Crusoe Osagie: The sinking empty vessel in Obaseki’s 2024 titanic Odyssey, John Omoruyi

In 2016, when Comrade Adams Oshiomhole (now Senator) put forward Godwin Obaseki as the preferred choice to succeed him, many watchers of Edo politics were caught in what can best be termed “suspended animation”. The reason for this suspense would later unfold when the campaign began, and many further queried why Oshiomhole was doing all the talking, thereby making his Lagos-boy-turned-technocrat a smiling but dumb idol at all campaign podiums.

A colleague in Oshiomhole’s media team had confided in me that Obaseki was a hard sell for Oshiomhole for three reasons. First, his choice was regarded as a mistake by the political class. Second, the man had problems in facing an audience without reading from an already prepared speech. Third, he had zero knowledge of the game of politics. So, it was the animation of the suspense endured by Edo people that finally brought Oshiomhole to public ridicule in 2020 when he attempted remarketing Pastor Ize Iyamu and demarketing Obaseki, who had summed up courage for a titanic fight.

In media parlance, this political strategy undertaken by Oshiomhole is considered suicidal, but like the proverbial cat with nine lives, Oshiomhole launched a political comeback with his electoral victory, at this year’s election. His comrade-to-Senator-transition was meant to prepare him for the titanic battle thrown at him by Obaseki and his media hirelings. I have used this foregoing analogy to illustrate, albeit, figuratively, the breath-taking tragi-comedy ushering the build-up to the 2024 Edo governorship election.

One common denominator in this unfolding political drama of sorts, is the reversal of roles and similarity of characters, paradoxical as it may seem. But in pushing my ironic illustration of this unfolding drama into its literal form, l chose to substitute my original dramatis personae with two other younger characters, whose identities will reveal themselves in the course of this piece.

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But may l pause to say that my source in government house Benin, who prefers to stay anonymous, is worried about the failing health of the Governor, who is seeking urgent medical attention in far away America. It was from there he assigned portfolios to his new commissioners currently roaming the social media in photoshoots, like the proverbial sheep without a shepherd. Just as those schooled in the field of law will say, as l am not one of them, “nature abhors vacuum”.

The Ondo State Governor, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who has a similar story has already done the needful. But, as an officious bystander, l must admit that l do not know if Obaseki has officially communicated his current health condition and continued absence from office to the Edo Assembly. I doubt if he did, as there is currently a succession battle between him and his lieutenant in power, Phillip Shaibu.

Within the last two weeks or so, there appears to be a media spat between the governor’s media team and a former Information Commissioner in the recently dissolved cabinet. Crusoe Osagie, the head of Obaseki’s media team, was handed over to him by Asue Ighodalo, to build the governor’s image in the media space just as Oshiomole’s media team did. Andrew Emwanta, who was engaged as a shadow Commissioner for Information, did not know that he was fishing in strange waters. So it only took his exit from office to realize that one of his real enemies was the one who worked directly with him as a subordinate. It was this same fellow called Crusoe that made a former Information Commissioner, Hon. Paul Ohonbamu to resign out of frustration. So when l watched a viral video wherein Crusoe referred to his former immediate boss as “an empty vessel”, l could not stop laughing. Only a quack journalist will behave in that brazenly unethical manner.

Before the Edo 2020 election, l watched a couple of Emwanta’s media appearances where he gallantly defended Obaseki and everything he represents. My wife remains one of his numerous fans and certainly not me, because l felt the young man will one day be consumed by the political lion he was taming. When only Emwanta will appear on Channels, AIT, TVC among others, l began to wonder what exactly the job description of Crusoe Osagie, the Governor’s Special Adviser on Media and Strategy. Seriously was. l was taken aback when he was recently referred to as Special Adviser on media projects. Really, “media projects”? Is he an engineer, contractor, or journalist, if l may ask. How many media projects has the Obaseki administration successfully executed since its inception? What is the current state of the government-owned media outfits like the Nigerian Observer, EBS, Ethiope Publishing, and the Government Printing Press? Why has the governor operated for the past six years without appointing a Chief Press Secretary? Or are there hidden transactions between him and his Lagos paddies, like Asue Ighodalo, he wants Edo people to be ignorant of? I feel pained as an Edo man that hard copies of the Nigerian Observer publications have finally gone out of circulation.

My friends who previously worked as journalists during the good days of the Nigerian Observer, now writhing in pains, have been thrown away like garbage without a source, into the preying arms of the Edo State Civil Service. Crusoe Osagie, indeed, is an undertaker sent by Obaseki’s Lagos controllers and bankers, just to ignorantly end professional journalism in Government media. Is that not the job description of an empty vessel? What tangible benefits have Obaseki and his agents of darkness succeeded in putting down as a legacy in the government print and electronic media sector? I hear EBS is undergoing the same process of private sector “transformation”. Like the Creative hub on the premises of the now defunct Nigerian Observer on Airport road, why can’t Obaseki build his Edo Museum of West Africa at the big compound of EBS at Aduwawa? That will make more sense; after all, Central Hospital was demolished and moved to down Sapele road because of the problem of congestion. I know that by the time the EBS transformation process is complete, new billionaires will emerge in Lagos and new casualties will emerge in the Edo media job market.

By then, Crusoe now loaded and well fed, will help to launch a new media campaign to sell the real media project of Obaseki, “Asue Ighodalo” who has majorly benefited from the Media transformation project. All these “media projects” drama is ultimately to milk Edo treasury dry and use what is left of it to market the candidacy of the man holding the sterling milk storage tank in Lagos. Only a fool will argue with those who sold the mantra Edo nor be Lagos in 2020. Visit Crusoe’s office in government house and do a head count of the media technocrats imported from Lagos. My government house source, who identified one young Igbo boy called Ik, a brain box he is. This young boy, it is believed, came by night bus from Lagos in 2017. He is one of the persons who supervised the mansion Crusoe is believed to have erected in the GRA part of Benin. This fair in complexion chap writes media stories and reports for Crusoe, including government special announcements usually signed by the Secretary to the Edo State Government, Hon. Osarodion Ogie. So, I ask again, what is the job description of Crusoe Osagie? Perhaps that will be determined in the political days ahead.

▪︎ Mr. John Omoruyi writes from Ovia.