Immediate past deputy governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, bares his mind to ADEYINKA ADEDIPE of Punch on his impeachment, and his next move ahead of the forthcoming governorship election, among other issues
When you accepted to be Governor Godwin Obaseki’s running mate, did you envisage that things could end this way?
I envisaged that things would end this way and that things were not going to be fine. That was why I was the last person within our group to accept Obaseki when Comrade Adams Oshiomhole put him forward. Out of respect for Oshiomhole, I accepted. We were also told that he was coming in with private-sector ideas and that there was likely going to be a recession which we would need Obaseki to help us battle. But I warned that this man was going to destroy the house, and it eventually happened.
When I was nominated to be Obaseki’s running mate, I was not interested but people in our team like Chris Okaeben, Washington Osifo, Larry Aghedo, Andrew Momodu, and Abbas Braimoh and other young people came to talk to me to accept the offer. They said if I refused the offer, we (the young people) would not have a representative in the government. I accepted reluctantly but I told them that I see a fight in the future. The first year was full of tension but Comrade (Oshiomhole) and his former deputy, Pius Odubu, told me that the government had just started and that I had no choice. Comrade told me I had to be loyal to the governor and that I was at his mercy. That was when I knew something would go wrong.
How did you think you could navigate the impending problem you predicted?
First, I told my wife that we were not going to live in the Government House but in our private residence so that when there was a fight, I wouldn’t be told to pack my things out of the Government House because it would be disgraceful. She asked me why I felt that way, and I told her I had a premonition that all would not be well. My wife said we should pray about it, but seven years later, what I predicted happened. Imagine looking for vehicles to pack our belongings out of the Government House. My office was relocated out of the Government House which was the only thing connecting the governor and me. I am happy that my office was only relocated out of the Government House.
Your alliance with the Legacy Group looks strong. Are you hoping to join another party soon?
First, I am not ready to support the governorship candidate of the party, Asue Ighodalo, and until the PDP does the needful, I may not be able to answer the question. I cannot support him because he didn’t open up to me about his ambition despite asking him several times, including at my house. The last time I asked was in November. So, I was taken aback when he spoke on TV that he was being pushed to run.
I called him and asked who was pushing him to run, but he told me to ignore the report and that it was a social media thing. But his younger brother, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, said that the move to make his elder brother the governor of Edo State started two years ago. Edo State needs a “homeboy” to govern them, not people who will rent houses during their tenure and leave as soon as it ends. We need people who we can relate to and understand the challenges of the people. The PDP governorship candidate is more of an Ibadan man than an Edo man.
Have you forgiven the governor who you say is instrumental to your impeachment?
I have forgiven him. I thank God for the grace he has given me to be alive. The way I am is the way my heart is. I am plain, genuine and I don’t keep anything in my heart. That’s why I am always in good health because I don’t keep malice. I don’t have space for negativity and the Bible says the heart of men is desperately wicked. So, I know that there are principalities you need to fight in this world. So, when I meet the likes of Obaseki and Ighodalo, I don’t allow their ways to affect me.
I have adjusted to the kind of people that they are. So, whatever they do does not hit me hard. As regards forgiveness, the Lord’s Prayer is clear about that. It said we should forgive those who trespass against us. I have done that. So, I can also be forgiven of my sins because I am not a saint. Honourable Kabiru Adjoto and I are now back together after falling out over some issues. His group is the one who started the whole thing that led to my removal from office. I have forgiven him and some other people, and the only way I can see salvation is to do what is right.
What’s your take on activists who get into political positions, abandon the people and enrich themselves?
For me, that should not be the purpose of coming into politics. I am in politics to affect people positively, lift them from poverty to wealth, take them from where they are to where they want to be, and create an enabling environment for them to thrive and an egalitarian society. I am a political activist and I have refused to change. People know that I am consistent, and this has brought me into conflict with those who feel I should have done things differently. I have always said no to godfatherism in politics and that is why the activism in me comes up when I see people engaging in this thing. Obaseki who fought godfatherism together with us has now brought Ighodalo as his godson.
Is activism not working against you in politics?
What activists do is fight for the good things for our people, fight against oppression, and make sure that institutions work to the benefit of both the big and small men. But when institutions don’t work, the big man will continue to oppress the small ones. We want institutions to be bigger than individuals. We supported Obaseki because we believed that he was coming to strengthen institutions but what we have seen so far is the opposite.
What’s the fuss about breaching the oath of office which led to your impeachment?
The oath of office which was used to impeach me has been breached by the governor several times as he sacked some high-ranking government officials because of politics. He (Obaseki) also fought his deputy because of the same reason. The oath says you should not allow your interest to affect your conduct on the job. So, the House of Assembly should have impeached Obaseki even before talking about Philip Shaibu.
