OSAGIE IZE-IYAMU AT 60

Few, if any, can rival him in terms of sheer staying-power in Edo politics in the last two decades. This is because Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu (POI) wields a unique talisman: a blend of people skill and the fervour of an evangelical. That facility not only enables him to make friends easily, but also assist him connect with them to a depth that has compelled their loyalty all through the good and the bad times. 

Let me illustrate with one incident. POI’s gravitational pull was on full display in 2013 when a political disagreement with Comrade Adams Oshiohmole made him exit All Progressives Congress (then ACN) upon his realization that the odds were mounting against his aspiration to succeed Oshiohmole in 2016. 

POI’s thunderous exit from the APC camp inevitably triggered a bitter exchange that raged till the 2016 governorship polls. But to be honest, not a few top players in the Oshiomhole administration then harboured “secret” sympathy for POI, out of loyalty to long-standing personal friendship with him. 

As Information Commissioner then, I must confess that I also had hesitation each time circumstances obliged me to sign off “harsh” media statements against a man I became friends with way back in 1999 when he was Chief of Staff to Governor Lucky Igbinedion and later Secretary to the State Government. But I am glad that whenever we met privately then, POl did not take it personally, appreciating that it was all in my official capacity. 

That tells you the sort of solidarity and brotherhood POI commands in folks. It is, therefore, no surprise that, regardless of the slew of electoral setbacks down the road, POI has remained a big factor in Edo politics, even today. 

His enduring appeal across Edo landscape in the last decade is, to a large extent, traceable to roots that are evidently organic. He was born and bred there. Bound there. 

Part of that mystique could, in a way, also be said to have been shaped by the courage he showed at a very defining moment in Edo’s political evolution. That hour, the entire land had indeed fallen under the thumb of a ruthless political “godfather” who sought to determine the cock that crowed and the cat that meowed. But through the agency of a pressure group named “Grace Group”, POI balked with the battlecry “No Man Is God”. Their movement would become the first organized resistance against the apparition of godfatherism in Edo politics. 

At 60, it will, therefore, not be an exaggeration to say POI has been a significant actor in the making of Edo’s democratic process. Here is wishing him many more years in the service of Edo State in particular and humanity in general. 

Louis Odion, FNGE,

Senior Technical Assistant on Media to the President (OVP)