By Dan Osa-Ogbegie Esq.
There comes a time in a people’s history when farce begins to wear the robe of tragedy. That moment arrived in Edo State the day Jarret Tenebe and Governor Monday Okpebholo mounted a rented stage to announce, with the blithe confidence of jesters, that they would deliver 3.5 million votes to the President in 2027, in a state whose entire voters’ register barely scratches 2.7 million.
What mathematics of deceit is this? What arithmetic of delusion makes men mistake noise for numbers? Edo watched in disbelief as the supposed custodians of the ruling party and the state transformed governance into a carnival of mediocrity — dancing around false statistics as though governance were a street fair and not a sacred trust.
Instead of confronting the aching realities that define Edo today — joblessness, insecurity, urban decay, abandoned hospitals, and a civil service gasping for reform — Okpebholo has chosen to preside over rallies of distraction. While markets collapse, schools decay, and roads rot, his administration tours podiums proclaiming an “empowerment” that begins and ends in the echo of microphones.
The so-called City Boy Empowerment is neither a policy nor a programme. It is an extension of the All Progressives Congress (APC’s) habitual political shenanigans — drama staged for the amusement of those too timid to demand substance. They share handshakes, not opportunities; they distribute caps and slogans, not tools and skills. Edo’s proud youths deserve enterprise incubators, not hollow rhetoric. They deserve leadership, not theatre.
Then came the self-styled Emperor and Khalifa, Jarret Tenebe, APC acting chairman and self-appointed town crier, thundering about 3.5 million votes as if Edo were a conquered province and its citizens mere figures in his daydream. One wonders whether he has ever opened the register of the Independent National Electoral Commission. Or perhaps, like all propagandists, he prefers fiction to fact. His speech was a study in intellectual poverty, a tragic advertisement for how low our public discourse has sunk under the APC.
Edo is not a playground for jesters. This is the land of Anthony Enahoro, who moved the motion for Nigeria’s independence; of Samuel Ogbemudia, who built with vision and courage; of MCK Orbih, Tony Anenih, Ambrose Alli, and Humphrey Omo-Osagie — men who thought, planned, and served. They are now celestial witnesses to our shame, watching as their beloved Edo is exposed for mockery by clowns masquerading as statesmen.
How does one explain to these giants that the Edo of 2025 is led by men who mistake political choreography for development? That their successor on Osadebe Avenue measures progress by the decibel of applause, not by the depth of reform?
Monday Okpebholo’s government has become a drifting canoe, steered by those who cannot read a compass. While inflation crushes households and insecurity stalks the hinterlands, the governor’s calendar is crowded with rallies and receptions. He governs by photo-ops and congratulatory banners. In place of vision, we see vanity. In place of plans, we hear promises measured in millions of imaginary votes.
The real insult is not merely to statistics but to intelligence itself. To claim you can harvest 3.5 million votes from fewer than 2.7 million registered voters is to declare war on arithmetic, to spit in the face of reason. No serious polity would entrust its destiny to men so cavalier with facts and so allergic to truth.
Since Edo was created, never has the total votes cast exceeded 600,000. How, then, do they intend to perform this magic? What a joke indeed.
Edo must rise and reclaim her dignity. The time has come to restore seriousness to governance and truth to politics. We must remind these accidental caretakers that power is not theatre, and leadership is not noise. The President may be indulgent, but he is not naïve; he will not be deceived by the exaggerated choreography of praise-singers who cannot manage a ward, let alone a state.
Let Tenebe continue his comic rehearsals; let Okpebholo tour the state with his dance troupe. Edo knows the difference between spectacle and substance, between leadership and loudness. The future belongs to those who think, not those who shout.
Dan Osa-Ogbegie Esq.
Publicity Secretary, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Edo State
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