Change is the pervasive feeling in the Edo State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), after what has already been conceded as an emphatic loss to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Saturday’s governorship election in Edo State.
And the first beneficiary of that change, THEWILL can confirm, is Chief Mike Oghiadhome, chief of staff to President Goodluck Jonathan, who is being stationed to emerge as the new leader of the party in the central southern state.
Oghiadhome, an indigene of Edo North — same Senatorial zone as due-to-be-returned Governor Adams Oshiomhole — is a two-time deputy governor of the state whose experience of state politics the PDP would be banking on to upend the ACN in 2016.
His emergence is likely to bring down the curtain on state leadership career of Chief Tony Anenih, who has earned himself the epithet, Mr. Fix It, in PDP circles but has failed to fix the party to the state’s seat of power at the second consecutive time of asking.
The former chairman of the ruling party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) lost his constituency, Uzenema-Arue, Uromi, in Esan North East Local Government Area, hitherto considered a PDP bastion, to the ACN by 1004 votes to ACN’s 3,480 votes.
Most harrowingly, governorship candidate of the PDP, Retired General Charles Airhiarvbere also lost his ward, Garrick Memorial School, Oredo, to the ACN, scoring 33 votes against ACN’s 270 in Unit 21, 38 votes to ACN’s 360, 32 votes to ACN’s 254 in Unit 19, and 65 votes to ACN’s 351 in Unit 18. Summarily, Airhiarvbere scored 168 votes in his ward while ACN recorded a whopping 1,275 votes.
According to a presidency source, Anenih has, by the humiliating result of Saturday’s election, lost his leadership position to Ogiadomhe, who is seen as more charismatic, dynamic and likeable.
“I think we have seen the last of Anenih,” the source told THEWILL. “He has been defeated yet again in his ward. What this means is that he has lost his leadership position with the PDP in Edo and even at the national level to a more dynamic and charismatic leader like Ogiadomhe who has continued to win his ward.”
He lamented PDP’s heavy reliance on Anenih to wrestle the state from the grip of ACN, which eventually backfired, adding that although Anenih has played frontline roles in reconciliations at the party’s national stage, Saturday’s unexpectedly resounding loss marked the end of his Edo PDP reign.
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