Chief Charles Idahosa was Special Adviser on Political Matter to the ex-Edo governor, Adams Oshiomhole. In this interview with Mudiaga Affe, the chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, x-rays the worrisome state of insecurity, political permutations ahead of the 2023 general elections, among other issues.

How will you access the current situation of the country?
I think Nigerians are not very fair to this administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. As far as I am concerned, Buhari is not the best, but there are a lot of things that have happened since he came. They are judging him on insecurity. I am on the board of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, and I know how much he has put into that sector.

The Nigerian railway has improved, he has tried in other infrastructural areas like roads, bridges, and others, but insecurity is just covering all the good things he is doing. You have to also understand that this COVID-19 affected the whole world’s economy, not only Nigeria’s. Nobody can achieve 100 per cent in running a country but I think he is doing well. Nigeria is a very difficult country to manage, and I hope by the grace of God, he finds a lasting solution to the problem of insecurity. I was watching him in Imo State, he sounded confident. Yes, there is corruption everywhere; the country is going through a very hard time. There is no doubt about that, but insecurity is blighting all that he has done.

The man means well, but the buck ends on his table. Look at the South-East. They say they are fighting for their people, but they are crippling the economy of that place. This sit-a-home order is not IPOB that the people are supporting, they are just afraid of destruction of their properties or getting killed in the crossfire.

Nnamdi Kanu who claims he is the leader of IPOB was not born during the civil war, so he doesn’t know what is called war. I saw war, you cannot see any person of my age group calling for war. Igboho started his own in the South-West; they are not serious.

I said recently in an interview that the north will produce the next president; they will come from the two major political parties in the sense that you say you want to rule Nigeria; you are destroying the country and you say you want to secede? The north has the population, and they are watching; it is only in the north they are not agitating for the splitting of Nigeria. IPOB says they want to split Nigeria while you are saying give the presidency to us; does that make any sense?

The South-West say they want to go, they want the Oduduwa Republic, and you expect to be given the presidency when it is obvious that they are more politically sophisticated than us, and we have refused to accept that? We are not politically united; a man from Benue State can speak Hausa fluently with a man from Sokoto because their leader, the late Sardauna of Sokoto made sure that so there is a political north; Gen. Ibrahim Babangida is not Hausa/Fulani, Lt.-Gen Theophilus Danjuma is not Hausa/Fulani and so many others, but they are northerners, and they speak one language. But there is no political south; we are not one. When they created the Midwest in 1963, there was one Akpata who became a senator.

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He was the chief conservator of forest in the Western Region; he didn’t want to come to Benin because of the fear of the unknown. He said he was Yoruba, but Akintola said no, in Yoruba, his name is spelt Apata and not Akpata, and they sent him away. I was born as a Western Region person, but I can’t speak a bit of Yoruba. The Igbo man cannot communicate with a man from Edo State or the Niger Delta, but the whole north is of one language. We are just deceiving ourselves here because we think we are sharper.

The issue of VAT is one that had topped discourse in recent times, what are your views on the debate?
As far as I am concerned, restructuring has started, and I am very happy about that. Let us go and test the constitution in court.

How can you raise N15 billion and they give you N4 billion? Meanwhile, those practicing Sharia say no alcohol, and a major part of this VAT is from alcohol. Let each state take what it can generate, that is what the late Obafemi Awolowo did.

The only problem I have with Awolowo that is still very painful to me because he was the greatest thing that happened to us in this country, is that he did not pull us out of the Nigerian federation. When he discovered that the north was not ready to go at his pace, he could have pulled us out of the federation. You can imagine that we had the first television station in Africa, we had the tallest building in Africa, we had an Olympic stadium, all to Awolowo as Premier of the Western Region.

We were better than South Africa and others. Malaysia was coming here to borrow money. He should have pulled us out to become the Republic of Western Nigeria; we would still have been bigger than over 30 countries in Africa. We would have been like Singapore.

The crisis rocking the PDP has continued to deepen, what is the way forward ahead of 2023?
The crisis in the PDP has been very unfortunate, I have been monitoring, and you can see that Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike holds the ace, he is in charge. And I can’t see the embattled National Chairman, Uche Secondus surviving it. As we are going into 2023, there will be division, and APC is just waiting to tap, but unfortunately, the APC does not know what they are doing as well, because one court will tomorrow nullify all that they have done. So, we are really at a crossroads.

