We’re fighting godfathers the way Oshiomhole did – deputy gov

Edo State Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, has said there is no
room for godfathers in the state. He added that the struggle for
the emancipation of the people of the state from the hold of
godfathers was ongoing and had come to stay.

Shaibu, in an interview with select journalists at his residence
in Benin on Friday, thanked his political mentor and National
Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Mr Adams Oshiomhole,
whom he said spearheaded the struggle.

There had been political disagreements between Shaibu and
Governor Godwin Obaseki, on the one hand, and Oshiomhole, who is
also a former governor, and some other political figures in the
state, on the other hand.

Shaibu, however, noted that he and others were helping him
(Oshiomhole) to sustain the struggle, adding that his political
differences with the governor had not changed his father-son
relationship with the party leader.

He said, “As the deputy governor, I thought I was just to hide
behind the governor, but I found out that the struggle for the
emancipation of Edo people from the godfather continues.

“The joy I have is that ‘no to godfathers’ has come to stay in
Edo. We thank Oshiomhole for leading that struggle. We are helping
him to sustain it. Like he said, you need to fight these people
till you succeed for you to be able to free resources for the state
to deliver dividends of democracy to the people. That is what we
are doing.”

The deputy governor, who is celebrating his 50th birthday on
Sunday (today), described Oshiomhole as someone he would continue
to respect.

Shaibu said, “He’s my father and nothing has changed. What has
changed now is that people are now able to read my role as a son
and my role as a politician. We have political differences, no
doubt about that, but it has not changed that relationship of
father and son.

“Even when he made some statements that suggest what I am not, I
refused to reply because when the chips are down, it is me that
will still say I am sorry, whether he is right or wrong. I don’t
want to say those things for people to say I said this or that.

“He is the one talking and I am not talking. I am comfortable
with him talking. That shows I was properly brought up by my father
and by him (Oshiomhole) not to respond to elders. The other one he
taught me that I refused to use is that he told us that a godfather
does not have age. We must kill them. As a good son, I will choose
certain things.

“Father and son will definitely come back together. Politically,
now we might be on different sides. I am not the first son that
will disagree with his father politically and I will not be the
last. The good news is that it has not changed relationship of
father and son. We are on recess politically.”

Meanwhile, speaking about the governor, Shaibu said learning
leadership from both Oshiomhole and Obaseki had made him a better
person.

He said, “One part of governance I learnt from comrade
(Oshiomhole) is the communist aspect and I am learning the
capitalist aspect from Obaseki. You can imagine if I have to
combine both, how effective I will be.

“My relationship with Obaseki is like an older brother and
younger brother and it’s my first time of being under somebody; I
have always been on my own, but as we move and I begin to
understand him, he is also able to understand me.”

Shaibu added that if he had known most of the things he now knew
about the enormous power at the disposal of government, he would
have done certain things differently as an activist.