By SHEDDY OZOENE
Monday Okpebholo, the 54-year old governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Edo State has been in the news since the past 10 days. He had veered off from the pleasing words of the average Nigerian politician by promising the people ‘insecurity’ if elected governor. The video recording of his campaign rally at Ovia North LGA where he goofed while addressing the crowd, has been trending across Edo State and beyond.
It has also fired up concerns among people of the state about his suitability for the job, notably Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party who has famously said that Edo does not deserve an illiterate as governor who will provide them insecurity. He is still basking in the thumbs-down the gaffe attracted to his opponent.
It is not the first time Okpebholo, a successful businessman and politician who has been representing Edo Central in the Nigerian Senate since 2023, would engage in such malapropism, and one starts to wonder whether it has become the new political fad. When you add the ongoing controversy over his age – the date on his age declaration document is reportedly different from that on his WAEC Certificate – you will understand what all the buzz Is about.
As bad as the gaffe is, my worry stems from what my friend, an indigene of the state whose sympathy lies with the APC, told me a few days ago. He said the misspeak has made Okpebholo more popular going into the election. Yes, more popular! He spoke so confidently that I wondered if the gaffe was, indeed, arranged. Was Okpebholo who spoke after former Edo governor Adams Oshiomhole raised issues with the security situation in the state, acting on a prompt when he pledged: “We’re going to provide you with insecurity”? Though Oshiomhole, who was standing by his side, nudged him before the candidate corrected himself, the impact of the statement was not diminished.
Those – coupled with his refusal to attend any media interviews or debates – have attracted to him all the negative comments.
One major feature of the last presidential campaign is the series of blunders committed by Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC in the course of his public engagements. In addition to the controversy over his educational qualifications, the gaffes were the major feature of the contest.
Journalist, author and poet, Tunde Olusunle had captured Tinubu’s series of blunders in a December 2022 article, from his famous public stutter at a prayer ground in Minna, to the outlandish recommendation on “cassava, agbado (maize) and yam” at a colloquium commemorating his 69th birthday. In the article titled Bala Blu Bulaba And Other Incantations, Olusunle noted that it became “one day, one goof” for Tinubu on the presidential campaign trail, especially when he started to juggle reasoning. At the seventh edition of the Kaduna Economic and Investment Summit, (KADInvest) Tinubu had praised then Governor El-Rufai as an administrator who can change “a rotten situation to a bad one!” That was before the big one in Imo State where he ran into trouble trying many times to pronounce “hullabaloo,” before he ended with “Bala Blu, Blu, Bulaba”!
The above notwithstanding, it didn’t stop Tinubu from ‘winning’ the presidential contest. The stuttering, the misspeaks, the blundering, the faltering and the floundering may all have combined to confuse everybody. The man turned into one big convolution that reasonable Nigerians believed no right thinking voter would consider a misfit like him for the office of president. And if they did not vote for him – and many still believe he did not win the polls fairly – then nobody thought he would be so spirited enough to ‘grab it and run’, in a manner of speaking.
If Tinubu’s style was worth emulating, Yahaya Bello studied it well while grooming Ahmed Ododo to take over from him as Kogi State governor.
From April, 2023 when the former Auditor-General for Local Governments in Kogi State was declared the APC governorship candidate, Ahmed Usman Ododo blabbed and blabbed on the campaign trail. He once told reporters who wanted to know his estimation of candidates in the opposition parties: “As I am talking to you, we don’t have APC in Kogi state.” For someone who was running for the governorship on the ticket of the APC, it was a self-inflicted embarrassment. As if the gaffe was not enough, he famously told a gathering of women supporters that he was ‘a married woman’, just like them. Were these – and many more on the campaign trail – slips of the tongue, or was Ododo merely copying from the Tinubu playbook?
Whatever it was, it paid off handsomely on election day, November 11, 2023 as Usman Ododo polled 446, 237 votes to defeat Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), who came second with 259,052 votes while Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), scored a mere 46,362 votes. And in July 2024, his election was sealed by the nation’s Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja.
From Tinubu to Ododo and now Okpebholo, the style has been the same. Shun debates with other candidates, run away from one-on-one media interviews and give them enough reasons to tag you a misfit. More importantly, prepare to ‘win’ by ‘grabbing’ the results and ‘running’ with it. Anybody who is aggrieved can jolly well head to court!
The people of Edo State, especially those who have already written off Monday Okpebholo as a strong contender for the September 21 governorship election, should have something to learn from this. He may not be the dunce they think he is. So, more than a passing attention ought to be paid to the man who flies the flag of President’s party. From Bola Tinubu to Ahmed Ododo and now, Monday Okpebholo, there are close similarities. Strikingly so!
Sheddy Ozoene, Editor-In-Chief of People&Politics, is Vice President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors.
