Restoring sanity in Edo State

The cause of the unfolding crisis apparently revolves on the question whether elected officials can change parties and still retain the offices.  In trying to address the issue, those involved have resorted to extrajudicial action, including physical combat.   In recent days, the violence has marked the political landscape in the state. Predominantly made up of […]

The cause of the unfolding crisis apparently revolves on the question whether elected officials can change parties and still retain the offices.  In trying to address the issue, those involved have resorted to extrajudicial action, including physical combat.   In recent days, the violence has marked the political landscape in the state.
Predominantly made up of members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the legislators suspended four of their colleagues because they defected from the party to join the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.  As a result, bedlam descended on the legislature, with opposing camps employing the services of thugs and musclemen to intimidate and punch up their opponents.  A portion of the legislators’ quarters was invaded, allegedly by some of the suspended legislators, and official property in it destroyed.  It is a bizarre turn of events for members of an institution that is supposed to make laws for the good governance of Edo State.  It is unclear what the role of the Edo State Police Command is in the saga, but Governor Adams Oshiomhole has blamed it and officials of the PDP,  accusing both of an alleged conspiracy to facilitate a breakdown of law and order. The Commissioner of Police, Folusho Adebayo, dismissed the allegation, stating that the command was neutral in handling the political crisis engulfing the state.
 Governor Oshiomhole is known to be displeased over the decision of the four legislators to decamp from the ruling APC.  That is why not a few eyebrows went up when the government suddenly announced that it would renovate the state’s House of Assembly complex in the rainy season, and went about it by first removing the roof. Oshiomhole pledged to provide an alternative venue for the meeting sessions of the legislators, but this would be inside Government House where the PDP members claimed that they would not feel welcomed and continued to meet in the flooded and roofless assembly chambers.  
Meanwhile, the airwaves have been taken over by the prota-gonists, from which invectives are freely poured on opponents, further poisoning the atmosphere. The public flogging of a former commissioner, the kidnap of a legislator, the assault on the legislators’ quarters, the shooting of another politician at his home, and the bombing at pastor’s house and at his wife’s clinic, all clearly related to the crisis, signpost a slide to anarchy that must be halted before it degenerates further.  Into this mix, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) put in an appearance by arresting the APC members of the legislature. The three principal members of the House, the Speaker, Majority Leader, and the Chief Whip, were taken away on allegation that they forged the signature of another member of the legislature. Whether it was coincidence, the timing of the EFCC intervention provided ammunition to the APC camp that the crisis is being orchestrated by external forces linked to the PDP.  
Unspoken is the fact that it is all part of the struggle of the PDP to retake the political driver’s seat of Edo State and the APC’s struggle to retain it, when the governorship election in the state becomes due in 2016. A test of how this plays out would be the national and state houses of elections early next year.    But there’s a better way, through the contest of ideas and competing programmes, than slugging it on the streets and physically in the hallowed chambers of the legislature.  The irony is that the APC in Edo State benefitted from decamping, when its rank swelled at the expense of the PDP.  It cannot now complain when the reverse takes place. These are issues that in any case should be resolved without resort to violence and the provocative intervention of outsiders.