By Saintmoses Eromosele (SME)
The current noise surrounding the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) has taken a strange turn — one that exposes more than it conceals. The loudest voices defending the project today are neither trustees of MOWAA nor serving officials of the Edo State Government.
They are former aides, former commissioners, and former media handlers of ex-Governor Godwin Obaseki — men and women who no longer hold any official mandate, yet speak as though MOWAA were their private estate.
This is precisely why Edo people are asking: what are they jittery about? If MOWAA is indeed a transparent, public-spirited, non-profit cultural trust as they claim, why are its real trustees silent while political retirees run paid campaigns to sanitize it?
Why should Obaseki’s old team act as the mouthpiece of an institution supposedly independent and community-owned?
There’s an unmistakable pattern here — the same circle that controlled Edo State finances, contracts, and communications is now suddenly “clarifying” MOWAA’s ownership, structure, and intent.
Yet, none of them can show a single official document detailing who approved the demolition of the Central Hospital, who authorized the ₦3.8 billion “donation,” or who signed off the land to a private foundation.
Edo people are not fools. We can see through the coordinated media defense, the selective storytelling, and the sudden activism by those who once governed in opacity.
If MOWAA is clean, then let it stand the test of legislative scrutiny. Let the trustees come forward. Let the books be opened.
Until that happens, the question remains:
If Obaseki is no longer Governor, why are his men still defending MOWAA like it’s his private company?
What are they hiding — and why are they afraid of the truth?
Saintmoses Eromosele (SME) writes from his Cassava farm in Ewu
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