We don’t have the State Universal Basic Education Board, the governor only put a lady in charge, and I complained several times, but nothing was done. They said I exposed an official secret by giving the court the information needed to back my case. So, which official secret are they talking about? If I had gone to Oba Market to say these things, that is when I could be impeached for divulging an official secret. I went to court to stop my impeachment, gave documents to prove it, and also backed my case. When the time comes, we shall expose a lot of things to government agencies who come to the state for questioning.
Why did you not attend the hearing of the panel that was set up to look into your impeachment case?
No, I couldn’t have attended because it would amount to disobeying a court order. If the court told them to come and show cause before it proceeded; so, going to the panel would mean that I was going against the court. Moreover, you don’t fight a madman because people will not know who the mad person or the sane person is. What my lawyers simply did at the hearing was to remind them and let the public know that we had served these people and that they were disobeying a court order. My counsel was not there to attend the panel. For us, we didn’t want to join them in that illegality.
What’s your take on the position of the panel that the court told them to come and show cause but did not stop them from sitting?
The matter is in court. So, I wouldn’t want to preempt the court or say more about the case. We decided not to join the illegality. I told my lawyer not to go but he felt that it was important to be there and let the world know that we have served them. We will see how my impeachment will help them in an election year. I also knew that the impeachment would be done on trumped-up charges, and I believe the court would upturn it. My impeachment shows the character of the leaders we have in Edo State and that of Philip Shaibu.
It took 10 months for the governor to succeed in impeaching his deputy; so, that is worth celebrating for me. It also shows that not everybody who comes into politics from the private sector should be taken seriously. Governor Alex Otti of Abia, a genuine private sector person, is doing well in his state. These are the kind of people needed in politics, not briefcase entrepreneurs masquerading as private-sector gurus. Governor Otti has not headed any institution that is struggling like some people’s political careers.
Do you think the constitution should be amended to check the indiscriminate impeachment of deputy governors?
Yes, I think the constitution should be amended to protect the deputy governors. I have also put down how I think the issue can be solved. I am sending it to the National Assembly. If we continue like this, you will not have quality people accepting to become deputy governors in the country. The office of the deputy governor should not be seen as an ordinary one, and that is why those who wrote the constitution made sure that the same qualification is needed to become a governor and a deputy governor. They know that if the deputy needs to act as the governor, he must be qualified and have the experience to function well.
The governor should not see his deputy as nobody. The Vice President is the chairman of the economic team. So, deputy governors should get the same responsibility in their states. They should also get their security personnel directly from the Inspector General of Police and other heads of security outfits in the country and not from the Government House. The deputy governors should also have their security votes directly from the Federal Government and not at the mercy of the governor. The governor will remain the number one citizen of the state, but the deputy should be protected. Ondo State is a good example where Lucky Aiyedatiwa has stepped in after the demise of Rotimi Akeredolu and he is doing so well.
Are you ready to rejoin Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s camp?
I am ready. I have also consistently apologised to Comrade, and I am using this avenue to do so again over what happened in 2020, especially the language I used during that period. I look at some of the videos and the only thing I can do is apologise. However, I don’t regret the action I took because Oshiomhole is the one who led us to fight against godfathers. I felt what he was trying to do at that time was wrong. Reuniting with him will be interesting. Even amid the fight, I have maintained that he is my father. I will reunite with him sooner or later. He is also my mentor. So, a lot of things that I do, I learnt from him.
Can you throw more light on the issue of godfatherism, and can you say Oshiomhole is your godfather?
Godfatherism, to me, is for a man to dictate to a multitude without seeking their opinion just like the governor did. As the governor, you can get your wish done not by imposition but by lobbying, which is common in America, where we even have professional lobbyists. Oshiomhole lobbied to make Obaseki the candidate of the All Progressives Congress. Despite saying no to Oshiomhole initially, we succumbed, and we all worked for Obaseki in 2016. Some of us even had to go against Oshiomhole to work for Obaseki’s second term.
So, we want a leadership that can galvanise everyone to work towards a certain goal and not a leadership that will bully us to accept a certain candidate. Ten of us bought forms for the PDP primaries and nine of us are still united to say no to Ighodalo. In the APC, those who lost out in the primaries are united behind the party candidate, Monday Okpebholo, which shows that there is a leadership that can galvanise, pacify and unite everybody. In the PDP, we have emperors, as against leaders making decisions, and if this is not checked, the PDP will go into oblivion in the state.
How strong is your alliance with the Legacy group headed by Dan Orbih, and will it stand the test of time?
The alliance is already standing the test of time. If by now, they have not been able to break us, it means that a leadership vacuum has been created on the other side. We have been sending a message to the national body of the party that if they want the PDP to stand in Edo State, they better come and take back the leadership; the governor does not understand politics but using intimidation. The local government chairmen are being harassed to support Ighodalo with campaign vehicles since mine will not be available. I will advise the LG chairmen to be careful because the EFCC is watching.
Will it not be better to leave the party instead of working against it as the election draws near?
