Obaseki: When You Are In A Pit You Must Stop Digging –Olaniyi Odina

On the morning 4 June 2020, we woke to an executive order by the outgoing governor of Edo State Mr Godwin Obaseki. Content of that order is childish and shows utter desperation and an illicit attempt by a sinking man to ensure his sinks his party and as many people as possible on the voyage with him. Our forebears in their wisdom have since counselled that whenever a man finds himself in a pit he must not dig further.

Since the struggle between Obaseki and the party men that want him out government house started it has been from one political gaffe to another like some possessed by the spirit of errors. Obaseki needs to sack a huge number of his political advisers they are the ones that put him in this pit filled with a mess in the first place.

Many advise they gave him could only have been taken by a person with zero political exposure like the finance man, made governor by powers that be.I will not labour too much in this article to discuss some of the legendary gaffs of the outgoing governor.

I just want to reduce this discussion to the executive order against direct primaries made by the governor. A semantic and psychological analysis of the Gazette shows a governor that is psychologically battered and is ready to set the state on fire to achieve his whims.

He has also shown to the whole world that his detractors are absolutely correct that his political relevance and popularity is close to zero amongst the party men that will form a bulk of voting population on the day of general elections.

Please follow me as I excruciatingly give an analysis of some key points of the infantile Executive order.1) *Restricting Gathering to less than 20 People:* This order is not only laughable but ridiculous. At a time when the world is relaxing lockdowns and making efforts to encourage people to go about their normal duties.

The governor is more than determined to ambush his own party. He seems to have forgotten that he is up against professionals that are masters of the game. With this order, the election can still hold, in a modulated way. The party can further split voting points to polling Units and stagger the election into four by dividing the people according to the alphabets of their surnames.2) *Encouraging Mass Gathering of 5,000 People with Approval*:

I sincerely think Governor Obaseki is possessed by the spirit of doing anyhow. Obaseki has with this fiat in single stroke confirm the claim by his traducers that he has upgraded himself to the military fascist leader in Edo State with a touch of totalitarianism.

The question agitating my mind since the Gazette was made public is, does Obaseki’s approval have the capacity to stop coronavirus from spreading? Is Obaseki not exposing Edo people to greater danger by massing 5,000 people from across the state in one place? Should there by an outbreak during the purposed meeting of 5,000 people won’t they take it to every nook and cranny of our dear state?

How would NDDC do contact tracing when the entire state is moulded up in one contraption? Would it not be better for the elections to be conducted at the ward or polling unit levels? With this, you can’t have more than 50 APC members gathered at one place at the same time. Should there be any outbreak it will be very easy to trace 50 people gathered at the particular polling unit where the outbreak happens.

Though, I still have a million and one questions agitating my soul the last question for the outgoing fascist governor of Edo State. How do we trace the contact of 5,000 people that will meet after his approval?Those advising the Governor had been in the forefront of digging pits for him since the whole macabre dance started.

They are exploiting the weakness of the governor, knowing fully well that he is not intellectually mobile politically. They are using his political naivety to push him further down the abyss. The Governor should apply breaks immediately. He is making the job too easy for those us that want him out government house.

He is showing to those outside Edo State that were tempted to believe his barefaced lie about his popularity, that he is the most unpopular governor in Nigeria political history after Governor Ambode of Lagos. Obaseki should stop making this particular assignment of sending him out of Osadebe Avenue too easy.

He should square up like man that he is supposed to be and be ready to meet his fellow men on the field.Olaniyi Odina08188475958