You were among many others that defected to the PDP before the governorship election in 2020, to what extent have you settled down in the party?
I left the APC when Oshiomhole started giving us problems, but here we are, in the PDP, there is a lot of crisis. All of us that left APC with Obaseki to PDP, we don’t know where we are. PDP won’t allow us in, they said they have finished their congresses and it is for four years.

We said, let us negotiate as they did in Sokoto and Borno states, but they said they are not interested. Now, next year is a pre-election year, we are not delegates, so we can’t be part of the processes. And the APC have just completed their own. You see all these.

My leaders with me here came to ask, where are we? Why can’t we go back to where we came from? But before they could make up their minds, that place is closed. Right now, there is a committee trying to negotiate; that is the hope we have in the PDP.

Does it mean you people did not agree on certain terms before you joined PDP?
The time was so short; you know the time Obaseki was disqualified, we had to leave and look for a new party. The time was so short that we did not cross the t’s and dot i’s. All we just wanted at the time was the ticket, so, we went there without a proper negotiation like the cases of Ortom and Tambuwal. We were in a hurry; all we just wanted was to get the ticket first, and we will negotiate those later.

Governor Obaseki is almost one year in office and there is no cabinet, is it becoming a norm among some governors?
It worries me, but the law does not say when the governor must form a cabinet. I think the law gives the governors and the president the room at their own time.

We are not happy. I must make that very clear to you. This month is making it a year, but you see Obaseki cannot be like Lucky Igbinedion, Lucky Igbinedion cannot be like Adams Oshiomhole; each governor comes with their style, but the governor will give you reasons. As I am talking to you, there is another committee set up by the party, but the governor has just finished moving around the 18 local government areas.

My thinking is that maybe he is taking advantage of that to save more funds because he is more concerned about having funds to turn Edo State into an Eldorado, but as far as I am concerned, only one person cannot do that. He has a very big dream. A lot of our people are not happy, but the truth of the matter is that there is no law that any person can use to hold him. The problem we have in this state and this country is that we have very weak leadership.

Why did you fall out with Oshiomhole?
I was the chairman of the committee on one-man-one-vote, Taiwo Akerele, who later became Chief of Staff to Obaseki, was my secretary, and we launched it at Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, only for him to turn around to become the godfather himself, and I said no.

So, it wasn’t about him. Obaseki was only fortunate to be the governor at that time, so he was the symbol of the struggle. There is no way I would have allowed Anenih to finish his own and another person will come because the Bini is just there watching. But I don’t blame Obaseki so much because the leadership is weak, very weak. Look at what is happening in Rivers State. You will just call ward leaders and say, suspend Secondus, and then ratify. I have never forwarded any of my children for any political office. That is why my people always stand by me despite all efforts to humiliate me.

There is no governor that has not fought with me because once you tell people the truth, they don’t like it. For instance, I will tell the governor; your public rating is coming down. He will say, no, that is not what I hear. But I am telling him the truth. So, I have decided to just keep quiet. We are not happy, but we are just praying that things get better because it is his government. If he succeeds, they will hail; they will not come and hail me, if things go wrong, he is the one that will still be blamed. Oshiomhole let me down. That is why if I see him today, I won’t talk to him.

He knew how I supported him. He was very close to me; he is a very nice person in the sense that he is one man that bows to superior arguments. When he came to the government, we were not in control of the state house of assembly. They carried Oshiomhole with the state budget to Abuja; a sitting governor, that was how the fight against Chief Tony Anenih started. When he got to Abuja, they took him to Anenih’s house with the late Zakawanu Garuba and Edo State budget.

Anenih was cancelling budgets with his red biro and mandated the house to go and pass the budget. Oshiomhole called me from the airport and showed me the markings by Anenih and there I told him we have to fight. I told him we must take over the house because as long as they are in control of the house, we will continue to carry budgets to Abuja. I told him let’s start the fight by firing the four commissioners he gave you, but Oshiomhole was reluctant. I told him if he doesn’t want to do it, I will do it. It was a heated argument in his office, but as I was leaving, I called the press secretary to give me his crew and I addressed the press. Because I knew Anenih very well, I criticized him seriously in the press conference, and immediately after the conference was aired, I knew he would not like it.

