Godfatherism has never been known in the political terrain of Nigeria until the arrival of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and ever since they came to power in 2015, the Godfatherism has been so renowned and thriving until the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s governorship candidate in the person of Godwin Obaseki who after declaring for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and was given the candidature mantra to run as governor of the PDP. Today the spirit of Godfatherism has been totally defeated.
Before now, the former governor of the Edo state for two tenures in the person of Adams Oshiomhole told the whole world how he fought Godfatherism to a standstill in Edo state. But hypocritically enough when he chose Godwin Obaseki as his person to run for the governorship post as All Progressive Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Edo state in 2016, little did anybody expect that he wanted to use Obaseki as a tool of Godfatherism. To the surprise of Adams Oshiomhole who thought he could use Obaseki as a tool of Godfatherism, Obaseki refused to be used as such.
The battle has been on between governor Obaseki and the former governor Adams Oshiomhole as either he accepts to be used as a tool of Godfatherism or he will be denied a second tenure in their political agenda. Today governor Obaseki has proved a point after much pressure on him to resign from the party which the former governor made him to join in 2016 but Obaseki stood his ground until when the former governor who was the then chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC) disqualified Obaseki from contesting for second tenure as the party’s governor in Edo state. That action made Obaseki to decamp from APC to the PDP. And we can see today that Obaseki joining the PDP was never in vain as through him the Godfatherism pandemic (that is also plaguing the so called economic capital of the West African sub-region) has been totally destroyed in Edo state validating the “Edo No Be Lagos” mantra which was thriving in the build-up to the election and spread like wildfire on the election day.
We have to salute the spirit of the Edo state people for standing firm with governor Obaseki and that was what dismantled and put to death the pandemic of Godfatherism in Edo state by overwhelmingly voting for him to continue his second tenure as governor of Edo state.
And we say Godfatherism rest in peace forever and ever in the heartbeat of the nation Nigeria.
By Ambrose Imonitie, Nigerian political analyst who is a Godfrey Times columnist.
