At last, the chickens are coming home to roost! As it seems the initial bravado displayed by some boisterous APC bigwigs prior to the launch of the Edo State APC Gubernatorial campaign is, after all, a storm in a teacup. When the party stormed the ancient city for the kickoff of their campaign, the big wigs all showed up; there was the fiery Malam Nasir El-Rufai, the gutsy Rotimi Amaechi, the controversial Abdullahi Ganduje, the Supreme Court Hope Uzodinma, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Gboyega Oyetola, Dapo Abiodun, all heavyweight governors in the APC fold. They boasted that they were in Edo to take back the State. Even Mala Buni the Caretaker committee chairman was himself present. But that was all. Soon after, the simmering internal crisis for who controls the levers of power took over. So much bad blood had been created before now. As our investigation shows, the campaign hierarchy has been split into two camps—the pro-Oshiomole and anti-Oshiomole camps. Gathering momentum on the side is the growing rank of the anti-Tinubu camp as well. When Oshiomole first got a reprieve from the sack as former national chairman, he acted like a man without secrets; he openly upbraided some powerful governors as those scheming to destroy him and branded them ungrateful; among those he named were Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Rotimi Amaechi; Ganduje he spared apparently because he was alleged to be the brain behind his temporal escape from the hangman noose. When finally he was downed, there was palpable quiet within their fold. But it was clear Oshiomole had stirred the hornets’ nest. He had created formidable enemies in whose dictionary there is no forgiveness. As it has now panned out, their presence at the State capital for the campaign launch was merely a façade. Insider sources say they were there possibly to mock their former national chairman—to see how he fared outside the power loop. Since then they have gone back into their shell. The belief is that an Oshiomole’s victory would bring him back to reckoning, something that is right now a forbidden road to travel. It is only unfortunate that but for Oshiomole, the APC guber flag bearer Pastor Osagie Ize Iyamu would have had a level playing field. The addition of the Tinubu angle is another vexatious matter. The Abuja hawks are already looking beyond Edo and focused on 2023. Sources say there is a strong belief that Tinubu was using Edo to reestablish his influence within the party structure. That explains why he is always the one issuing press statements and not Mala Buni who is supposed to. They see his attitude as too overbearing and therefore must be curbed. Severally, the hawks in the APC have derided his office of the national leader as nonexistent. They see his liaison with Oshiomole as a combination that must be broken. The implication is that an Edo victory for Oshiomole/Tinubu would hand them more financial chest and therefore empower them for 2023! This is the calculus behind the scene. The fact that Captain Hosa Okunbor has stepped in to bear most of the financial brunt is not surprising because almost all the hardliners in the APC headquarters have stylishly stepped aside for Oshiomole and Tinubu to be messed up on September 19 election day. An unconfirmed source hinted that those hardliners may indeed be working for an Obaseki victory who they believe is very much one of their own. For Pastor Osagie Ize Iyamu, the prayers now is that he may not end up being a pawn in this deadly power game. Nonetheless, he may yet end up as a minister of the federal republic of Nigeria.
