Between Political Mudslinging Against Ize-Iyamu And Non-Issue Based Campaign -By Isaac Asabor

There is no denying the fact that the tricky nature of which aspirant to support ahead of any given election or who to vote for at the poll in Edo state have seemingly remained intractable. The Catch-22, no doubt, has been exacerbated by the extant political culture in the state that is so preoccupied with campaign of calumny, political mudslinging and name calling to the detriment of issue-based campaign. The foregoing political atmosphere is no doubt usually steeped in the depth of political quagmire and spiteful cacophony. Against the foregoing background, it is little wonder that the issue of easily deciphering who the cap fits at each political dispensation has always been difficult to know.

It is even argued that if a good leader came on the scene, he or she would not be quickly recognized on account of the somewhat faulty yardsticks that are usually used to determine who a leader is in the state. For decades, the political heroes in the state have been popular figures, money -bags and media creations who more often than not utterly lack the leadership traits that can be deployed toward the development of the state and betterment of Edolites; both at home and in diaspora.

For instance, Edolites cannot forget in a hurry how Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State who backed Obaseki’s defection to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), angrily pulled out of the process, accused other PDP leaders of trying to blackmail him because of Obaseki. He labeled the unnamed PDP leaders as “tax collectors”. Wike said that he was no longer interested in getting the Edo governor to secure the PDP ticket for his re-election. Despite denials and refutations that trailed the foregoing, allegations still flies that billions were paid to obtain the ticket.

In fact, the foregoing age-long problem in the state is no doubt making some gullible electorates in the State to swallow hook, line and sinker all that are been said against Pastor Osaze Ize-Iyamu thereby placing them in a disadvantageous position of missing the opportunity of supporting him in his electioneering and voting for him in the upcoming governorship election scheduled to hold across the 18 local governments in the State on September 19, 2020. Viewed from the prism of the foregoing facts, it is not an exaggeration to say that members of the PDP under the auspices of the incumbent governor of the State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki have been driving their electioneering by maliciously targeting Ize-Iyamu in an orchestrated campaign of calumny in order to Pull Him Down (PHD). They have been campaigning against him by impressing it upon the electorates that he was truly everything negative the former Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole said against him in 2016 when he contested as a gubernatorial aspirant on the platform of the PDP in opposition to APC on which platform the incumbent governor contested at the time when Oshiomhole wholeheartedly packaged him the way a salesman would package a product to his market segment.

Simply put, Oshiomhole literarily packaged him, did the whole talking, and sold his candidacy to Edolites. All I heard him say intermittently at every stop of the campaign train was “Edo is one” amid the waving of the broom to the electorates who were in the train. To God be the glory, their mischievous campaign is yet to stuck in the minds of the electorates as they projected. Rather, the electorates are merely dismissing the sound bites they have been virally replaying on every available medium with mere wave of the hands as they are not unaware that they were products of mischievous political campaign at the time. After all, an African proverb has it that “When rain falls on a leopard, it wets him but does not wash off his spots. Yes, all the venom Ize-Iyamu’s traducers are literarily pouring on him since political electioneering commenced in the State are not going to wipe off the good and credible elements of his personality even if his traducers kept leveraging on what Oshiomhole said without realizing that he was prompted to say them on account of the political expediency of the time. To those that are keying into what Oshiomhole said against Ize-Iyamu as their trump card in the ongoing electioneering, they should not forget the witty political quote whose authorship is credited to Will Rogers. He said, “If you ever injected truth into politics you have no politics”.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the campaign of calumny that is been carried out against him since the ongoing electioneering began in the state ahead of the September 19 governorship election is unarguably intensive and wicked. The mischievous campaign no doubt is unarguably been carried out to jeopardize his chance of governing the state. I must confess that despite the intensity of the campaign that he will still emerge victorious at the upcoming election. With my findings, I realized that he stood head and shoulders above other candidates that will run for the governorship position with him.

At this juncture, before the intense and wicked campaign of his traducers eclipse his reputation, it is expedient to say that he has continued to contribute to the political development of the state and at a time was given the award of politician of the decade in Edo State.

Just like the Leopard whose spots cannot be washed off by the rain, it is not an exaggeration to say that the campaign of calumny or political mudslinging that is been orchestrated against Osagie Ize-Iyamu cannot obfuscate the virtues that characterize him. Rather, he remained a politician that does not discriminate. He is highly detribalized, open to positive ideas, a motivator of positive agenda for government, and a respecter of elders and social values, a nexus of hope for Christians in Government and a crusader of fairness and social justice.

Osagie Ize-Iyamu’s bold footprints in partisan politics and public office in Edo State has been phenomenal in scope, depth and intensity. He is a calm and deep-thinking political architect whose courageous designs inspire the hope for good governance and democratic freedom.

Today, Osagie Ize-Iyamu is widely respected, acknowledged, and referred to as the “Leader” by both the elderly and the young. This is in recognition of his uncommon courage, wisdom, integrity and commitment to the advancement of the common good.

For his intellectual and tactical abilities, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu has been entrusted with critical positions in party politics. He has been Vice Chairman, South South, ACN, DG, Governor Adams Oshiomhole Re-election Campaign Organization and Member, APC Constitution Drafting Committee. In all these assignments, he has discharged his responsibilities excellently.

He is an honorary doctorate degree holder of the Benson Idahosa University, Benin City. On July 1st, 2019, he was recognized for his contribution to the development of our democratic process and rule of law when he received the Life Time Achievers Award by the Nigerian Bar Association, Benin (Lion) Branch.
Osagie Ize-Iyamu is happily married to Pastor (Prof.) Idia Ize-Iyamu, a Consultant Orthodontist with the University of Benin Teaching Hospital and Professor in the University of Benin. They are blessed with four children.

Finally, the essence of this piece is to advise politicians in the state to eschew campaign of calumny against politicians that have the capacity to uplift the state to a higher developmental level. It is high time we stopped politicizing critical leadership issues to the detriment of the state and Edolites in general. Politicians should always see the development of the state as the big picture, and endeavor to play issue-based politics.