Ahead of the 2024 governorship election, different power-blocs are taking different positions in the struggle to produce the next governor of Edo State.
The birth of Esan Agenda 2024, a political pressure group designed to fight for the right of Edo Central to produce the next governor is on one side, while the POI Political Vanguard is playing His Excellency President Bola Tinubu’s card to ensure whosoever Tinubu settles for emerges governor at all cost.
These are the two forces at play ahead of the 2024 governorship election in Edo State.
The major force believed to be behind Esan Agenda Group is Nyeson Wike, the former Governor of Rivers State, Dan Orbih, the leader of PDP legacy group and most influential political enigma to ever rise from Edo State.
There is hardly any politician in present day Edo State without the oil of anointing from the political coven of the former Governor of Rivers State.
His tentacles cut across the entire Niger Delta and in fact the Nigerian federation.
The incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki is a product of the Governor Nyeson Wike political family.
He groomed them and their supporters, paid their price for the wealth and political glory they have attained and also groomed them for their present standing on the political scene.
As acknowledged earlier, there is hardly a politician in the PDP circle without the magic touch of the Wike School of Thought.
The few who can be excused from Oshiomhole and wike’s tutelage have always had their glory eclipsed by the mightier sword of Damocles over the years.
Adams Oshiomhole and Wike are still in firm grip of the political arena in Niger Delta particularly the APC and PDP.
Wike and Oshiomhole made many of those in power today and they have not minced words in their advocacy for the return of power to Edo Central in 2024.
The POI Political Family is singing a different tune.
His body language and the utterances of his critical supporters tend towards the South District as the next Governor of Edo State .
The almighty question is who amongst the political players in Edo Central should take over in 2024.
For the Esan Agenda Group their position is clear, whoever the party kingmakers choose is good to go, irrespective of how Edolites feel but must be from Edo Central.
The group believes that Oshiomhole, Wike and the PDP legacy warlords have all it takes to produce the next governor irrespective of what POI thinks or do.
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But that is where the clash of interest may come from.
Oshiomhole and Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu are in good terms, no doubt.
But the way and manner the successor to Godwin Obaseki is managed would determine the outcome of that relationship.
Oshiomhole and Wike are not men to be tossed around by any winds.
They see the shenanigan of the players and the game they are playing through and through.
Oshiomhole and Wike cannot be boxed into a corner without consequences.
And indeed, nobody can trick him into accepting just any Esan as choice.
Today, while the POI Political Family is singing the music of total support for Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu for Governor 2024, discerning Edolites are aware of the choice of the group in the politics of 2024.
Nyeson Wike and PDP too are believed to be looking in the direction of Esan Nation Candidate. None has been confirmed.
However, the PDP legacy group, Governor Nyeson Wike and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole have not made their position clear on the Edo Central Candidate ambition.
One thing is clear, the two major political forces in Edo State APC are Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.
*Both are fighting covert wars over 2024 by proxy.*
While Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu is working through Political Family Structure , Then The PDP legacy group now APC in the spirit and Former Rivers State Governor Nyeson Wike are allegedly pushing for a Central candidate through the Esan agenda-led group.
The major factor that will aid the APC in the choice of candidate in the Labour Party Caucus decision to zone the Governorship ticket to Edo Central is setting the whole state on fire. Any wrong move by the APC could result in incalculable consequences.
PDP legacy group and Governor Nyeson Wike believe they are in charge of Edo State and could easily produce the next Governor.
At least, the group was pivotal in the return back of Godwin Obaseki in 2020. But there was no Labour Party in 2020.
Things have changed.
However, the way APC will handle the party gubernatorial ticket for 2024 will determine the performance of the party.
The dice is rolling. APC cannot afford to pick on just anybody to face a reinvigorated OBIDIENTS in 2024.
Praying for disunity in Labour Party cannot win the next election for APC.
The game is more than that. Labour Party leadership choice has friends and supporters in all the political parties and their candidate looks good to go.
Any candidate that could face Labour Party must have the resources and political capital to do battle on a wider and higher scale.
OBIDIENTS Movement is not an ordinary Pressure Group.
They are coming fully prepared and as I keep saying, 2024 will not be an ordinary election year.
The people will not vote PDP or APC or Labour Party but the candidate that appeal to the masses.
2024 is an unpredictable election year.
Henry J writes from Amahor, Edo State. (08066318061 SMS only )