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Being among the six people that held the first meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State in 1998, Mr. Okharedia Ihimekpen, popularly called ‘The Living Ancestor’, is acclaimed to be one of the oldest members of the party in the state.
The one-time Director of Communications during the tenure of Chief Lucky Igbinedion as Governor of Edo State, spoke on how Governor Godwin Obaseki clinched the PDP governorship ticket, among other issues. Excerpts:
After 12 years in opposition, Governor Godwin Obaseki has taken your party, the PDP, back into the Government House of Edo State. How do you feel as a top member of the party?
I must say that every man and woman in Edo State is happy with the development in the state.
I am a happy PDP man. All things being equal, I can tell you that, with what is happening in the state right now, the PDP is going to win the next governorship election in September.
Don’t you see the accepting of Obaseki as cheap opportuny for your party?
I can tell you that the coming of Governor Obaseki was a symbiotic relationship between him and the PDP.
How was it symbiotic?
PDP expected it, pleaded for it, begged the gods for it. Obaseki also came to PDP as leverage to save his political career, because he was almost going into political oblivion.
In short, he would have been retired politically due to what happened in his former party.
So when the disaster happened to him in his party, he was looking for a place to go, and PDP was also looking for an image that can also help to lift the party, and they saw it as a big opportunity and they married.
That was how the whole thing clinched, but it was not a teaparty, Obaseki had to pass through every thick and thin to ensure he got on boarde.
In PDP, you know that there were some people who were there before him who never wanted him; they were aggrieved they did everything possible to ensure they frustrate him.
Do you truly see him winning the polls?
Winning the election is a 50/50 chance for him, because the disaster that happened to Comrade Adams Oshiomhole lately has brought all Edo North together to be in sympathy with him.
You cannot just humiliate their son out of power at the national level and think you will get their support.
They will sink and die with him just like the sympathy that went with Obaseki. So if you ask me a million times, I will tell you a million times that the election is going to be 50/50 on both sides.
How true is the news making the rounds that some members of the PDP in the state are still aggrieved?
Everything is about money. Most people never wanted him, especially the former chairman, Dan Orbih and his team, they were against his coming, they did everything to stop his coming to PDP, but Obaseki knew the game and he decided to go up to sort himself out.
Prominent PDP leaders in Edo were also behind him, they felt that PDP cannot go into election without a big fish like him. So, as soon as he came in, they said ‘we have got a big fish’.
Ever before he demanded waiver, they were already working it out for him.
If waiver in the state had to start from the local government, he won’t have gotten it, but he started at the top and he was given a waiver.
What is waiver?
Waiver in politics means that your sins are forgiven, that is, if you are supposed to pay this and that, they will push it aside.
Before Obaseki was allowed to pick the PDP membership form, a drama played out. What really happened?
Now, let me tell you the drama that happenned, even to the point of the day he went to take PDP card, when some forces were still fighting him.
The chairman of ward four and the secretary of the ward are responsible for giving out party membership card in the ward.
On that day, the chairman absconded with the register, so Obaseki had to go and perform the ceremony at the party secretariat.
When the leaders of the party saw that people where bent on sabotaging his coming to PDP, he was advised to go to the nearest ward.
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