am and what I represent and I have no doubt at all that the people of Edo state will judge me for who I am and my track record and what I represent.
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WHAT NOW COULD HAVE INFLUENCED YOUR DECISION TO JOIN IN THE RACE AGAIN? WHAT IS IT THAT YOU FORGOT IN DENNIS OSADEBEY AVENUE AS THEY SAY?
I have not completed my tenure that is the first thing. It is different from the situation where you ask people what you forgot in Aso Rock. My own is not like that. My own is certainly not like that. You can see that my mandate was stolen. Edo people gave me their mandate in 2007 but Oshiomhole has confessed to the world that he, with the support of Yar’Adua stole my mandate. Edo people are not happy that that has happened. Since I left that governorship, since that mandate was robbed off me, Edo people have been groaning under one source of pain or the other. Whether you are talking of demolition of houses without compensation, whether you are talking of? over taxation of people, whether you are talking of harassment of market women, Okada riders? or artisans ; if you are building a house in this village now, Oshiomhole people will come and demand tax from you. That is obnoxious, that is cruel, and that is inhuman. Governance must be with a human face. The people of Edo state know me for the style of governance. A government with a human face, governance that is sincere, that is transparent, government that has the overall well being of the people as its primary purpose, not government that is based on deceit, not government that is based on falsehood, not government that is based on propaganda, not government that encourages criminality, that associates with criminal, not a government that does not respect a local government system of administration, this are some of the evil that has been taking place in Edo state. I am a stakeholder in Edo state, like you mentioned it your opening remark. I am a major stakeholder in Edo state, this state belongs to us. I have a responsibility and the duty to ensure that Edo state enjoys good governance. A government that is honest, that is transparent, that is genuine, that is founded on truth, not a government that was founded on fraud.
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IT IS BELIEVED THAT YOU AS A PERSON HAD GOOD INITIATIVES IN THE GOVERNANCE OF THE STATE BUT THAT MOST OF THE JOBS WERE POORLY EXECUTED BY MEMBERS OF YOUR CABINET. HOW TRUE IS THAT? NOW IF YOU EMERGE AS THE GOVERNOR, HOW WILL YOU GO ABOUT PICKING YOUR CABINET MEMBERS?
Well what I can say is that first of all, you over generalize. There are people who were very competent in my administration. We had an Attorney General who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and he is at the moment on the presidential petition panel. Omonuwa is a brilliant person, very competent, he transformed the ministry of justice in a manner that no government in Edo state has ever done. You go there; there are Cds to attest to this. The commissioner for work, Hon.? Abbas Jega,? I don’t think there is a commissioner for works that has transformed the whole of Edo state as much as we accomplished together during that period. Never mind all this dualisation of Federal roads and beautification of Sapele road by Oshiomhole. We identified the priority in the area of roads for the people of Edo state, not cosmetic works. Whether it is in the area of health, you know a lot that we did, provision of dental equipment. The day I went to commission the dental health equipment at Central hospital Benin, I was told that for the past 30 years, that was the first time dental equipment were being supplied to that hospital. And I can go on and on. Is it the free medical treatment for pregnant women and ante malaria treatment for children under 5 years? You are aware that we did things, are these signs of poor performance?
But I know that the propaganda man will say we achieve nothing. When he took over, they went to Central hospital and said we supplied substandard equipment. Which standard equipment has he supplied to the hospitals in Edo state for the three years that he has been there? When I celebrated my first hundred days in office, we commissioned a lot of projects, less than one year; I commissioned a lot of road projects across Edo state. A governor was celebrating three years in office he couldn’t commission a single project? Now you are saying that my team was full of incompetent people. Just like he said, that Osunbor is a good man, but he is hopelessly incompetent, is that not a contradiction in terms? If somebody is hopelessly incompetent he cannot be good man, if as he says Osunbor is a good man then he cannot be hopelessly incompetent. It is he that is hopelessly incompetent and you know this. It took me only one month to assemble my commissioners; it
took him three months or six months to get his commissioners in place. Out of the people he had in place, many of them have resigned; you know that he himself had sacked many of his commissioners because they are incompetent. It takes an incompetent governor to appoint incompetent commissioners.? When he got Major Loye? his officer in charge of demolition arrested he said his cup is full, that his own is too much that the man is incompetent,? if Loye is incompetent , then the man who appointed him must also be incompetent. I did not surround myself with such incompetent people, so we were good. But I take your point that there are some people around me that gave me a bad name. In fact many people that I come across today who tell me that they had certain reservations and certain things that displeased them when I was there as a governor, they are not really saying that what I as a person did that they found offensive but they tell me a lot of what my aide did that offended them especially in the areas of protocol. That is the greatest area that I hear people complain. But again as I said we can’t be perfect, I have never claimed any perfection. We make mistakes but we are happy that we are alive to correct those mistake and we hope that my party and the people of Edo state will give us the opportunity to build on the good foundation that we have made in spite of some hiccups here.
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WHY DO YOU FEEL THAT YOU HAVE ALL IT TAKES TO DEFEAT OSHIOMHOLE CONSIDERING THE PREVIOUS PERFORMANCE OF YOUR PARTY WHILE IN GOVERNMENT FROM 1999-2008?
You know this day, going by elections that has taken place in more recent times, people look at the quality of the candidates. You saw that even within the ACN, they were not really voting along party line, they were comparing Ribadu their presidential candidate with Goodluck Jonathan and they came to the conclusion that Good luck Jonathan will be a better president than Ribadu. I pray that Edo voters will also compare the two candidates and I have no doubt at all that they will find in me a better human being, a better candidate, a better governor than Oshiomhole. A governor that they can be proud of, you understands what I mean. At least when you see a governor the way he talks, the way he moves, you are proud to say this is my governor. But when you see and an ‘Agbero’,? you will not want to introduce an Agbero to anybody as your governor. Abi?
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BUT THE GOVERNOR HAS SAID THAT 2012 ELECTIONS WILL BE ISSUES-BASED
Does Oshiomhole talk about issues? You yourself know that he talks about personalities. He is always talking about personalities. When he came in, he spent four months probing me, you know that. He wasn’t looking at the issues confronting him as a governor; he was looking at me as a person. Even now he still talks about me; ‘Osunbor is a good man but he is hopelessly incompetent man.’ Are those issues? You know that Oshiomhole says one thing, and does the other. What he is guilty off, he blames other people for doing. So when he starts saying let’s talk about issues, you know that what he is really trying to do is to attack personalities because Oshiomhole is somebody that says one thing and does completely different thing. People now know that he is the opposite of what he wants people to believe he is.
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