A lot of people are angry because of what they did to me. In Owan East in Edo North, my supporters told me last week that they could no longer wait, and I told them to take any step they deemed okay. We are asking people to hold on, but they keep moving to other parties daily. Others say they have no faith in the leadership of the party, that they have been maltreated, and that we all need to leave. When I asked them where they wanted us to move to, they said the APC. I am a team player and if my team says we can no longer stay, I will follow them. I said previously that we escorted the governor to the PDP. It is the treatment that we get that will determine whether we will stay in the PDP or go back to where we are coming from. I am principled and will not work against the candidate if I am still in the PDP. So, if I am not going to work for Ighodalo, that means I will have to leave.
Should this be taken as a hint that you are moving back to the APC?
If the team comprising the Legacy Group and my original groups say we have to move to the APC, we will not hesitate. There is a problem for the PDP considering the heavyweight who may likely leave the party. Some have never left the PDP since the creation of the party, but they have told me that they are ready to go wherever I go. I told them we should see if the issues can be resolved but they said they couldn’t see a solution in sight.
They are calling people who are leaving the party to come back and threatening local government chairmen not to allow members to defect to other parties. The LG bosses are now begging party members not to leave but it is too late to beg. They act like they are the only ones who have wisdom, forgetting that God gave everyone talent and it is by putting our talents together that we can thrive.
Were delegates who you claimed were not allowed to vote in the PDP primary election part of the list of voters?
Yes, they were part of the delegate, and I can tell you that 381 of the authentic delegates were my supporters and they were elected at the ward congress, but they blocked them from getting accredited on the day of the primary and their tags given to their cronies. They used vigilantes to barricade everywhere. That is why the issue of state police should be looked at critically. The accreditation committee in their report attested to the fact that they saw bulk accreditation being taken away and given to other people.
These 381 delegates who were my people came together to conduct another primary and they have sworn an affidavit to say they were not allowed into the stadium and that they went somewhere else to vote. If you subtract 381 from the 527 they claimed he (Ighodalo) got, you find out that Ighodalo lost the primaries. I won the election because 301 delegates voted at the primaries conducted by the authentic delegates. What happened was that they failed to get these people on their side; that’s why they prevented them from gaining access to the stadium. I was smarter than them because I was able to get them accommodated and when they got wind of this, they prevented them from getting accredited.
Did you not consult with the governor before you made your ambition public?
Obaseki did not call anyone, not even me, to say this was our plan. Instead, we were the ones who reached out to him to say we were consulting with different groups, and when he saw that, he started withdrawing some official assignments that I was handling. I called a mutual friend to tell him that I was being victimised and a meeting was organised. The meeting had Obaseki, the mutual friend, Ken Mozia, and Osarodion Ogie, and I told them that I was consulting but hadn’t made up my mind to contest.
I told them that my supporters and friends were putting pressure on me to contest. The governor said it was too early and that was around May last year. I asked what the governor wanted, and he said we should hold on till October.
I went back to my supporters to tell them what the governor advised, and I suspended all consultations. In the midst of all these, the governor started behaving funny and strange. He told his Chief of Staff to collect the airport file from me, started taking some of my duties away, and blocked me from attending state events.
While I was on vacation, the governor started telling people that I planned a “coup”. He also started an impeachment move against me and I called this mutual friend to inform him. I told Chief Mike Oghiadomhe who called a meeting where I apologised for any wrongdoing.
But he said that I wanted to disrupt his plan to bring Ighodalo and that I should not contest the election. I insisted that I would contest because it was within my right to do so. It was the governor’s action that spurred me to contest the party ticket. I wonder how he would oppress me and still achieve his aim of getting Ighodalo to power.
Did you learn to put on khaki from Oshiomhole?
I am putting on Khaki not because Oshiomhole is doing the same, but because he was one of my mentors. He was the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, and I was the president of the National Association of Nigerian Students. I started winning elections while I was at the University of Jos in my first week in school when I became the class representative, then a parliamentarian after 100 days and became the welfare officer of the union and the ‘Abacha must go’ Zone C coordinator made up of North-East and North-Central.
I was a member of the Civil Liberty Organisation and I was also their coordinator in North-East and North-Central. I would have fled the country if General Abdulsalami Abubakar who became the Head of State after the death of Abacha hadn’t given us amnesty. While in detention, I was one of those released by the government due to the former US ambassador, Walter Carrington’s intervention. My khaki is borne out of activism; it’s not showmanship. I stick to the khaki because it reminds me of my identity and where I am coming from. It also reminds me that I need to do the right thing, having fought the government in the past for doing the wrong thing.
Why have you refused to release the vehicles they said are in your possession?
The vehicles they are referring to are the two Prado SUVs used by Lucky Imasuen as the deputy governor. The other Hilux was the one (Dr Pius) Odubu’s wife used, and the Land Cruiser was the one Odubu used. I took all those vehicles to the mechanic who changed their engine and refurbished them. Those are the vehicles that they are telling me to return. So, you can see how heartless men can be. I got only one new vehicle in almost eight years that I served as the deputy governor of the state.