From Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
The Labour Party (LP) leader of Edo Central Senatorial District, Chief Friday Toyin Ibadin, has urged stakeholders to ensure that a governor of Esan extraction emerges in the forthcoming election in the state.
Addressing party stalwarts and members at the secretariat of LP’s Edo Central Senatorial District in Uromi, Edo State, Chief Ibadin listed reasons why a governor of Esan extraction should be in Osadebe House in 2024.
“We have a major election this year, and very soon our party guidelines will be released as it relates to the Edo 2024 gubernatorial race. This is why we should sit as a family to discuss and know the direction we are going in this party.
“Some of us joined this great party for one reason or the other, but the majority joined because of the foundation and pillars upon which the party was built, which is social justice for all.
“By my understanding, social justice means the equitable distribution of resources, including opportunities in any society. It represents equity, justice, and fairness. If you break it further, it means the allocation of state resources or opportunities.
“The governorship race in Edo State is on with many aspirants of Esan extraction seeking the ticket of Labour Party. However, something is rearing its head like an obstacle to the actualisation of the ambition of the aspirants, if not checkmated. This is why l have decided to speak up as a leader of the party.
“If the very foundation of our party is social justice, then let us look at the political power distribution or opportunities in Edo State since 1999 as a good pointer to our demands and agitation.
“There exist three senatorial districts, evenly distributed within the length and breadth of Edo State, namely, Edo South, North, and Central.
“Our Bini brothers in Edo South would have governed this state for 16 years, after the tenure of Obaseki with our collective political and moral support of other senatorial districts that make up the state.
“Our brothers in Edo North have governed the state for eight years also with our support collectively. It is worthy to note that Edo Central senatorial district has only produced a governor in the person of Professor Osunbor from May 29, 2007, to November 11, 2008, and was removed by a court of competent jurisdiction.
“By court nullifying the election that brought Professor Osunbor as a governor, it means he was never elected as a governor and therefore, a governor of Esan extraction has never been in Osadebey house since 1999.
“Furthermore, the deputy governor seat had rotated amongst the other two senatorial districts – Edo South and North since 1999.
“The question begging for answer is what is the offence of Edo Central Senatorial District? We in Edo Central contribute to the Treasury by way of payment of taxes to the Treasury etc., but when it comes to power sharing, we are told to take the back seat of power, with the excuse that we are not in the majority but a minority.
“Assuming without conceding the minority assertion, in 1979, Professor Ambrose Folorunsho Alli, from Edo Central Senatorial District was democratically elected as the governor of the then Bendel state, which is today Edo and Delta.
“If Professor Ambrose Alli of blessed memory was democratically elected from the same zone, what has gone wrong since 1999?
“This is the crux of the reasons we are here today, it seems to me, that we must collectively address this political marginalization and psychological oppression.
“In Delta State for example, among our brothers and immediate neighbours, the governorship seat. rotates between Delta North, Central and South, no matter the political party in power. This has created a systemic balance and equitable sharing of state resources and the promotion of peaceful co-existence.
“There is no better time than now to express and assert the fact that a Governor of Esan extraction in Osadebey House come 2024 is long overdue and should not be for sale.
“The current state of oppression of Edo Central Senatorial District is unacceptable, because it negates the very principle and ideal upon which the Labour Party is built, and it should remain as the compass and torch light of our operation as a political party.
“The Labour Party has come to redeem the deplorable state of human and infrastructural decay in Nigeria as exemplified by H.E Peter Obi. Let me quickly add here that money-bag politics is not capacity or the building of party structure in a political system. It is fraudulent, it corrupts the political party, and this is one of the tenets for which the Labour Party was designed to correct.”
Calling on Esan sons and daughters to come out to support the power shift, Chief Ibadin declared: “We will lobby and negotiate with our brothers in Edo South and North to see reason with their brother in Edo Central, that it is the turn of Edo central to occupy Osadebey House in 2024. We did it for them, it is time for them to reciprocate and do the same for us.”