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By Ehichioya Ezomon
In the lead-up to the primaries for the 2024 governorship election in Edo State, the triple issues of not being a “homeboy,” unable to communicate in Esan language, and speak publicly to articulate plans for governance, assailed the formidable aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Asue Ighodalo and Senator Monday Okpebholo, respectively.
For Mr Ighodalo, a lawyer and business mogul, his “sins” are that having been born, raised, schooled, worked and lived outside Edo State, he isn’t a “homeboy” and can’t communicate in Esan language. As for Mr Okpebholo, a businessman and philanthropist, born, bred, schooled, and lived among the grassroots, his alleged inability to speak and articulate properly his plans for the governorship, “disqualifies” him.
But the question is: When have speaking in the mother tongue, being a homeboy, and a public speaker, among other factors, become criteria for qualification for the Office of Governor or any other elective position under the amended 1999 Constitution of Nigeria?
For the record, for the position of a Member of the Senate; a Member of the House of Representatives; a Member of the State House of Assembly; the President and Vice President; and the Governor and Deputy Governor, the qualification requirements are spelt out in Sections 65, 106, 131 and 177, accordingly, thus:
(a) he is a citizen of Nigeria by birth; (b) he has attained the age of 35, 30, 30, 40 and 35 (applicable to each office in that order); (c) he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that political party; and (d) he has been educated to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent.
And under Interpretation in Section 318 of the Constitution, “School Certificate or its equivalent” means in (c)(iii) “the ability to read, write, understand, and communicate in the English language to the satisfaction of the Independent National Electoral Commission.”
Clearly, only INEC has the power to determine whether a candidate has the “ability to read, write, understand, and communicate in the English language” – and not in their local language – which medium Ighodalo deployed to address his kinsmen.
Yet, it’s on the premise that “he cannot speak Esan (language),” because he is a “Lagos boy,” and not a “homeboy,” and reportedly “hired an interpreter” when he intimated his community about his governorship ambition, that opponents, especially supporters of the opposition APC, have attempted to undermine Ighodalo’s genuine aspiration to be governor of Edo State.
When, on Sunday, December 3, 2023, Ighodalo met with members of his ward in Ewohimi, Esan South East local government area of Edo State, to solicit their support, he spoke in pidgin English, and told the anxious and excited crowd: “I want us to stand as one. If we stand as one, the whole of Esan will take us seriously and we will be the pride of Edo State.
“I want everybody to go and register so that we can all vote as one body for the goodness and greatness of our land. You must have water, road, jobs and light. By the grace of Almighty, if we get this governorship, we will get everything, and Edo State will be the greatest state in Africa.”
At important gatherings in Esanland, the people need a streetwise interpreter, to further break down the message, even delivered in the local dialet. So, it wasn’t out of place for Mr Ighodalo’s political message to be simplified for “proper” understanding of the audience.
This was what critics deviously termed “hiring of an interpreter” – which went viral in the media – to score some undeserved political points. But unfortunately for them, it didn’t scratch the surface, talkless of achieving the intended mileage.
While some social media posts have lapped on the “engagement of an interpreter” to talk to one’s kinsmen as “a sign of age-long disconnect from the people,” others defended Mr Ighodalo, urging “focus on the progress he could bring to Edo State, as local language would not bring investments.”
And luckily for Ighodalo, his community people of Ewohimi didn’t – on account of his alleged inability to speak Esan – reject him, his vision and mission, and Blue Print for the Governorship of Edo State in 2024. Rather, reports spoke of enthusiastic reception for him amid pump and ceremony.
So, whether or not Ighodalo speaks Esan fluently, he’s adjusted to delivering his message of “making Edo the Number one State in Nigeria” in simple English language, mixed with pidgin English – the “unofficial lingua franca” of Esan people, Edo people, and the Nigerian people – that’s turned for him a blessing in disguise.
Since entering the governorship race in 2023, Ighodalo’s been everywhere in the nooks and cranies of the 192 wards of the 18 local government areas of Edo State, selling himself, his vision and mission to be governor in November 2024.
Coming to Mr Okpebholo, critics have termed his alleged non-public speaking and eloquence – to communicate his governance plans to the people of Edo State – as signifying a lack of capability, capacity, carriage, congnition exposure, maturity, and popularity. A combination of these factors has caused Okpebholo (APC, Edo Central) and the APC defections of high-profile members to the ruling PDP in Edo State.
In the interim, Okpebholo continues to be dogged by his alleged inability to speak publicly to the Edo voters, with mostly PDP supporters piling pressure on him to appear on an undisguisedly unfriendly ARISETV – regarded as the broadcast arm of the opposition in Nigeria – as a condition precedent to his qualification for governor.
As Okpebholo’s shunned the obviously biased bait to lure him to the slaughter, he’s striven lately to prove his political opponents wrong, by speaking forcefully at rallies across Edo State, barely three weeks to September 21. At a campaign stop at Aduwawa area of Benin City, Okpebholo – accompanied by Comrade Oshiomohle, who normally introduces Okpebholo at rallies – fiercely addressed the rallygoers camped out on and around a waterlogged road in the area.
