BEFORE EDO TRIBUNAL BEGINS

BY Okharedia Ihimekpen
At the root of the tragedy of the fourth republic lies a deep and often disturbing paradox of perjury in the nations body-politic. The inevitability of the original perjury soon gave way as it were, to the perjury of “inevitability”.
It will be profoundly mistaken to think that the issue of perjury and certificate forgery in our political order began with the Salisu Buhari the one time Speaker of the House of Representatives and his Toronto scandal nor the “Evan Enwerem, Evans” tail in our senate.
Evidence abounds to show that during the first and the second republic there were deep rumblings of forgery within political parties and the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) as it was then called. It was perhaps this rumbling, more than any other thing that finally persuaded Mallam Aminu Kano, the talakawa maestro and our Owelle of Onitsha and founder of the Nigeria nation Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe along with their bickering colleagues to put their houses in other not to douse the certificate and the tax evasion scandal.
Thus, the issue of perjury and certificate scandal had made itself a virile and as at that time-positive political instrument in our policy long before now. This also explains why Adams Oshiomhole current certificate scandal is an act imbued with the strongest of patriotic favour and nationalist zeal.
But this issue itself is not without its poignant irony according to Chief Akpofure a senior advocate of Nigeria and lead counsel to the petitioner General Charles Airhiavbere the issues of certificate scandal raised in the Edo Electoral Tribunal borders seriously on certificate forgery and perjury. Speaking with newsmen at the tribunal venue the other day the renowned advocate said, among other things are that there is a serious disconnect in the names in the certificate presented by Oshiomhole an oath and that Oshiomhole claimed to have attended the Iyamoh Primary School in 1957 when government records say the school was established only in 1963, is not only preposterous but a source of nausea to the thinking of a sane mind.
Moreover Oshiomhole’s name is said not to be in the Class Register nor among the graduated class from the Martins Secondary Modern school he claimed to have graduated from in 1965.
Another question is if Oshiomhole was born in 1952 as declared on oath could he have completed his modern secondary school in 1965 at the age of 13 years as declared on Oath. These remain the Jermaine issues.
By all accounts Oshiomhole is a nice, decent fellow, a Comrade’s Comrade. But he was obviously ill-equipped and ill-prepared for the heady mantle that fell in him as Governor of Edo State in 2008. Symbolically enough, Oshiomhole is packing out of Government House the same manner he entered sometimes in 2008 when he eased out Senator Oserheimen Osunbor. It is indeed a tribute to his immerse personnel courage and resourcefulness as a comrade that Oshiomhole was able to survive the political furnace both in his party ACN and the polity of the state.
We may marvel at why Airhiavbere is insisting on the law taking its course. But one thing may now be said in favour of Airhiavbere, from evidence available and the political inferno the trial will undergo Edo politics will never be the same again after this saga. Airhiavbere heroism will not only be saluted for today but will be hailed by posterity as haven contributed to deepen our democracy and the rule of law.
Once bitten twice shy. Today Edo state pre-tribunal mood of Edo people would be best be described as a mixture of aggressive nationalism and an unrepentant fortification of the state. This glorification of the state which reminds one of the nineteenth century Prussia in all its naked ferocity has reached its new height with the coming of Airhiavbere. But it had been building up all along. Thus, if the Peoples Democratic Party refuses to go into the battle with Airhivbere, it was because the leadership of the Edo State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has reasons only known to the leadership alone.
In the event that Oshiomhole lose this case, the ugly scenario will be that party the ACN may run into oblivion thus rescheduling the political calculations of many that had they succeeded the PDP and its national leader Chief Tony Anenih will never have surfaced in Edo politics for a long time to come.
The PDP albatross in the state has been that they had ruled the State for eight years with nothing to show in terms of roads development. Yet no one cares to listen that in Nigeria polity there is always a sharp difference between the party and the government. That would have perhaps explained why the PDP could not bring Lucky Igbinedion who was their Governor for those years to order, nor expects the ACN to checkmate Adams Oshiomhole.
Who knows perhaps of Igbinedion has increased school fees in the tertiary institutions divert the funds used to build the Stella Obasanjo Hospital, the state library complex, College of Education, Igueben and the State Polytechnic Usen to road rehabilitation, Edo people would have eulogized him. Don’t mind if these actions would have been sending all of us to the medieval age.
Today the state is in a state of anomie. The immigrant road contractors had all left the sites as the elections gimmick are over. Local councils that have never embarked on any development projects today can hardly pay salaries. What is more, the state is highly indebted and the state has remained unstable.
Here is the crux of the matter. The concern for stability and order in Edo reveals a paradoxical blurring of vision on the part of the political leadership. Indeed, the greatest threat to economic stability in Edo today is not who rules the state but the desperately level of poverty and that justice must be seen to have done in the Election Tribunal. And nothing has done more to accentuate this than the fact that Oshiomhole himself came on board through the instrumentality of a law Tribunal. It is a fact that has made the present very tense and the future potentially hinging on hope.