Edo 2020: How Oshiomhole De-Marketed Ize-Iyamu

The September 19 governorship election in Edo state with all its hype and tension have come and gone but the scar remains as what goes around comes around


Pastor Osagie Ize Iyamu, the defeated candidate of the All Progressive Congress at the just concluded Edo State governorship election is a sad man. He is a sad man, not because he lost the keenly contested election to the incumbent governor, Godwin Obaseki. He is sad because of the bad things that were said against him which appeared to have got stuck on his personality. And worked against him during the election.

It all started in 2016. Ize Iyamu, then the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP) candidate for the governorship election in Edo State was a big treat for the All Progressive Congress, (APC) retaining their hold on the South South State . Adams Oshiomhole, then governor and chief campaigner of Godwin Obaseki, the then APC candidate could not accept the bold inroads the PDP and Ize Iyamu were making to snatch his state before his very eyes. The APC hierarchy were rattled and they had to find a way to demystify the rampaging OSAGIE Ize Iyamu. While campaigning for Obaseki, his former godson, Adams Oshiomhole, the former APC National Chairman told Edo people not to vote for Pastor Ize Iyamu because he cannot be trusted with public funds. Don’t forget that Pastor OSAGIE Ize Iyamu has held sensitive positions in the State in the past such as Chief of Staff and Secretary to Government. So Edo people believed him To add salt to injury, COMRADE Oshiomhole said Ize Iyamu is in hiding from the anti_graft agencies who are haunting him for his thriftiness, adding that the mother of the former governor of the state, Lucky Igbinedion was reported to have slapped Ize Iyamu for misleading her son.

Sounding serious, Oshiomhole stated. “He tried it with me, but we kept him away, nothing near government circles. No access to public funds”. Oshiomhole reduced the embattled Pastor Ize Iyamu further, saying, “I am a self_made man. I didn’t work as PA to anybody. Godwin (Obaseki) is self_made, he didn’t work as PA to anybody. He went to school, he didn’t pour acid on anybody’s child. “The PDP candidate (Ize Iyamu) poured acid to the private part of a student in the University of Benin and he was rusticated out of the University for two years.

“Is that the guy who is coming to pour more acid on Edo people”, he queried. “Are you going to vote for him? Can he ever appeal to students not to be violent when he himself has a history of violence,” he asked the multitude of party faithfuls who converged at the campaign ground to listen to him and his APC stalwarts. “When you want to do politics, you are in a glass house. Everybody must look you; you must answer your papa name. That is why some people said they read law, but you are not a barrister. “You say you are a pastor, AND NOBODY IS SURE YOU ARE ONE. Be careful of those who carry bible in the day and AK47 at Night”, Oshiomhole warned Edo People in 2016.

The election proper came, and Obaseki emerged victorious and became Governor WITH VOTES IN EXCESS OF 66,000 VOTES. The romance with Oshiomhole his godfather and predecessor was very cordial and they kept going until something happened. Comrade Adams Oshiomhole who was allegedly benefitted seriously from the Edo state commonwealth had disagreement with Governor Godwin Obaseki who accused him of being a dictator. The fighting between the godfather and his godson took a turn to the worst when Governor Obaseki decided to end godfatherism in Edo State. Oshiomhole, using his position as National Chairman of the party decided to humiliate Obaseki and deny him ticket for a second term of office.

Pastor Osagie Ize Iyamu who had since left PDP for APC suddenly became the beautiful bride for the APC National Chairman, and he was returned as the APC governorship candidate during the primary election while the Governor Obaseki was disqualified. By way of reversal of fortune, Governor Obaseki joined PDP, the opposition party and he won the party’s governorship primary election to face an old enemy. Osagie Ize Iyamu who picked the APC ticket berated his former party PDP saying that it was his ideology and consistency that was pushing the party in 2016, believing that he was going to run over Obaseki since he has federal might behind him. “The problem was the vehicle.” Now I see APC as a more serious and viable vehicle, I also see APC as more progressive minded than the PDP, he boasted. Not even his promise to work for Edo people and give them milk and honey could sway the electorates to his favour. Not, even the recanting of those bad things Oshiomhole said concerning Ize Iyamu in 2016 could change his fortune. Not even the claim that there was no truth in all OSHIOMHOLE SAID IN 2016 COULD CHANGE ANY THING. The people had made up their mind where their votes will go. And Edo people in an unmistakable terms, voted for GOVERNOR Obaseki who scored 307, 667 votes against Ize Iyamu’s 223,167 votes.

Ize Iyamu who said before the election that his bond with Oshiomhole is now stronger believe that Oshiomhole said those things that worked against him at the polls in 2016 to demarket him so that he could market his candidate, he never knew that once a market is declared a bad product, so it shall REMAIN IN THE SUBCONSCIOUS OF THE USERS. Unfortunately for him, it was the same Obaseki who was his major opponent at the governorship election four years ago who he confronted this time with the power of incumbency.

According to the defeated APC candidate, “He didn’t have much to say except to demarket me, in order to market his products. He has even gone ahead to apologise to me that some of the things he said about me are not true. For instance, he said that I am not a lawyer, but it is not true. He also said that I am not a Pastor. It is not true”, Ize Iyamu said. Many Edo citizens believe that Ize Iyamu use of Adams Oshiomhole as the face of his campaign was part of the reasons why he failed. However, the defeated governorship candidate debunked this claim, saying that it was the creation of the PDP. I am the governorship candidate, Ganiyi Audu is my deputy. It is the PDP that keeps mentioning his name. I am well known in Edo. I have been Chief of Staff and Secretary to Government. Whatever has happened, Edo people have spoken and the embattled Ize Iyamu has got a battle of wits to clean his name from the mess Oshiomhole put him four years ago.