Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State declared at the weekend that “evil thrives where the forces of change decide to keep quiet,” saying the consequences of not fighting are far more grave than the risk of challenging what is wrong.
He also said that with the current people-led revolution in the state, godfatherism is gone forever.
Oshiomhole stated this at a reception held in honour of the new Speaker of the House of Assembly, Bright Omokhodion at Ekpoma.
Said the governor: “My life history has taught me one thing, that men will not be free if they accept what is wrong merely because the people behind it are powerful.”
At the event, a former member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Godday Okhini, revealed how a chieftain of the party told him to foment trouble and make the state ungovernable.
Okhini, who also defected to the Action Congress (AC) at the rally, said: ‘I was in his house just last Saturday after I received his summons, and after receiving me, he said ‘I want you to organise some boys and cause confusion at the rally they are organising for Omokhodion. I want you to cause confusion in Esan West’.
“I however told him that as soon as I step out of your house today, I am joining my brother Omokhodion in the Action Congress.”
Okhini said his decision to join the AC was hinged on the fact that the governor has good programmes to develop the state.
Oshiomhole said democracy derives its appeal from popular participation, stressing that in Nigeria, “politicians impose the culture of dictatorship but God has used some of us to dismiss the old order.”
He re-echoed that the regime of a one-man dictatorship has been finally dismantled in the South-South state, stressing that only the people can determine who rules them.
“Godfatherism is gone forever in Edo State,” he said.
The governor posited that the struggle for genuine democracy “is about the people and about the younger ones.”