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· Philip Shaibu has been impeached because the deputy governor of Edo State and changed by 38-year- outdated Omobayo Godwin. He has declared his impeachment unlawful, however till a court docket of legislation follows swimsuit, such a declaration would stay past his fiat as an erstwhile deputy governor.
· In Nigerian politics, the heads which are reared up too quickly are swiftly lower off and served in salomenic model because the prize for ambition in a gathering of energy. At any time when deputy governors have changed governors, it has been a case of restraint, and typically helplessness. In any other case, it is just hostility that’s displayed. That hostility now haunts Shaibu.
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· Since he indicated his intention to develop into governor, he has develop into the primary enemy to energy within the state. Godwin Obaseki, the governor, has been open in his opposition to Shaibu’s bid. Obaseki’s grouse that Shaibu didn’t inform him has shortly develop into fierce opposition to his bid in all respects. It’s a unusual case of a governor being within the opposition along with the legislature, all arrayed in battle towards one man.
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· Because the theatre has unfolded in Edo State, turning theatrics to weapons in one in every of Nigeria’s most politically acutely aware states, the unimaginable destiny of a deputy governor who aspires to be greater than a figurehead has been laid naked.
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· Snippets from Shaibu’s facet of the story which have come extra out of compulsion than precise consternation or contempt betray emotions of betrayal. Having sunk his assets right into a joint ticket, he feels he ought to now be the primary title on what’s a testomony to its success story. However that isn’t how issues work. Within the cut-throat world of Nigerian politics, loyalty is usually a knife sharpened for one’s again.
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· In his bid to develop into governor, Shaibu has evoked the homeboy trope. A profession activist and unionist who rose to fame throughout the heady days of scholar unionism in Unijos, he considers himself the quintessential homebred politician who not solely is aware of the place the heart beat is in Edo State however feels it first-hand. On this sensible, Shaibu favorably compares himself to a sure favorite for the son of the Edo State governorship who wanted a translator to commune together with his kinsmen and spirits when he visited his neighborhood.
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· What iniquitous offence did Shaibu decide to impel his impeachment? What has modified to make a pariah out of a person who has claimed to have bankrolled elections in 2016 and has not been challenged?
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· Obaseki and his stooges within the state legislature positive don’t have any coherent reply. Shaibu’s destiny sealed from the second non-public disaffection over the following governor of Edo State spilled into public disagreement is a remaking of the unimaginable remit of the Nigerian deputy governor. An workplace hamstrung by the Structure itself is usually made unimaginable by the clownish tendencies of governors who act like emperors, and crave management of every little thing.
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· What is going on in Edo State is historical past repeating itself. In 2010, as President Musa Yar’Adua dangled between life and dying from the threads of a terminal sickness, his closest aides and members of the family cared much less for the president’s survival than to examine his inevitable alternative by the Vice President to the workplace. This was till dying checked all of them.
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· Ondo State additionally required dying to finally disarm the bomb that was about to detonate within the state. Since 1999, deputy governors in Zamfara, Oyo, Kogi, Ekiti, Imo, Lagos, Osun, Akwa Ibom and Bauchi have all been impeached for farcical offences. It’s a battle that’s by no means distant from authorities with the prudent query being the place subsequent.
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· It Is disruptive {that a} governor ought to spend his final days in workplace orchestrating the impeachment of his deputy somewhat than consolidating his legacy.
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· The clearest lesson for Shaibu and different deputy governors, might but be that in a duel of massive canines, it’s impolitic to indicate sharp enamel.
· Kene Obiezu,
· keneobiezu@gmail.com