Edo House of Shame

Comfort Obi

if anybody ever doubted why there has been no development in Edo State since 1999, the show of shame which played out in the State House of Assembly on Monday, March 1, provides the answer. And, if the shameful situation continues, any hope that Comrade-Governor Adams Oshiomhole would be an improvement on the eight years of former governor, Chief Lucky Igbinedon's monumental waste in office would be dashed.
Without doubt, Igbinedion's regime reduced the state to a base level. The state capital, Benin, under him, was no better than the headquarters of a local government council. It boasted of no roads. When it rained, Benin became one mighty, raging river. Nothing worked. The only industries which flourished were crime and prostitution. The only spark at the time was Igbinedion’s wife who waged a relentless war against prostitution. Her husband, Lucky, was a partying governor. His only success was in playing the elders against one another. That is why, till date, Chief Tony Anenih and Chief Sam Ogbemudia don’t see eye to eye. That is also why, inspite of the many heavy weights in the PDP, the party couldn’t win the governorship election in a free and fair election. That Oshiomole, of the Action Congress, is the governor of the state today, is a direct consequence of the misrule of former governor Igbinedion. It was the people’s answer to bad rubbish. Yet, if the crisis which has engulfed the House of Assembly, and by extension, the state, is not contained, Edo people may be in for many more years of nothingness. And the people’s governor may soon be remembered for presiding over a state of crisis. How did supposed Honourable members of the House of Assembly reduce themselves and the House to this gutter level?
According to reports, it started when the now impeached(?) Speaker of the House, Zakawanu Garuba, (PDP), refused to recognise Bright Omokhodion, a PDP member at the time, to speak. Omokhodion had raised his hand several times, saying he had an information for his colleagues. Apparently, Garuba knew what the information was. Not only was Omokhodion going to announce his defection to the AC, its consequence was going to be the impeachment of Garuba as the Speaker of the House. Sensing trouble, Garuba ignored him, and adjourned sitting indefinitely. Hell was let loose. And the House was thrown into confusion and war. When Kabiru Adjoto, AC, made for the Mace, Garuba allegedly used the gavel which he had been trying to use to call the House to order, as a weapon. He, allegedly, hit Adjoto with it on the head and hand. Then, all kinds of weapons surfaced. While some members became Mike Tyson, one of them brought out an axe and used it on a colleague. Another brought out a tear gas canister and used it freely on his colleagues. For three hours, war raged. By the time the police arrived, three members of the House – Philip Shauibu, Kabiru Adjoto, and Johnson Oghuma, all AC members - were seriously injured. An ambulance was quickly dispatched to evacuate them to the hospital. To cut this disgraceful story short, at the end of that day, AC members, including Omokhodion who defected from the PDP to the AC, said they had impeached Garuba and his Deputy. A temporary Speaker was chosen. But within the next 48 hours, Omokhodion, a new entrant to the AC, was nominated the substantive Speaker of the House. The war is still raging. A few days later, the police were called in to detonate bombs which had been planted behind the House of Assembly building.
Why is Edo State cursed? How did a state which was once part of a model state, Bendel, become this gutter? At the root of this shame is the struggle for the treasury of the state. It is a struggle for the rape of the state by political godfathers who ought to have been sent to a political purgatory many years ago. What happened at the House of Assembly was a direct war for the control of the House, and so the state. In trying to control the state, members of the House, shameless, relatively young men, who have no mind of their own, reduced themselves to motor park touts.
The House is made up of 24 members. Until the recent shame, both the PDP and the AC had equal membership of 12 each. With the defection of Omokhodion from the PDP to the AC, the later now boasts of 13 members. Constitutionally, for a Speaker to be impeached, it would take 2/3 of the members to do so. In this case, 2/3 of 24 is 16. So, by what strength did the 13 AC members impeach Garuba? They claimed that 16 members impeached him. Good. But how did they arrive at that? And can they make the names of the 16 members public? At the time of writing this article, the other members of the PDP insist they signed no impeachment notice. So, what happened? These are strange times.
The problem with us is that many of our politicians engage in do-or-die politics. And that is because they are empty. They have nothing to offer the people. They go there to line their pockets. They have no confidence in themselves, or in their actions. Otherwise, why would Garuba not recognise Omokhodion to speak, even if he knew he wanted to defect to the AC? Would he be the first person to defect to a rival political party? That is the life of the average Nigerian politician. They can defect to 10 parties within one year because they play politics of the stomach. No vision. No issues.
Yet, there is this very worrisome aspect. We have seen Honourable members box one another, pull toy guns, like amateur armed robbers, or even use their chairs on one another. In the Edo case, tear gas canisters and axes were used. How did these shameless members enter the House with those dangerous weapons? These are definitely cultists. They need to be investigated and prosecuted. As for Garuba who reduced the gavel to a weapon, he is a disgrace to the office he once occupied. What do these people teach their children? And after the show of shame, how did they face members of their families? But finally, I have a word for Edo people.
They should rise to this challenge, and retrieve their state from these thugs, and their sponsors. A recall of those involved in this show of shame will not be out of order. Otherwise, the state may end up not faring better than the unfortunate Lucky Igbiniedion days. And that will be a tragedy.