By; SUNDAY ODE, Abuja.
Out- going Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole said Monday in Abuja that he would not lose his sleep over thought of being betrayed by his successor, Godwin Obaseki, when he leaves office next month because he has no personal interest to protect.
Obaseki won the September governorship election in Edo State on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Fielding questions from State House correspondents, Oshiomhole, who said he was in the President Villa, to invite President Muhammadu Buhari for a state visiting, where he is expected to commission some impacting projects his administration has put in place including state of the art hospital, said Obaseki’s allegiance should be to the people of Edo, not him.
“That is very important if you say he will disappoint me, I am not the state I am only one out of about four million Edo people. So his obligation and his loyalty should be to the people of Edo State. The oath of office he is going to subscribe to says that he will defend the constitution of Nigeria, he will do everything to uplift the quality of life of Edo people. Nothing in his oath office will include ‘I shall not betray my predecessor’ because I have no interest to be betrayed.
“For me, I have presided over Nigeria Labour Congress for eight years and I had a successor, there was no story of me having conflict with my predecessor. Because conflict only arise when you refuse to accept that when your tenure is over, it is over,” he stated.
On allegations that he campaigned for Obaseki rather than the governor-elect himself, Oshiomhole who will be leaving office on November 12th, said he has no regrets doing that.
He said, “As for the campaign, and this is the problem, the media picks the negatives from the mouth of those who are the least competent. That I campaigned for him, I was this I was that. That is the way it should be. Look at what is going on in the US, is Obama not vigorously campaigning for Clinton? Is Obama’s wife, the First Lady of US is she not as vigorous perhaps much more than Bill Clinton? But these are skills I acquire from short floor which they will never acquire. I am a product of struggle as a result of my many years of being exploited fighting the oppressors, I deployed those skills and I defeated them. At a point they said I should allow the man to talk, did the electorate complain?”.
On what he will want to be remembered for, Oshiomhole said, “I want to be remembered as a factory worker who worked and laboured as a daily paid worker in the most subordinates post in textile mill rising to become leader of the textile union and eventually spending eight years as NLC president, then going back home to confront the most feared and vicious godfathers that monopolised Edo state. I fought godfathers, which is essential to make way for liberal democracy”.
