Politics of Bitterness in Edo

The recent altercation between Senator Adams Oshiomhole and the First Lady of Edo State, Mrs Betsy Obaseki mirrors the downward spiral of politics where personal attacks and toxic language are becoming the order of the day, writes Vanessa Obioha 

Politics is dirty, and getting dirtier each new day. From the United States, which supposedly has the best template on democracy, down to Nigeria, where politics is a do-or-die affair, the fight for political power has become very messy. It is surely not an occupation for the faint-hearted as politicians dig up dirt to tarnish the image of their opponents. 

In the recently held United States presidential debate, former President Donald Trump sparred contentiously with the Vice President and the Democratic Party presidential candidate, Kamala Harris.

In Nigeria, politics is characterised by the use of caustic, insensitive and acerbic language that are unrelated to governance. The latest altercation between Senator Adams Oshiomhole and First Lady of Edo State, Mrs Betsy Obaseki is a typical example of the level of mudslinging in Nigerian politics.

Mrs. Obaseki, had during her introduction of Mrs Ifeyinwa Ighodalo, the wife of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo, at the flag-off of the party’s campaign at Ubiaja Township Stadium in Esan South-East Local Government Area, declared that the PDP candidate was the only candidate that had a wife.

“Let us vote for the best candidate in this coming election, and I want to introduce the wife. Incidentally, among all the candidates, only one has a wife, and it’s our own party’s candidate, Asue Ighodalo. Only he has a wife. This is the wife, Mrs. Ifeyinwa Ighodalo,” she said.

“Edo women know that only one candidate has a wife. Better things come to women when there’s a woman in the Government House. All women in Edo, regardless of party, should see the candidate who has a wife. They will take us higher,” she explained.

However, Oshiomhole did not take her claim lightly.

During  his tenure as the governor of the state, Oshiomhole had reportedly told a widow to “Go and die” during a routine inspection of the environmental sanitation in Benin City. 

Therefore, many were not surprised that he would hit Mrs. Obaseki but the extent he sunk so low shocked even APC supporters.

In a viral video, Oshiomhole expressed surprise that the First Lady would claim that his party, All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Monday Okpebholo did not have a wife.

“Here is a woman who has no child. Between him and Obaseki, they have no child; they are childless,” Oshiomhole said. “They are not even ready to adopt. I don’t blame anyone who shouldn’t have a child but people who have love for children go to motherless homes and adopt children. They have not adopted, and they are both in their sixties,” he added.

He further stated that Okpebholo has children.

“Our candidate not only has children; he has invested in the education of those children such that you watch them on live television where the first one that spoke is a lawyer; the second one is a medical doctor, and they addressed the crowd in Edo South, Edo Central, and Edo North; and their mother was there,” he said.

Oshiomhole’s retaliatory comment drew the ire of many who considered it insensitive.

 Incidentally, Oshiomhole, who is currently representing Edo North senatorial district in the National Assembly, is not new to using disparaging words on people. Many recall how he used deceptive tactics and falsehoods to destroy the then PDP governorship candidate and his former ally, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu. He had called Ize-Iyamu unprintable names to favour his candidate, Obaseki.

As fate would have it, in 2020, because he was determined to ensure that Obaseki, whom he had fallen out with did not win his re-election, Oshiomhole apologised to the same Ize-Iyamu and drafted him into the governorship race on the platform of the APC.

Addressing a massive crowd of supporters at his residence in the state, Oshiomhole who at the time also lost his exalted position as the National Chairman of the APC, publicly apologised to the people of the state for supporting Obaseki and working against Ize-Iyamu

He said: “I made my mistakes by supporting a man who has no vision for my people and judged a pastor who genuinely loves his people, I am sorry… I apologise to Edo people and promise to correct my mistakes by making sure the servant of God, Pastor Ize-Iyamu is elected as governor and kicking the snake out of the government house. From now till September 19th I am here in Edo State because a political lion that I am, I am not scared of anything.

“The man (Ize-Iyamu) that is coming is not a stranger, he campaigned for me in 2012 and I won all the 18 local governments in Edo State, so he knows the roots unlike the current governor who just became governor and doesn’t know the efforts people made to make him governor. We would kick out this MoU governor and replace him with a pastor and sweep out the coronavirus party by the special grace of God.”

Unfortunately for him, he had done incalculable damage to the image of Ize-Iyamu, which largely contributed to his defeat by Obaseki.

Reacting to comments on Mrs. Obaseki, the Edo Salvation Group (ESG) demanded an apology from Oshiomhole, describing his comments as a collective insult to Edo women.

“We now believe that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has an animosity for Edo women as this is not the first time he would be publicly mocking Edo women,” a statement from the group read. 

“Going beyond the limit to mock our First Lady on her condition is to us senseless and a bad example of dirty politics. We, as such, urge him to apologise and tender an unreserved apology not only to Mrs. Obaseki but to all Edo women for this crass denigration of the esteem and comfort of our women.”

Indeed mocking a woman for her  childlessness is simply cruel by any societal standard. When Trump announced JD Vance as his running mate in the upcoming US elections, his critics were quick to dig up his comments where he labelled Harris and other female politicians as childless cat ladies in a 2021 interview with Fox News.

“We are effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too,” Vance said.

While Harris has stepchildren, Mrs. Obaseki, in her response to Oshiomhole, clarified that she is not barren. 

“I will say to those of you sisters who like myself had conceived and had miscarriages; who like myself had painful evacuations of our babies who have died in our wombs; who have conceived and birth babies who died at birth or different stages in life, and as we speak today do not have children to show for the trauma and the pains that we experienced in life; my word of comfort to you as I say to myself, is you are not barren,” she said during a Zoom meeting with Edo women in the Diaspora.

Foul language seems to be the order of the day for Nigerian politicians who derive an inexplicable joy from throwing mud at their opponents like toddlers in a playground, even if, in the process, their outfits were also badly stained. Their playground, of course, is usually the campaign ground where serious issues are overshadowed by verbal attacks, either spoken or sung. These attacks are needless distractions to hide the deficiencies of incompetent candidates.

In a country where the cost of living is becoming astronomical due to fuel hikes and other forms of economic hardship, one’s marital or childbearing status should not take centre stage. Rather important issues such as healthcare, good governance, and business opportunities, to mention a few, should be focal points of the political campaigns.

Whether Oshiomhole would apologise to Mrs. Obaseki, as he did in 2013 and 2020 when he apologised to the poor widow he insulted and Ize-Iyamu, remains to be seen.