Immediately it was aired, he called the four commissioners and instructed them to go and resign from the government. It was Oshiomhole who also instructed me to reverse the choice of Chief Tom Ikimi as the pioneer chairman of the APC and replace him with Chief John Oyegun. That was how I also started to hit Oyegun, for him to become the national chairman of the APC. He knew all these roles I played, and I also told him I am not far from him when he became the national chairman. I cautioned him in the presence of a commissioner that he was shielding Obaseki, and I warned him that when Obaseki is through with the leaders, he will come for him and ruin him.

The last one which I have never mentioned is that I wanted to go to England for my medical check-up, it was very difficult for me. Oshiomhole was no longer governor. When he was governor that would be a piece of cake. I called him to tell him that I am in Abuja because I can’t go to London, but that I know that there must be a good doctor in Abuja that can do the same thing. Unfortunately, the doctor told me that since my history is with the doctor in the UK, he advises that I still go to him.

He said that is strange, but I told him I only informed him, and I am on my way back to Benin. I didn’t ask him for any assistance, because he was no longer governor. Do you know when the crisis started, Henry Idahagbon used it against me? Something I discussed with Oshiomhole on the phone. Idahagbon, while attacking me, added that I was fighting Oshiomhole because I was faking an illness and that I came to Abuja to come and beg Oshiomhole for money.

Thad because Oshiomhole did not give him, that is why he is attacking Oshiomhole. So, what I discussed with him on the phone, he gathered his boys and was telling them. It was then I decided I will teach him a lesson; that was very mean. Though I have forgiven him, I have not forgotten.

Will you reconcile your difference with Oshiomhole?
It will be very difficult but could be possible if Oshiomhole makes the move. He should initiate it because he was very ruthless in dealing with Obaseki. Obaseki supported him a lot, I knew how they were related. Obaseki once told a friend of ours that instead of him quarrelling with Oshiomhole, he is ready to do away with all of us. That was how close they were.

Obaseki was his father and best man when he married his current wife. I pray there is the reconciliation because this is a state Oshiomhole invested in, and he was very popular, but he just threw it away. He allowed inconsequential persons to mislead him. But Obaseki is very bitter. I am not comfortable with the PDP. I left there in 2004. So, anytime I raise this issue with Obaseki, he always tells me that is not an option.

You will be 68 years very soon, do you have any regrets in life?
Yes, and that is why I have taken it upon myself to always fight for people. I was home and dry in 2003 to go to the senate; I already had my blueprint, I knew what I wanted to do, and I discovered that 90 per cent of the people that contested with me at that time didn’t even know what the functions of a senator or what the National Assembly was. I had the support of the whole of Edo South leaders, but the powers that be then summoned us to the sitting room of one big leader of the PDP at that time and changed it. The N1 million I paid for the form, up till this moment, they have not refunded it to me.

They just said, no primaries. They said the president was interested in giving it to one particular person, and I said the president of Nigeria? Where is his interest in Edo South? But they said I should shut up, so without primaries, the person went. It is all history now. Nothing came out of that tenure. They wanted me to sell out an agreement we had already reached between Orhionmwon and Uhunmwonde federal constituency, saying that I should become a member of the House of Representatives when it was not our turn.

Because we agreed it should be rotated between the two local government areas every eight years, I turned it down, that was a very low point. Another low point was when I wanted to run for the governorship of Edo State, I knew it would be impossible in the PDP having had Lucky Igbinedion from Edo South for eight years. So, I worked with other people outside Edo State to form a new party, which was ACD at that time, led by one Alex Anielo and a few others. I rented the secretariat along Airport Road, funded it, and paid salaries.

Oshiomhole had gone to PDP, Labour Party and went round other political parties before he eventually berthed in ACD, which had become AC. The powers-that-be again called him and demanded that he should come and take the ticket. We went for the primary, and I won, but they changed the result and said that he won. They started mounting pressure on me; that I shouldn’t bother. That was another low point. I felt very bad, but the rest is history.