Letter to Chief Tony Anenih: “Amonghon” Leader, Monday is Edo governor-elect, By Sufuyan Ojeifo

My dear Leader,

I hope this letter meets you well.

I feel obligated to touch base with you after the outcome of the September 21 governorship election in Edo State, which your party in your “herebefore’-the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)- reportedly lost to the All Progressives Congress (APC). By the way, Sir, the PDP negotiated its way back into the governance of Edo State in the 2020 governorship poll with Godwin Obaseki as the PDP’s standard bearer. He was rounding off his first tenure as governor on the APC ticket, and was forced to leave the APC because he was denied re-election ticket.

It will interest you to know that the lucky beneficiary of the position of Edo governor, who will be sworn in on November 12, 2024, a few days from now, is your “son”, Monday Okpebholo. Yes, the same Monday Okpebholo who cut his political teeth under your tutelage. But, Sir, given my closeness to you as your media adviser/consultant, I was aware and still am that your tutelage was primarily for the economic empowerment of Monday Okpebholo. The political dimension was largely secondary. In the loaded and star-studded field of your loyalists and foot soldiers, Monday Okpebholo’s place was not proximate.

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What I am driving at, in essence, Sir, is that Monday Okpebholo, did not and could not rank in the first eleven of your loyalists, not even in the second, third or fourth. Your political dynasty was huge in its vast flourish. You were the political elephant who commanded a followership that transcended your home state of Edo. Sir, I remember the legend of your being equated to an elephant by the late Elder Sunny Uyigue, one of your loyalists from Edo South. At a meeting in your Asokoro residence, you had expressed reservations about some of your loyalists peddling your influence, behind you, to get contract patronages and sundry favours. While others at the meeting chose to keep silent, I was told, Sir, that Uyigue reminded you of the fact, which perhaps had escaped your contemplation, of your being an elephant whose footprints gathered water from which people like him drink. He had reportedly gone ahead to tell you that he, Uyigue, would continue to use your name to get patronages and that even after you were dead, he would continue to use your name. You reportedly smiled and the issue was rested.

Sir, so many of us, who were close to you, including Monday Okpebholo, benefitted from your large-heartedness. You were both a leader and father to all of us. It is on this score that I hereby wish to formally congratulate you on the emergence of Monday Okpebholo as governor of Edo. Amonghon, Owanlen! I know you would have been happier had Monday Okpebholo become governor on the platform of the PDP, your party in your “herebefore”, because you demonstrated leadership by remaining persistent and consistent in your political affiliations from the second republic through the third republic to the current fourth republic. You never changed political parties.

But in case you are at a loss as to why and how Monday Okpebholo abandoned the PDP for the APC, because you did not teach your followers to engage in political party switching, decampment and prostitution, I offer to stand herein in “allocution” for him in the reasonable expectations that you would overlook his failure to keep fidelity to the legacy of your political leadership that demanded from followers to remain 101 per cent loyal to the political causes that you championed as our inimitable leader.

Sir, the point is that the PDP imploded with the arrival of Godwin Obaseki who was determined to grab the leadership and command room control of the party at the expense of the original leaders and members of the party. In the 2023 National Assembly elections, two lists of candidates from the two tendencies, to wit: the Legacy PDP headed by your dependable political son, Chief Dan Osi Orbih and the new group led by Godwin Obaseki, were litigated through the entire hierarchy of the courts. Obaseki won and the development resulted in the loss of candidates of the Legacy PDP, which you would have supported were you to be alive. Unfortunately, some of the best candidates that would have won election for the PDP were excluded by the Supreme Court ruling. Consider the victims: Architect Mike Onolenmenme, Barrister Pascal Ugbome, and Hon Ogbeide Omoregie Ihanma, among others.

Owanlen, that was the intersection at which Monday Okpebholo embarked on his political gambit of stepping aside from the maddening crowd in the PDP. He took the decision to dump the party, an act that he would not have contemplated if you were around. It would also interest you to know that Monday Okpebholo did not just emerge from nowhere to be elected as governor. He had first been elected as Senator for Edo Central, a position he has occupied for about a year and six months. His becoming a senator is an interesting development that I would share with you in this letter.

