Former Special Adviser to immediate past Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, Hon. Charles Idahosa has stressed that people of the South East do not deserve the equal share of democratic dividends they are demanding from the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government.
Idahosa made the comment while wondering why the region which did not vote for the All Progressives Congress, APC, should demand equal treatment with other regions which voted for Buhari in 2015.
Speaking with Vanguard, the APC Chieftain said, “Politics is a game of numbers; politics means the sharing of the dividends of democracy. The constitution has taken care of restructuring because every state has a minister in the federal cabinet.
“Each local government must have a commissioner at the state level; so, there is proper representation at all levels. If you people need restructuring, because I heard people complain about how appointments are shared, how do you expect the APC to give equal Boards appointments to the South-East that voted 90 per cent for the PDP (at the last presidential election)?
“Do you expect the President to compensate those who did not vote for him? Is that one done anywhere in a democracy?
“My late friend Gaddafi (Samson Ekhabafe), who was then Attorney General in Edo State, once explained something like this to us in 2003 in an exco meeting. Governor Lucky Igbinedion was presiding when information came to us that there was a protest at the Government House gates.
“So, Igbinedion asked the deputy governor, Ogiadomhe, to go and find out what was amiss and when he (Oghiadohme) came back, he said some people from Akoko-Edo were protesting because their king had been deposed and detained for the past one month. And Lucky (Igbinedion) did not even know.
“So, he turned to Gaddafi, who was from that area, and asked him what happened. And Gaddafi said he personally dethroned the traditional ruler because he worked against the PDP in an election then. Lucky was angry and asked why he (Ekhabafe) did not inform him before doing a thing like that.
“But, surprisingly, Gaddafi said he did not know he was supposed to tell the governor. Lucky said he could not do that and ordered that the man should be re-instated. I will never forget that statement from Gaddafi. In a nutshell, I think people are not following what the constitution says.
“The South-East did not vote for the APC; so, you don’t expect them to get what others who voted for the APC are getting.”
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