ESAN AGENDA 2024: THAT THE CLOCK MAY TICK

The general Elections in Nigeria had been conducted, the echoes  is yet to fade. This is as result of the heat it generated after the Winners had been declared.

In Edo State, the gubernatorial Election is scheduled for next year 2024. 

 The soul of this piece is the  2024  Edo State Gubernatorial Election as it relates to Esan Agenda. It would be recalled that in 2020, 'Esan Agenda' was mainly the manifesto of the two dominant Political Parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and especially the People's Democratic Party (PDP) on which platform Governor Godwin Obaseki later contested the Governorship Election. It would also be recalled that before Governor Obaseki was screened out  by the APC in 2020, it was heavily rumoured all over the place that he had promised to handover to an Esan man after his second tenure in 2024. Every member of the APC from Edo Central Senatorial District keyed into this assumption to spread the 'good news' to the nook and cranny of Esan land. Even the Elderly, the uneducated and the Residents who were non- Indigenes in the Senatorial District were either convinced or pressurised to vote for APC so that the promise of Godwin Obaseki handing over to an Esan man and the agitation by Edo Central Senatorial District producing the Governor of Edo State in 2024 would not be a mirage or a nightmare. The momentum was so high that the support for Governor Obaseki in Esan land was no longer a Party matter, but Esan Agenda. This was the reason why it was not difficult for the proponents or propagandists of  Esan Agenda to move the support of Esan people from the APC to PDP when APC screened out Governor Obaseki. Esan people took it as a challenge to vote whoever would handover to Esan man as the Governor of Edo State in 2024. They even put pressure on two sons of Esan land, Engr. Gideon Ikhine and Barr. Kenneth Imasuagbon who were already deep in the race to Dennis Osadebey Avenue that habours Edo State Government House to step down for Godwin Obaseki. They  listened to the voice of reason and obliged, though there were insinuations that the Governor financially induced them with dollars. That is a story for another day and very soon.

Esan people were not prepared to wait any longer than 2024, that was why when the then Governorship Candidate of the APC, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu promised to support an Esan man after his tenure probably in 2028, it did not make sense to them in-spite of the fact that Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu was a house hold name in the political landscape of  Edo Central Senatorial District and beyond. That Election had come and gone, Obaseki became Governor and he is still the Governor.

The much awaited 2024 is already staring  us in the face.The questions begging for answers now are too many, but, if Esan Agenda will be a dream come through, Esan people need to find answers to them(questions).

** If it was/is true that Governor Obaseki promised in 2020 to handover to Esan man in 2024, is that still his stand as at now?

** Was that the reason why two Esan sons 'stepped' down or they were induced to step down?

Yours sincerely tried to find answers to the questions, but the more I try, the more the answers become haisy.

Yes, it was the campaign srategy of the APC then that Obaseki would handover to Esan man in 2024. When Obaseki later found solace in PDP, the PDP also  adopted the same strategy that Obaseki had promised to handover to Esan man after his tenure in 2024.  The strategy worked and Edo Central Senatorial District voted massively for him in the 2020 Gubernatorial Election. The Esan people were hopeful and patiently waiting for 2024 when Obaseki would handover to Esan man as he promised. But, that hope and patience were botched by Hon. Charles Idahosa, a political guru  who moved from APC to PDP with Governor Obaseki and who was also one of the members of the engine room of Governor Obaseki. He told the whole world that Governor Obaseki never assured or promised Edo Central Senatorial District automatic governoship ticket whether while he was in APC or even now that he is in PDP. He said that any of the three Senatorial Districts was qualified to produce the Governor of Edo State in 2024, that any body saying that Obaseki had promised to handover to Esan man is that person's imaginations. It is on record that political leaders from the Central Senatorial District  did not respond  to Hon. Idahosa's outbursts, not even one.

Recently, National and  State Assemblies' Elections were conducted in Nigeria. The ruling PDP in Edo State performed abysmally in National Assembly Elections except in Esan West, Esan Central and Igueben Federal Constituency where the current Speaker to the Edo State House of Assembly, Hon. Marcus Onobun was declared the Winner. Feelers reaching me is that APC is critically studying the results and there are high signals that the Party (APC) may litigate on it.

It was rumoured that the Edo State House of Assembly Election was highly compromised by some leaders of the APC  in Edo Central Senatorial District hence the PDP had upper hand. Infact, some of such leaders have been suspended by the Party (APC).  What beat my imaginations was the legacy PDP group that vowed to unseat Governor Obaseki who they described as the brain behind the woes of the Party in the State. They even held Meetings with the APC to that effect. They marched words with action on the 25th of February, 2023 and PDP lost the National Assembly Elections to the APC in the Senatorial District.

 Governor Obaseki then knew that there was fire on the mountain. He quickly adjusted his hard position on the Party leaders in the legacy group and started oiling their shock absorbers  and also took the same action to the APC camp. No sooner than expected, the legacy group and some leaders in APC caved in and the outcome was the defeat of APC in the House of Assembly Election by four to two seats. With this results, Obaseki had once again taken control of  the PDP in Edo Central Senatorial District.

The implication of this is that Esan people have Governor Obaseki to either contend or work with in the realisation of Esan Agenda. But the question is will he trust the legacy group of PDP, in the spirit of equity and justice, will he come with clean hands and support Esan Agenda? Time will definitely tell.

 Esan Agenda is laudable, but who do Esans look up to for the realisation of this vision, those political leaders that are not forthright, that compromise at the dangle of few naira or dollar notes, could it be those  political leaders who have occupied amiable positions in the past and have nothing to show in terms of Dividends of Democracy, but are today scrambling to contest the Gubernatorial Election in 2024, are Esan people ready to follow such leaders? Time will definitely tell.

I will like to advise those overzealous Esan Social Media Practioners who are reeling out names of some Esan people, telling us that those persons are interested in the 2024 Governorship race to desist henceforth. Their action is not painting Esan Agenda in good light. Any Esan man that wants to contest the Election knows what to do. Please, eye service is not loyalty.

If Esan must get it right, there is the urgent need to bring Esans of all shades together now to put our political house together inrespective of political affiliations.

God bless Esan land, God bless Edo State, God bless Nigeria.

TOGETHER WE WIN.

Comrade Evangelist  Francis Akhigbe

Publisher, The Pen Online Media/Magazine.