Mr. George Izobo, former national president of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, has intervened in the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) seeming aimlessness in Edo State.
The former NUJ president emphasized the intrigues and conspiracies that have confounded the party in Edo State since 1999 in a message to Bishop Anthony Okosun, the head of the party’s reconciliation committee, which was formed by the state chairman, Dr. Anthony Aziegbemi.
Those who know Izobo know that he spoke from a place of knowledge and institutional memory, as he was the first State Publicity Secretary, SPS, of the PDP in Edo State.
Izobo spoke against the backdrop of the PDP’s cold war between Governor Godwin Obaseki and his deputy, Comrade Philip Shaibu.
In Edo, it is widely assumed that the governor and his deputy are now fighting over the PDP’s carcass, owing to the fact that the mainstream of the party, led by Chief Dan Orbih, was judicially sidelined by a contentious court decision that allowed his faction of the party to nominate candidates in the previous general election.
In response to the reconciliation committee’s request, Izobo did not mince words in criticizing the treachery of PDP governors in Edo as the party’s bane in the state. According to him, the malaise reached a head with Governor Obaseki saying that the only answer was for Obaseki to apologize to the party’s mainstream, led by its national vice-chairman, Chief Dan Orbih.
Orbih was required to lead the campaign for Obaseki’s reelection after negotiating his admittance into the party from Abuja in June 2020. Following the triumph, however, the party was set aside while the governor formed his government.
A daring endeavor by the party’s mainstream to seize power was thwarted when the Supreme Court granted legitimacy to candidates chosen by the governor’s faction. As a result of such a decision, the PDP lost federal elections in the state for the first time.
The party, which won the majority in the presidential and National Assembly elections despite being out of office at the state and federal levels, was obliged to play catch-up with the Labour Party and the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC.
The PDP’s conflicts prompted Governor Obaseki to form a reconciliation committee chaired by Okosun from Edo Central.
The crises are thought to have sparked the disagreement between Obaseki and his deputy, Shaibu because the deputy governor believes that the PDP is doomed without the mainstream or legacy party led by Orbih, hence his alleged flirtation with other parties in the state.
However, in his leaked statement to the Reconciliation Committee, Izobo asked the committee and Obaseki to return to Orbih and the mainstream.
He addressed Bishop Okosun, saying:
“I got a notification on behalf of the Edo State PDP conflict and resolution committee- for a meeting at Afuze. It was stated that you are the chairman of the committee.
“My frontal and consistent membership of PDP is as old as PDP itself. Bishop – you personally know that.
Noting how PDP governors exacerbated previous crises, he stated:
Lucky’s (Igbinedion) “silent conflict” with leadership resulted in the formation of the “Grace Group” with the ideology of “No man is God” in opposition to leadership.
The schism generated by that battle coincided with Prof. Osunbor’s confrontation with the PDP’s “leadership.” That pointless conflict had many unprintable effects.
The PDP’s governorship of Osunbor was “dashed” to Oshiomhole’s ACN. It was even rumored that Oshiomhole’s rise to power was supported by PDP state resources – via the Grace group’s obstruction of PDP leadership – under the banner “No man is God.”
He noted the current issue between the heritage PDP and Obaseki, saying:
“We are currently witnessing the worst disaster in history.” People are in pain. Development is in pain. The spirit of good relationships has been extinguished among the Edo people.
“In all of these sequences, human attempts at reconciliation and resolution were made.” They failed and continue to fail because those seeking greener pastures who benefit from the conflicts continue to fuel them.
“The seemingly endemic constancy of PDP conflicts in Edo State appears to be beyond human redemption.”
Izobo stated the following about the two possibilities available to the party:
“The first is terrestrial, and the second is celestial. Governor Obaseki should swallow his pride, which has been propelled and fueled by greedy psychopaths around him, and relate honestly with Dan Orbih in order to seek peace, justice, and resolution to the current PDP crisis.
“Let us seek God’s face and forgiveness, begging HIM to kill the spirit of “conflicts” in the Edo political system.”
Recognizing the dilemma, he has now decided on his local chapter in Owan East, where he is the party’s head, citing the stakeholder makeup as untenable.
Many stakeholders say that while Izobo has presented his answer, others have presented theirs, and it is now up to the national leadership to seek the road of justice and truth.
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