Call Abure and Esan Delegates to answer
Tony Akeni Le Moin,
Friday March 15, 2024
Esan nation’s delegates of Labour Party and the party’s National Chairman Julius Abure, an Esan man, critically helped Edo Central to lose the LP guber ticket in the party’s governorship primary which held in Benin city on January 23, 2024.
Julius Abure and the Esan delegates are the Esans’ political representatives in Labour Party and handed the ticket in a platter of gold to Barr. Olumide Akpata of Edo South who earned and won it in a clear, indisputable contest.
This brief piece and inner insight of the events before, around and leading to the LP primary is necessary to enlighten Esan nation of the presently exhausted LP Esan Agenda, and especially Nigerians outside Edo state who did not know or have the background facts beyond the surface of the final outcome of the keenly contested primary.
Towards the now consummated primary, Esan (Edo Central) Governorship aspirants turned out to be more than Benin (Edo South) aspirants and Edo North aspirants combined. At a time they were up to 12, while aspirants from Edo South and North combined were lesser.
By mid-2023, in pursuit of power-shift equity, deep concern and commitment to give Edo Central a bright chance and head wind to win the ticket, both Edo state’s local and national Labour Party leaders came together, made strenuous efforts and extended clearcut initiatives for Edo Central aspirants to put themselves in front of the race.
One of the initiatives we put to the Esan aspirants was an advisory for them to trim and align their number behind one or two most auspicious Esan aspirants in order not to fragment their votes at the Governorship primary. It took them almost eternity and nearly too late before they saw the sense to act on this. Finally, in the first week of February 2024 – yes, as late as that – several of them relinquished their aspirations and adopted a fine Edo Central aspirant. A highly reputable accountant of superlative federal experience, ICAN consultant, educationist and administrator, one Pastor Ernest Abegbe from Ewohimi, Esan South-East local government area of Edo state.
Furthermore, a caucus of LP national party leaders drawn from across all geopolitical zones of Nigeria delegated me to bring three of the most viable Esan aspirants to Abuja for a final consensus alignment before they would go for the Abure conducted primary. What followed that noble gesture and goodwill for the people of Edo Central is truly the height of shameful, self-betraying political espionage among themselves. The Esan stakeholders and delegates displayed and held love of profit far above love of their own Esan nation. Their hitherto deafeningly trumpeted “Esan Agenda” crusades for power-shift and political justice flew through the window under Julius Abure’s political cockpit and captainship.
You will recall that Esan (Edo Central) had 102 delegates at the governorship primary. At the primary which was designed, masterminded, architectured and superintended by an Esan man, Julius Abure the National Chairman of Labour Party, the Esan delegates cast only 7 votes apiece totaling 21 votes to the 3 frontline Esan Guber aspirants namely Pst Ernest Abegbe, Prof. Mudiame Eromosele and Barr. Ken Imasuagbon (aka Riceman). Our findings later showed that even the 7 votes Riceman obtained were not from his Esan Central delegates but from Edo South delegates of the Benin people of Ovia East and Southwest constituencies. What this means is that of the 102 Esan delegates, *88* of them voted against their own Esan governorship aspirants in favour of Akpata of Edo South, all in broad-day light. All of the 88 Esan delegates stood up to cheer Akpata when his landslide victory of 316 votes were announced against the highest Esan contender of 7 votes or 21 votes combined for 3 Esan guber aspirants. What this clearly means is that Akpata has some distinct and superceding quality of person and personality for the office of Edo governor which the Esan delegates see above their native senatorial district aspirants. Any other interpretation is subjective and unscientific guesswork.
Question: Should Akpata have slashed some of his votes as sympathy gift to the Esan aspirants? Even if he had doubled or tripled the Esan aspirants’ votes from gifting away his own votes to them, Akpata would still have won.
From the above factual narrative, you can see that Labour Party leaders and stakeholders, whether at state or national level, cannot be blamed as having denied Edo Central the opportunity to present Labour Party’s governorship candidate for the 2024 race. You can also see that Esan nation does not need a research grant to find out who should be asked what happened, how did it happen and at whose feet blame, if any, should be laid for failure of Esan Central to clinch the 2024 Guber ticket of Labour Party. When mundane values define a people’s choices, they cannot blame their failure to attain on a stranger or passerby who came to their midst and legitimately took away, in broad-day, not at gunpoint, the bargain of higher value among extant choices. Any Esan (Edo Central) persons crying at this belated hour for Esan Agenda is only striking the ground with the stick long after the snake has slithered into the forest.
The least that may be said in conclusion is that whenever another opportunity presented itself in the future, Esan nation must look inward for values adjustment and a better principled team from their land to pilot their political destiny.
LP must of necessity now wholeheartedly support Olumide Akpata to win the coming governorship election so that we may have an additional state to Abia to call our own. Winning Edo 2024 is a litmus step and critical rehearsal ropes for winning Ondo 2024 and Anambra 2025.
Tony Akeni Le Moin, Global Convener of Nigeria Cannot Continue Like This (NCC-LIT) and Sector Leader of Nigeria Demand Movement, was the Head of National Publicity, Contact & Mobilization Team of Obi-Datti Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council (LP-PCC) during the 2023 presidential election campaigns. He wrote from Abuja.