Following Oshiomhole’s lengthy stomp speech, in which he reminded of the alleged failings of the Obaseki government – around which he’s framed the September election as a referendum – he introduced Okpebholo, saying, “Now, we are bringing somebody who is going to be a practical man. So, this man (patting Okpebholo on the right shoulder) is a simple man” (with applause of ‘yesooo’ from the crowd). His name is Senator Monday Okpebholo, Akpakomiza.”
Taking the microphone, Okpebholo ticked – in some shorthand fashion – his programmes of action, one after the other. “I want to thank you for the interest you have for Edo (State),” he told the cheering and pulsating crowd. “I’m coming to work for you. Why I’m contesting is to make sure that all the injustice done in our land is reversed.”
Pointing to the flooded road and its surroundings, on which the rally held, Okpebholo promised that, “all this road, all these gutters, we will desilt everything. Your schools, we will fix them back. Insecurity will be a thing of the past in our land. Hospitals, we are going to revive our hospitals back, and we will build new hospitals. Agriculture, we are going to provide farmers with fertilisers. Market women, we are going to give you soft loans without interests.”
“We will make sure that our land grows again. We will not steal your money, as they are doing now. They have taken a lot of money out of this land. (The) Obaseki government alone borrowed over N500bn. What did he do with the money? Nothing, nothing to show for it! So, we are coming to serve the people; we are coming to interact with the people; we are coming to solve the people’s problems.”
Okpebholo then addressed head-on the allegation that he can’t speak publicly, stating: “The government of Obaseki, they are liars. They even told you people on social media that I don’t know how to talk. You understand? A Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; a man who could negotiate between (from) Okpella (Edo North) to Benin (Edo South), for the Federal Government to come and do our road (Abuja-Benin Expressway), and the Federal Government put down N130bn, dual-carriage (way), with street lights in the middle, it has never been done.
“A man, who could do that, they are telling you he does not know how to talk. Am I not talking to you? (The crowd responded with ‘Yesooo’). Sisters, am I not talking to you? (‘Yessss, the female rallygoers responded). Brothers, am I not talking to you? (‘Yeah,’ the malefolks roared). They (PDP) are cheaters, they are liars, they are deceivers.”
Momentarily, Okpebholo turned some of the alleged ills of the Obaseki administration into a song, with the enthusiastic crowd refraining after him. He said, “Bye, bye to jedi jedi” (dysentry in Yoruba language), and the crowd responded accordingly. “Bye, bye to M-o-U” (memorandum of understanding, which critics deploy to depict Obaseki’s alleged non-performance). “Bye, bye to De-cei-vers.”
Back to the issues, in the form of prayers, and with crowd shouting “Amen,” “Iseooo,” Okpebholo declared: “Edo will progress this time around. We will revive our industries; we will revive everything in this town that is not working, to be working. We will bring water back; we will bring our light back. Good things will begin to happen again. Government is for all of us; government is for the people.”
Rounding off, Okpebholo appealed to the people to vote for him and the APC, to enable them take over at the Osadebey Avenue Government House seat of power in Benin City in November 2024. “I want to beg all of you that September the 21st is for Osadebey Government House,” Okpebholo said, and asked, “Who is the owner of the House?” The crowd said, “A-P-C.” “Who is the owner of the House?” he repeated. The crowd yelled, “Akpakomiza,” which’s the candidate’s popular alias. “Una go allow PDP to remain there?” he queried. “Noooo,” the crowd said. “So, vote for APC on September the 21st,” Okpebholo added.
Earlier, Oshiomhole, as is his routine on the campaign trail – just as he did for then-Godwin Obaseki during the September 2016 governorship poll – introduced Okpebholo to the crowd. First, Oshiomhole recalled his own achievements as Governor (2008-2016), especially the construction of the waterlogged road, on which the campaign convoy stopped to address the people – symbolising the reported failure of the Obaseki government.
According to Oshiomhole, “If you see him (Obaseki) on TV now, he will tell you, ‘we have done this, we have done that.’ But on ground, you will not see anything. He has been collecting money from the Federal Government; he has been collecting money from the World Bank. He has been borrowing, but you can see the condition of your road! Is the governor on holiday?” Oshiomhole asked. “Noooo,” the crowd replied. “Is the government on holiday?”
“What about the money he (Obaseki) is collecting? When I was here (as governor), our monthly allocations did not pass N3bn, but today, Obaseki is collecting not less than N12bn every month. What is he doing with it?
“If you don’t have a good heart… governance no bi grammar; it is about your heart. Do you care? Do you have sympathy for the (poor) people? Even sympathy for the rich because, if you go to the GRA (Government Reservation Area), it is even worse than this one (the waterlogged road). The road to Government House is as bad. Obaseki has destroyed the state.”
Try as they may, nothing is likely to assuage the opposition’s doubling down on the allegation that Senator Okpebholo’s carrying a speech deficit through the last days of campaigns that end on September 19, for the crucial September 21 election for the 2024 Edo State governorship!
•Mr Ezomon, journalist and media consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
