Godwin Obaseki And Asue Ighodalo: The Absurdist Characters In Edo Political Story

Godwin Obaseki And Asue Ighodalo: The Absurdist Characters In Edo Political Story

By Ernest Amayogbe

In Absurdist tales, themes of incongruity, gruesome apathy, and living in isolation often mirror the meaninglessness and decay inherent in human life. That Godwin Obaseki is fielding Asue Ighodalo in the Edo 2024 Election echoes a resurgence of Absurdist drama, especially if you sit in an armchair with a glass of Cognac, or if you find yourself in the woods, shuffling to the River Niger’s bank to buy an iota of peace.

We will begin with Godwin Obaseki. For more than seven years as Edo State governor, he seemed to have led the people with gruesome apathy. He lived like Meursault in Albert Camus’ The Stranger, who went partying and dating after receiving the news of his mother’s death. When many farmers in Edo villages were displaced, some abducted and even slaughtered by herdsmen during Buhari’s administration, he was busy with his maize and cassava farms. These enterprises may become his personal property after his tenure, so the farmers could go to hell for all he cared.

As a figment of our imagination, we could see him in his purple pajamas, sauntering along a luxurious balcony, enjoying the cool breeze of a graceful nightfall. We could see him mocking us as we trekked around the Benin metropolis, waiting for a digital Central Park. We could hear him laugh out loud like Camus’ Meursault, shooting an Arab at the beach and being excited by the sound of his gun, feeling no remorse. Such apathy and human cruelty are the hallmarks of Absurdist characters.

Godwin Obaseki came with the hopeful promise of transforming Edo State into another Dubai. We considered him a man of the people until he began to splash peppery mire in our eyes. Some of the projects he seemed to have executed are mere parodies of the originals on paper. His infrastructural and technology projects, especially Edo Best and the Power Plant, stand like caricature drawings by an amateur artist. More absurd is how he displaced people from their business places, markets, and offices under the pretext of making life better for them. For years, his actions and inactions have hurled many Edo families into an abyss of poverty. He did not care who lived or died.

Regarding his inability to foster coexistence among human beings, can we not also say he is incongruous as a leader? He said APC was his problem, hence he joined PDP. Today, he has put a knife in the thing that binds PDP together in Edo State, as Chinua Achebe would say of the white man in Things Fall Apart. There were times he had no House of Assembly, no Local Government Chairmen, no Commissioners, and no Councilors. He was all by himself. What an Absurdist tale Edo State politics had become for the past seven years!

However, when we thought we had had enough of him, when we thought we would breathe well again in Edo State after his tenure, he wants to make Asue Ighodalo the next governor— a more unfitting person than he is. He wants to maintain the pattern of incongruity that brought him to political limelight. That is why he had to project a successor from his school of thought. As an educated man, Asue Ighodalo is an archetype of a self-alienated being. He is one who may have been away from Edo people since his teenage days. So he would need an interpreter to tell the Esan people that he wants to rule over them. You can imagine such colonial mentality!

As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. We were not really expecting a beauty king to emerge from the womb of a hunchback. A monumental height of absurdity it is—for a man who wants to become a governor of Edo State has never voted in Edo before. Until recently, he did not even have a Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) from Edo State. Days ago, the process that made him a candidate for the Edo 2024 Election was declared null and void by a high court in Abuja. This is an obvious sign that PDP has rejected him. Even Edo land has rejected him because he appeared more like a neocolonial master coming to covet its Cultural Artifacts.

How can men such as Godwin Obaseki and Asue Ighodalo be compassionate to the people when their actions and inactions suggest that there is no essence in human existence and that the world around them means nothing to them? An Absurdist character, whose amygdala seems to be dysfunctional, cannot be a governor of a state, unless in a world of absurdity. A leader who does not see the essence of life as giving life meaning will always betray the hope of the people.

All these are the reasons Edo people—men, women, youths, and children—have chosen Sen. Monday Okpebholo and Rt. Hon. Dennis Idahosa of APC over Asue Ighodalo. These ones do not display astute knowledge by speaking impeccable English. They have been with the people, executing tangible projects that are of great benefit to them.

By Ernest Amayogbe

APC NEW MEDIA