Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo state Tuesday formally resigned his membership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) days after he was disqualified from participating in the party’s primary election scheduled to take place on June 22, 2020.
The governor, who disclosed this Tuesday after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at Presidential Villa in Abuja, said he would pursue his second term ambition on another platform.
The governor said he resigned from the ruling All Progressive Congress because the national chairman, Comrade Adams Aliu Oshiomhole, is scared of educated people.
“You remember in my last tweet, I said that I’ll make a decision, after my disqualification was announced by APC, that I’ll make a decision after I’ve consulted with the leadership and my supporters in Edo state and also have informed the President.
“I’m just here today to inform you that I have now decided formally to resign my membership of the All Progressive Congress. And having done that, I will now announce in the next few days my specific line of action and what platform I will be contesting the gubernatorial election on.
“I’m sure the whole country knows and is aware of what has gone on with me and the party chairman in party leadership, which culminated in my disqualification as a gubernatorial aspirant and upon that unfortunate decision by the chairman of the All Progressives Congress, I’ve decided to go and seek my gubernatorial aspiration on another platform,” he said.
He said his resignation from the APC was based on the protracted rift between him and Oshiomhole, a former governor of Edo state.
He said as APC chairman, Oshiomhole does not practice what he preaches.“He, Adams Oshiomhole, has he? As governor Wike said, he should practice what he preaches, he has never done so. He has not provided a level playing ground even in the selection process, the disqualification process. What is the basis for disqualifying someone like Chris Ogiemwonyi?
“You are afraid of people who are educated because you didn’t go to school. You are afraid of people who have something to offer because all he knows how to offer is brigandage, crisis.
“So, for us, Nigeria has to move forward beyond some of the characters who are currently overseeing our political polity and they are scared. They are scared that when people of substance, when people who are proven, when people who have succeeded in other aspects of life come into politics, they will be history,” he said.
Asked to respond to Oshiomhole’s remarks that incumbency isn’t a factor for him, Obaseki said: “Time will tell. Let us go to the polls and Nigerians will see.”Asked if there are inconsistencies in his credentials, the governor said: “Someone who hasn’t gone to school, who doesn’t have a certificate himself, will not know and understand what inconsistencies in certificates are, that’s the starting point.“What is the inconsistency? There’s no inconsistency in my certificates. The issue was in 2016, when I contested for the gubernatorial election, I could not find the originals of my certificates because I hadn’t required them for more than two decades. So I deposed an affidavit that I couldn’t find the originals. Subsequently, I found all the original copies of all my certificates and they are with me. So I don’t understand what’s inconsistent about that.
“Maybe the inconsistency in the Youths Corps certificate where he said my surname was missing an ‘i’ at the end, but if you look at that it was like a cursive, it was written in a cursive manner. So if that’s an inconsistency for him, then it’s really sad that people of that quality are leading Nigeria’s ruling party.
“For him it was just to look for an excuse to take whatever decision he wants to take and it’s really sad that the party structure today gives him that sort of authority without checks, that is dangerous for any system or any institution. When you give authority and responsibility to people who don’t have character, people who do not have finesse, a sense of justice, then that institution is imperilled,” he said.
Asked what he discussed with PDP governors over the weekend, Obaseki said: “First, these are my brother governors who are from my subregion, some of them have gone through similar experience I’m going through. It’s only proper that when you have challenges of this nature you’ll go and talk to people who have gone through similar experience for advice. That’s basically what I went to do with them.”
