"Obaseki you represents direct threat to democracy and a mockery to Nigerian constitution" - Tinubu

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu said Obaseki’s governance of Edo has been a throwback to the worst excesses of Nigeria’s military past and represents a direct threat to the democratic order.

The National leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has sent a powerful message to Governor Godwin Obaseki, berating and accusing him of gravely assaulting democracy and making a mockery of the Nigerian constitution.

Tinubu described Obaseki as an errant, ill-disciplined governor and a dictator, who has been contemptuous of the people of Edo state.

In a statement he personally signed, Tinubu said Obaseki adopted the strong arm tactics of dictators, by first of all, blocking the inauguration of two-thirds of the assembly and then importing thugs, to deface and destroy parts of the assembly.

“Then, he imports sand and gravels to prevent access to the assembly complex. In effect, the man has spent state funds to thwart the very apparatus of the state government he was sworn to uphold. He has squandered public money to defeat the very will of the public. This is tragic beyond words”, Tinubu said.

“As a pretext for his refusal to allow the Edo House of Assembly to function, Governor Obaseki’s actions are perverse.

“This is a cowardly act and a move to thwart representative democracy in Edo. No renovation has been planned for the state house building. No appropriation was made in the state’s budget. The only reason any renovation could be deemed necessary is the destruction wrought by his own goons”.

Tinubu then offered some quick tutorial to Obaseki on the meaning of representative government and the importance of the legislature.

Although Governor Obaseki’s conduct in the past year is undoubtedly impeachable, these legislators have made no threat to impeach the Governor. Their only desire is to peacefully perform the duties asked of them by the constituents who elected them. What, then, is their offence? By all appearances, the Governor is punishing these legislators for their loyalty to a party that is no longer his own. If every governor behaves as he, obstructing the performance of any legislator who does not pledge to him their undying fealty, the entire edifice of democratic governance in Nigeria would grind to a complete halt.

Governor Obaseki must think the people of his state to be as foolhardy and ignorant as he, for even as he courts their votes, he continues to make a mockery of the institution of democracy in his own House of Assembly. If Governor Obaseki believes the people are not aware of this inherent irony, he will undoubtedly learn the cost of this grave miscalculation in the fullness of time.

The rule of law and preservation of democracy is too important to sacrifice at the altar of any one man’s ambition. Governor Obaseki’s woeful leadership of Edo State will hopefully be brought to an end soon by the very people whose rights he has so carelessly trampled upon. One can only hope that the damage he is doing to the most important of the state’s democratic institutions can just as easily be repaired.