FOR THE EDO CENTRAL PDP, PEACE AND UNITY ARE NON NEGOTIABLE
… if we must produce an Esan Governor in 2024
The race for the successor to Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, has kick- started after the hectic Presidential and Legislative elections. The dusts are gradually settling down as the winners and those that lost out have started adjusting to realities. At the end, everyone in one way or the other is a winner.
The crises that engulfed the PDP no doubt defined the outcomes of the elections in Edo State. No Senatorial District lost out as much as the Edo Central PDP. For the first time since the advent of the current republic, the PDP lost the Senatorial seat and one House of Representatives seat out of the two. It took the strong will of some leaders of the party and the House of Representatives candidate for Esan Central, Esan West, Igueben Federal Constituency, for the PDP to salvage a National Assembly seat and 4 out of the 6 State Assembly seats in the Senatorial District. The PDP was faced with the serious threat of going into extinction in the Senatorial District that once prided itself as the strong base of the party in the state. This was due to the protracted crisis that saw the party conducting parallel congresses and primaries that ran the full course to the Supreme Court.
As we prepare again for the governorship race with the Edo Agenda for an Esan Governor, it is crystal clear that for us to achieve this goal, the following must be done and cannot be ignored.
1. A total reconciliation of the PDP in the Senatorial District whereby the immediate past do not dictate our future actions and decisions. PDP leaders in the Senatorial District must put aside all personal and joint interests aside to come together on a round table to discuss how to engage the north and south to give us their support for an Esan Governor in 2024.
2. We should not allow the disagreements at the National level to be our business. The National has already kick started the reconciliations. Let us key in.
3. We must put in place a machinery to get the support of the sitting Governor. Anyone thinking that the project for an Esan Governor can be achieved without the active support of Governor Godwin Obaseki, is only dreaming and being insincere. The support of the governor is crucial.
4. We must come to the table as Esan people and not in the names of Agbazilo and Okpebholo. What we need is an Esan Governor irrespective of where he or she comes from. What we need is an Edo Governor from Esan extraction.
5. *Under no circumstance, must we have parallel congresses for the adhoc delegates* .
It is important that the State chairman of the party, Dr. Tony Aziegbemi, who happens to be from Edo Central, takes a clue from the Acting National Chairman, and start the reconciliation process. Providence has bestowed on him and indeed on all Esan leaders in the PDP at this material time, the task to ensure that Esan does not miss this opportunity. This is the time to think Esan and not self.
God bless Esanland
God bless Edo State
Amb. Tony Okonigene writes from Usugbenu.
