By SAINTMOSES EROMOSELE (SME)
‘Pastor’ Crusoe Osagie’s latest intervention is disturbing not because it ventures into criticism — criticism is the marrow of any healthy democracy — but because it descends into the most reckless and dangerous register of political speech: the crude weaponisation of ethnicity to shield a collapsing legacy. What the Pastor offered the public was not counsel, not clarity, not truth, but a tragic sermon steeped in ethnic bigotry, crafted with the desperation of a man seeking relevance before a master whose era ended long before he was willing to acknowledge it.
At a moment when Edo State is slowly stitching itself back together — healing old wounds, rebuilding broken institutions, restoring public trust under Governor Monday Okpebholo — Crusoe chooses instead to fan embers of hatred, summoning quarrels where reconciliation is emerging. He claims, astonishingly, that probing Radisson Hotel and other questionable projects is an “economic war against the Benin people,” a proposition that collapses under the faintest scrutiny. Radisson is a foreign multinational, its staff drawn from every corner of Edo. Calling an audit “ethnic warfare” is not merely dishonest; it is inflammatory. A government that refuses to examine suspicious transactions is not a government but an accomplice. Edo’s revenue belongs to Edo people, not to the private circle of Mr. Godwin Obaseki.
Crusoe’s sudden tribal consciousness is even more tragic when weighed against the silence he maintained while his master presided over the dismantling of Edo South’s own institutions. The College of Agriculture, Iguoriakhi — shut down, staff dismissed, families ruined. The College of Education, Ekiadolor — forced into darkness, workers chased out without pay. The Institute of Continuing Education — the very place Obaseki leaned on to cure a WAEC deficiency where he failed Maths and English, managing only three credits — left to rot. Yet it is Governor Okpebholo from Edo Central who is reopening, reviving, and restoring these institutions in Edo South. If Crusoe truly speaks for Benin interests, where was he when these pillars were strangulated? Where was this sudden thunder of ethnic outrage when Obaseki inflicted the worst structural damage on Edo South in forty years?
Facts matter. Okpebholo has paid salaries Obaseki denied. He has reopened abandoned institutions. He has tarred the road to Obaseki’s own village — a courtesy Obaseki never extended to others. And he is building across all three senatorial zones, without propaganda, without drum-beating, without the poisonous language Crusoe now deploys so casually. His two largest projects — major flyovers — stand in Benin City, Edo South, the very region Crusoe abandoned alongside his master. To call such a governor “anti-Benin” is not criticism. It is malicious deception. It is pitiable.
But perhaps the deepest tragedy lies in the Pastor himself. Scripture instructs a Pastor to be blameless (1 Timothy 3:2), not violent, not quarrelsome (2 Timothy 2:24), and a lover of good men (Titus 1:8). Yet Crusoe crafted an article expressly designed to stir bitterness, suspicion, and inter-ethnic resentment. It is now a familiar pattern among many of Obaseki’s displaced aides — fanning hostility between Benins and the Oba, between Benins and Esan, even within the PDP itself. It is a sad spectacle orchestrated by one who governed for eight years but seems unable to accept the finality of his exit. They all deserve sympathy — and prayers for a return to sanity.
This is not pastoral leadership. This is political thuggery in cassock, a moral banditry dressed up as homily. Had Crusoe read the Bible passages he quotes with such theatrical zeal, he would have remembered: “He that soweth discord among brethren is an abomination.” (Proverbs 6:19). His pen was not guided by Scripture but by the bitterness of a man still licking the wounds of a season that has passed him by.
Crusoe’s article was not written to defend Edo South. It was written to defend Obaseki. But Edo people have matured beyond such tactics. They know the difference between audit and hatred, reform and revenge, governance and propaganda. They will no longer permit failed leaders to hide behind ethnic curtains while the state suffers.
Across Edo South today, there is praise for the restoration of Central Hospital functions, the reconstruction of Oba Market, the flyovers rising in Benin City, the rehabilitation of roads abandoned for years, the historic recruitment of teachers, the bursaries for students and traders, the political stability, the peace with traditional institutions, and the unprecedented respect shown to the Oba of Benin and all traditional stools. This is what governance looks like — not eight years of Photoshop, PowerPoint, and propaganda.
Edo people will not follow anyone — Pastor or politician — into the valley of ethnic hatred. They have seen enough destruction. And they have glimpsed what renewal looks like under a governor working with humility, competence, and compassion.
If Crusoe’s calling is truly pastoral, he must abandon the trade of stoking ethnic fears, resurrecting tribal narratives, and preaching division from the pulpit of politics. Peace is greater than propaganda. Truth is stronger than ethnic baiting. And Edo’s unity is vastly larger than the frustrations of one former media aide still living in the shadow of a fallen emperor.
May reason return to him.
May peace steady his hand.
And may Edo never again be dragged toward the precipice of tribal discord under the guise of a sermon.
Saintmoses Eromosele (SME) writes from his Cassava farm in Ewu
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