Just as you taught us to be passionate about our roots without necessarily becoming ethnic jingoists, Monday Okpebholo has acquitted himself well on that score. I had the opportunity of meeting with him during the scramble for the governorship ticket of the APC in company with Comrade Tony Erha. You remember Tony Erha, Sir? The troublesome “old man” who came to the house with Professor John Imonbhio Abhuere and told you not to trust some persons you had listed for some political/electoral assignments, talking confidently that they would betray you, and his “prediction” came to pass. When he returned again on another visit with Prof Abhuere, you had perhaps forgotten his face and you were reminding Abhuere of the man (Tony Erha) who came with him with a prediction of betrayal. Abhuere had pointed to Tony Erha as the man. Sir, you had apologized to him for the harsh description. You would later make him happy through your eleemosynary act.

Back to the meeting with Monday Okpebholo in company with Tony Erha: he narrated how he thought of getting a candidate who would provide qualitative representation for Edo Central in the Senate and how he had commissioned some persons to search out such a man. The search team had gone round on a search that produced no one and the group had insisted that Monday Okpebholo should present himself for the senate ticket on the APC platform. That was how he (Monday Okpebholo) reluctantly entered the race for the ticket. Interestingly, he was not given a chance. He was not even considered as a threat, which was why he was the only aspirant for the APC ticket in Edo Central. He contested against himself in the primary election and expectedly picked up the ticket on a platter.

Sir, what I later gathered from a grapevine was that the team that Monday Okpebholo commissioned was seized by a selfish consideration. The team saw it as an opportunity to fleece him when it realized that he had megabucks that he could throw into the race, which he did. Another grapevine hinted me that he could have spent about N1 billion to consummate his senatorial election. He surprised the team and himself by becoming senator. The senatorial footing would thereafter inspire his ambition to become governor of Edo State at a time that was considered to be Edo Central’s turn to produce governor of the State.

Sir, Monday Okpebholo conducted his electioneering with a sense of purpose. Although he was not forceful in delivering his campaign speeches, he was forceful in touching base with all the 192 electoral wards in the State. He demonstrated physical strength by leading a campaign trail that gingered Edo people’s enthusiasm for a break from the administration of Godwin Obaseki. But, Owanlen, Godwin Obaseki supported Edo Central to produce the governor by bringing a much more cosmopolitan, much more brilliant and much more outspoken Barrister Asue Ighodalo as governorship candidate on the PDP platform. However, it was the mischief of Obaseki’s governance style, which could not be cured that caused massive public animosity towards Obaseki. This deficit in support was transferred to the candidature of Asue Ighodalo.

Owanlen, it is interesting to know that, regardless of the Obaseki mischief, Asue Ighodalo was able to excite the Edo polity with his gravitas. In the September 21 election, he ended up defeating Monday Okpebholo in Edo Central, which confirmed him as the Esan favourite candidate; he reportedly defeated Monday Okpebholo in Edo South, but I have yet to conclusively confirm that from the figures the candidate posted. In both zones, the margin of victory was not too much, which made the landslide victory that Monday Okpebholo recorded in Edo North, through the instrumentality of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and other leaders, the clincher. The votes garnered simply wiped off Asue Igbhodalo’s wins in Edo Central and Edo South.

In rounding off, Owanlen, I would like to remark that Monday Okpebholo has been profiled as timid. His disposition to showing appreciation by kneeling down for political leaders has not helped his proclivity towards civility. But I can through this letter confirm to the world that Monday Okpebholo is both humble and respectful. He is an Esan man who behaves like a Yoruba man (omoluabi). I remember, Sir, on three occasions that I sat with you in your expansive living room in your Asokoro residence always discussing some issues for media exposure and Monday Okpebholo had cause to come in to see you, on those three occasions, he went on his knees to speak with you. So, I was not surprised when he did the same thing for President Bola Tinubu in the State House, Abuja, on the day he got his certificate of return and when he reportedly did so for some political leaders in Edo, which picture went viral.

Finally, Owanlen, the expectation is that Monday Okpebholo would perform as governor. My prayers are for him to succeed. You could be his guardian angel in the task of governance that he steps into effective November 12, 2024. As for me, Owanlen, I will put his feet to the fire to ensure he keeps fidelity to campaign promises. As a watchdog and elder brother, I will put the searchlight on him. May God give us the will and the way to do what is right for our people and develop our dear Edo State.

Sir, I congratulate the governor-elect, Senator Monday Okpebholo! Owanlen, I congratulate you also on Edo Central getting the position of governor at this time. Amonghon!

Your son

Sufuyan Ojeifo

●Sufuyan Ojeifo is the publisher and editor-in-chief of THE CONCLAVE online newspaper. ojwonderngr@yahoo.com