Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon (aka Igodomigodo) is
the Chief of Staff to Governor Adams Oshiomhole
of Edo State. In this interview, Obahiagbon assesses the administration of President
Muhammadu Buhari. He also speaks on some
issues affecting Edo, asserting that the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) stands no chance in the
guber election scheduled to be held in the state
in 2016.
BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

You ran in the senatorial primary of the APC for
Edo South ahead of the 2015 polls but lost to
Hon. Samson Osagie. How were you able to move
on?

Moving on was nothing of a quagmire at all and
that is because as a student of mysticism and
hermeticism,I hold the view very tenaciously that
“as above so below”, meaning that nothing
happens in the life of a student of light by
accident. I gave it all my best and vicariously
yearned again for another parliamentary lacuna to
use parliament as a pizza for social engineering
and legislative dialectics, but when it did not
happen, it just meant that the cosmic keyboard
was vibrating at its own rhythm and harmonics
according to the law of the cycles which is itself
an immutable divine law.

Some Nigerians believe that the administration of
President Muhammadu Buhari has been sluggish.
Do you share that sentiment?

President Buhari has left no one in doubt-except
of course incorrigible political Philistines and
revanchists-that he has set his hands on the
plough and no political Jupiter can stop him now
from cleansing the Augean stable and navigating
the ship of the Nigerian state from Bermuda
Triangle. He has demonstrated a diaphanous
commitment to pulverize the monster of
corruption by not just vacuous sloganeering as it
was in the past, but has announced a willingness
to begin an epic prosecution of economic
vandals. The constitution of a Presidential
Advisory Committee against corruption, headed
by the fiery and no nonsense Professor Itse Sagay, is a further demonstration of his commitment.
I simply don’t understand what they mean by
sluggishness. Mr President met a country in a
state of economic phlebotomy, social anomie,
moral putrescence and political erebusism. Was
he supposed to have, against this background,
begin to take precipitate steps bordering on the
harum scarum just to satiate the dramatic
proclivities of those who lightly cogitate that
Nigeria is a political cinematography? No no no.
Fixing the Nigerian economy just now requires
systematic methodology,a sangfroid disposition
and a calculative mind as cool as cucumber. His
shuttle diplomacy to rally Nigeria’s neighbours
and the international community at regional and
global levels are already paying off in the war
against Boko Haram. His spartan discipline and
respect for the rule of law, especially on fiscal
matters, are already yielding positive mileage for
the economy. Nigerians are used to theatrics and
histrionics but President Buhari is not a man of
theatre and drama.He is a man of few words but much action.

The PDP in Edo recently kicked against the
approval of the National Assembly of the World
Bank loan being negotiated by the state
government. What is your take on the argument
that it will further plunge the state into debt?

The objurgations of the PDP in Edo State against
the loan deal, as you call it, before the National
Assembly is sheer jejune political polyphony and
sciamachy. The World Bank, as you know, would
not indulge anybody who plays ducks and drakes
on financial matters and, in any case,the laudable
achievements of Edo State government is palpably
visible to the blind and audible to the deaf.These
are facts too gargantuan and irrefutable to be
contested except and save those habilimented in
astigmatic political monocles. The Edo PDP
Chairman is a comedian; any time he wants to act, he beckons on journalists to tell them to come. We are not bothered about their criticisms.
As you can see, Edo is working. Once Edo people
are happy with the Comrade Governor, Orbih and
his cohorts are inconsequential.

But are you not worried that with the achievement
of the PDP in Edo South in the National Assembly
elections, it might replicate that success come
2016 governorship election?


What were the results achieved by the PDP in the
last elections? They simply latched in on the
South/South sentiments and the Christian/ Muslim stratagem during the presidential election
and, even at that, the final results were a photo
finish and, of course, when the House of Assembly election took place, when the issues
were now local and internal to Edo, was it not now conspicuously demonstrated that APC owns
papa’s land, going by the outcome of the
elections? If anything has changed since then it’s
that the people of Edo are now more attracted to
the APC and the Comrade Governor, especially
with the non-performance of the PDP also at the
federal level and their eventual defeat.So what is
the tension? Edo is APC state anytime, any day
and come rain, come sun. 2016 will come and go
and I can tell you that it will be wishful thinking
for the PDP to dream of winning the governorship
in Edo, not now and not in the nearest future.

But the agitation by some people in Edo South
that they should be allowed to produce
Oshiomhole’s successor and not the governor,
don’t you think it might lead to crisis in your
party?
I laugh and shudder when I hear views such as
this and, that is because if you like, it will be an
ignis fatuus to ever think that it would ever be
possible at anytime for there to be unanimity of
opinion among Edo South leaders of APC as to its
choice of a gubernatorial candidate, when that
time comes. In any case, who says the governor
is not also from Edo South as he is also from Edo
Central and Edo North respectively?
The governor is a democrat who will not impose
any candidate. Did the governor impose me on
the people as his Chief of Staff during the
senatorial nominations? Did he impose Prof.Julius Ihonvbere, the Secretary to Edo State
Government on the people of Edo North, when he
ran for the Senate? But we must all be conscious
of the fact that the achievements of APC today in
Edo have made us rise above twelve feet tall and
driven by Mr Governor.
We must all be conscious of the fact that Mr
Governor is the face of APC in Edo..We must all
be conscious of the fact that Mr Governor will be
leading the campaign in 2016 and would provide
himself as APCs political battle axe. We must all
be conscious of the fact that Mr Governor shall
both be the political mine layer and mine
sweeper for the election. I think the Comrade
Governor will consult with the National Chairman
of our party who is an eminent son of Edo and
in whom we are all proud and thereafter consult
with other stakeholders from the state and, that
is because whoever will wear the crown is going
to be Governor of Edo state and not governor of
Edo South assuming the gubernatorial cap tilts
along the senatorial trajectory of Edo South.
But there is this fear that the party may be
engulfed in crisis if some aspirants feel cheated?
I don’t foresee any crisis arising from our
primary. Some of us have lost out in party
primaries and we have remained in the party and
worked for the candidates that emerged and the
party realizing that, in a political contestation,
only one aspirant will emerge. I have looked at all
my brothers across the state who are
gubernatorial aspirants and they are all men of
integrity, rectitude and honour.I would be
surprised and shocked if anyone of them turns
his back at the electoral fortunes of the party
simply because he did not get the gubernatorial
ticket of the APC. None of them strikes me and
comes across as capable of that kind of a decision.

www.vanguardngr.com/2015/08/buharis-spartan-discipline-already-yielding-result-obahiagbon/

MYSTICISM, HERMETICISM - is there a course like this in Naija university?
...............a diaphanous
commitment to pulverize the monster of...... - What figure of speech is this?
......state of economic phlebotomy- A new disease condition for my books

Boko haram is still there and dollar is still rising... so which results is he talking about...or is it favor he wants to win?

hmmmm!!!!

Story for the gods to interprete