*ADAMS OSHIOMHOLE: AN ENEMY OF PROGRESS TO EDO STATE.*
By: Dr Stanley Omoregie
In identifying Senator Adams Oshiomhole as an enemy of Edo State progress, we will go into some details to elucidate clearly Oshiomhole's sinister moves against the State. We will start with the voting pattern of his Edo North senatorial district and its constituent makeup.
Edo North voting strength based on 2020 Edo gubernatorial election:
*ETSAKO*
1) Etsako East (Agenebode) 27,679 votes.
2) Etsako Central (Fugar) 15,837 votes.
3) Etsako West (Auchi) 44,099 votes.
• Total number of votes in Etsako 87,615
*OWAN/AKOKO EDO*
1) Owan East (Afuze) 34,057 votes.
2) Owan West (Sabongida Ora) 22,678 votes.
3) Akoko Edo (Igarra) 43,064 votes.
From this voting pattern, it is clear that Etsako people are numerically less when the Edo North voting population is considered.
As of today, the State Deputy Governor and the Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly are from Akoko Edo and Owan, respectively. This is an undisputed opportunity for people of Akoko Edo and Owan to exert their lead in Edo North as people in the majority and take their political destiny in their hands.
Oshiomhole, Phillip Shaibu, Jaret Tenebe, Abubakar Momoh (Minister for Niger Delta), and Dan Orbih, all Etsako, have always used Owan and Akoko Edo to achieve political relevance and dominance.
Oshiomhole, as grand author of tribalism and grand patron of tribal hatred, has, in his display of wickedness, continued to deceive other Edo North tribes of Owan and Akoko Edo. His much touted mantra that he is fighting for the interest of Edo North political relevance is nothing but hogwash. He uses the Owans and Akoko Edos as pawns to service the political relevance and fortune of his Etsako tribe.
Oshiomhole brought tribalism into Edo State politics in 2008, using his Etsako tribe of 9% of Edo State population to suppress and oppress all other tribes in the State. He continually uses the Owan and Akoko Edo tribes as Etsako tools to launch his marginalization quest from Edo North to the entire State.
Appointments that are supposed to be spread across Edo State, Oshiomhole hijacks to the benefit of only his Etsako people under the guise of getting it for Edo North.
Today, 95% of slots for Federal appointments to Edo State from 2015 till date, go to Edo North and in Edo North, go to Oshiomhole's Etsako tribe, to the exclusion of Owan and Akoko Edo people who invariably he sees as slaves to him and his Etsako people.
By reason of Oshiomhole's greed and hatred for all other tribes in Edo State, especially the Esan tribe where coincidentally his late wife was from, and which he has found difficult to penetrate, having penetrated the Benins, by feeding them with grains like chicken, he has continued to employ divide and rule tactics to undermine the other tribes. A case in point is his penchant for abusing Edo South citizens, calling them thieves and men of questionable character, only to turn around and prop such men up for elective positions. Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and Hon Dennis Idahosa, his former commissioner, readily come to mind.
In the run-up to the race for the forthcoming gubernatorial election in the State, Oshiomhole found it impossible to support such APC men as ex-Dep. Gov. Pius Odubu, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, Hon. Lucky Imasuen and Gen Charles Airhiavbere, but chose to support a low level, a man of questionable means, with no known family background in Edo South as governorship candidate. When that failed, he propped up a man he had earlier worked with but sacked for, according to him, being a fraudster and thief, as running mate to Senator Monday Okpebholo of APC.
His deception is evident in his control of dividends acruable to Edo State from the federal government. Here, for example, are federal government appointments, as of today:
• Federal Minister, Edo North, Etsako tribe - Abubakar Momoh.
• EFCC Secretary, Edo North, Etsako tribe.
• Police Service Commission, Edo North, Etsako tribe.
• Senator Edo North, Etsako
since 2015 with Oshiomhole an Etsako as the incumbent.
• FERMA, Edo North, Etsako tribe.
• SSA to NDDC MD, Edo North, Etsako tribe.
• At every opportunity, he fills the slot with his Etsako tribesmen.
This is how devilish and deep Oshiohmole's hatred is, for the rest of Edo State including the Owan and Akoko Edo in Edo North, the Esan (Edo Central) and the Benins of (Edo South).
The September 21 governorship election in Edo State has awakened a political consciousness for a progressive Edo State that will rejig our political equation. This conscious protest is what has brought out the worst in Etsako gang of thugs - Phillip Shaibu, Jaret Tenebe, Dan Orbih, and Oshiomhole, in concert with devilish APC. Unfortunately, their scheming to outwit the rest of Edo people in the election of September 21, 2024, is dead at inception.
The Owan and Akoko Edo must close ranks, as well as Edo South learning to love and respect one another instead of allowing themselves to be used against one another. Oshiomhole is our common enemy who has not spared the revered Oba of Benin in his dubious schemings.
