There is no sugarcoating it, Governor Monday Okpebholo was out of line in declaring that if Mr Peter Obi chooses to make another visit to Edo State without clearance from him, he should take responsibility for anything that happens to him as his security cannot be guaranteed.
Even if his premise might have been well founded on grounds that the last visit by the gentleman allegedly led to some deaths or on the basis of what ought to be the standard protocol for such high-profile visits, there is no excuse for what comes across as a threat, especially in a public gathering in which his words could be taken literally by anyone there to run with, or activation at a later date.
That said, it would be erroneous to assume that all of the people that have latched on to this as a cudgel to pummel Okpebholo actually do so for the reasons they project. Many of those on his case didn’t start today. They have been at it from the moment he emerged as the APC Governorship Candidate.
A caricature of him had been created as a barely literate, unrefined, uninformed politician who neither knew his right from the left. He was said to have been unable to string together a few sentences in English.
A Breakfast Show on a particular TV Station made mincemeat of him, with repeated mockery, daring and taunting him to make an appearance on their show. They even offered to conduct an interview with him in his mother tongue, having concluded he lacked the capacity for such an engagement in the supposedly superior English language.
Edo is a State in which I maintain more than a passing interest. So, while folks on TV spent day after day, during the campaign period, demarketing the man and making jest of him over what might have passed as slip of tongue, information from those on the ground had it that the man has some level of decent connection with the people at the grassroots, helped by his record before he became a politician.
With the then incumbent Governor said to have destroyed, rather than build or reinforce bridges with major political stakeholders within and outside his party, those with ear to the ground were positive about Okpebholo’s chances in what was projected to be a close election.
Contrary to the argument by those who insisted he had to be a guest on their TV programme to qualify as Governor, the election results from the State pronounced him winner. Rather than eat the humble pie, they shifted the pressure to the Judiciary and when it became evident that victory was not forthcoming from that end, the campaign now became one for electoral and judicial reforms.
With victory finally sealed for Okpebholo with the judgement of the Supreme Court, many of these critics had recoiled to lick their wounds secretly, until the Governor offered them ammunition last week by going overboard.
So it was a case of unforced error on the part of Governor Okpebholo, serving into the hands of those who have been waiting for any opportunity to have a go at him.
They now have him on the platter and his friends have come with all sorts of knives to dig in. They have what is said to be his WASCE statement of result flying all over the place, making a meal of what is said to be his low level of education.
While I can’t begrudge those who have seized on the moment to make jest of the man and his educational status, I can’t see what that has got to do with what recently transpired. It is an overreach that we have seen with both the highly educated and those who do not have such benefit.
Akpakomiza might be rough around the edges, but that does not make him a misfit he is being presented as. Those who insist on typecasting him might need to look into the mirror themselves and ask how much their claim to high education has relieved them of their rough edges.
I wonder how a man who has at different times thrown decorum out of the window on live TV, with an allegation of threat to life hanging at his neck, found the moral high ground to call another man out for a threat not as menacing as that he was said to have allegedly made.
There is no excuse for his misspeak, but it is obvious that some of the critics are riding on that to hit at a man they do not consider fit for that office.
So much has been made about education. Fair enough. Perhaps what will make sense is for us to embrace the rule by philosopher-Kings as Plato prescribes so that we can exclude the Okpebholos and let the intelligentsia take charge of our affairs.
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But we don’t need to look afar to see how we have fared under the rule of the intelligentsia. Examples abound, just as there are copious instances of how institutions under the watch of the intellectuals have fared. We have seen professionals literally going to war over leadership of such institutions and professional bodies. We have seen the enlightened doing worse many times. Even the philosopher who is the victim in this instance did worse as Governor. So, it is not and cannot be about the level of education.
Making it about Okpebholo’s level of education, whatever that is, is simply playing up prejudice and preconceived assumptions about a man they never liked.
I saw the man in a lengthy sit-down interview with my friend, Babajide Kolade-Otitoju, sometime back, and I tell you, he acquainted himself well in the course of that interview with a decent grasp of issues, policies and focus of his administration.
I disagree with my friend, Dr Reuben Abati, on his characterisation of the man, and his call for the man to sit down with his Attorney General to explain constitutional provisions on allocations from the Federation Account.
I didn’t see an Okpebholo who didn’t understand that it was not President Tinubu giving money to the state for execution of projects. What I saw was him doing, was breaking down, in the language the ordinary people could understand, the fact that on account of the Tinubu policy of withdrawal of subsidy, there has been a marked increase in funds available to the States, a point several other Governors have made. He was only linking policy with politics, and communicating in a manner the people would understand so as to effectively gain political mileage for the President, his party and himself, which is legitimate.
Okpebholo is not a dullard as some of his critics desperately try to present him, some even insulting the people of Edo State on account of that. He strikes me as a man with a good deal of native intelligence and connection with the people. He appears to have a clear understanding of his vision and has kept to the task of fulfilling his mission. He might not be as eloquent as his critics. He might not be as educated as they are, but we have also seen our educated in action. Okpebholo is the Governor today, and with time, his people will decide if he has lived up to expectations for them.
There is no excuse for his misspeak, but it is obvious that some of the critics are riding on that to hit at a man they do not consider fit for that office. But they must also recognise that the decision of who is the best fit to govern the State at every point in time is that of the Edo people.
