As activities geared towards the Edo 2024 Governorship election move towards a frenzy and opportunistic politicians try to obfuscate the various principles that have bound the Edo people together, it is pertinent that people of goodwill intervene with their voice of reason to restore sanity and cordiality that have seen us live together in harmony since time immemorial despite our diversities in all ramifications.
I have seen enough of Philip Shaibu, the Deputy Governor of Edo State, to detest his brand of politics, which is essentially Machiavellian: self-serving and destructive.
The 2020 video where he insinuated that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, former Edo Governor and Shaibu’s benefactor, needed psychiatric evaluation and help is still trending on social media.
Philip Shaibu clearly showed by his conduct in 2019 and 2020 that he valued his personal ambition much more than his relationship. It was apparent then that what he did to Oshiomhole, he would do to Godwin Obaseki or any other person.
If Philip Shaibu could pulverise Oshiomhole the way he did, a man he called father, then nobody was immune from his bad, self-centred politics. Drawing from the foregoing, I was therefore not surprised to read reports of the skirmishes between Shaibu and the Governor, his boss, Godwin Obaseki.
When I saw Shaibu’s frantic apologies, after seeing that he was no match to the Governor, I knew it was tactical to save face and catch Godwin Obaseki napping.
I told people around me at the time that Philip Shaibu was unapologetic in his apology: that he was merely deploying his machiavellian skills to lull the Governor, who apparently knows him too well to support his unholy and immoral self-serving ambition to ascend the Governorship position after his boss, against the principle of equity, fairness and inclusiveness which the Governor seems to be advocating.
The question to ask is, “To what end?” Why did Philip want to become Governor at this time when all he did as a member of Edo State House of Assembly, Federal House of Representatives and now Deputy Governor were self-aggrandisements, building mansions in high brow areas, buying petrol stations on every corner, etc. What significant achievement can he pinpoint as an achievement of general interest to the people of his zone of Edo North, let alone the state as a whole?
Shaibu does not care about harmony. It was why he went naked to fight a man he called father; it was why he went behind his Boss, Obaseki, to a rival political Party to plan how to take over the House of Assembly and later impeach Governor Obaseki so he could become Governor; it was why he ran to a High Court in Abuja to stop a nonexistent impeachment plot against him ( the wicked runneth when no man pursueth), it was why he quickly sent out warp apologies to Governor Obaseki when he was asphyxiating with the wrong end of the stick he was getting.
I can go on and on, but if Edo people don’t quickly come out to speak against Philip Shaibu’s dangerous politics, we may find it too late, especially now that he has put pieces of machinery in place for his Governorship declaration within the next couple of days.
Deacon Darlington Okpebholo Ray
Publisher of Truth Live News, A Political Strategist, Journalist, Social Media Marketer and HRM Expert, writes from Greenwich, London, United Kingdom.