Nobody disappears quite like a Nigerian ex-governors. One day, they’re at the ribbon-cutting dais; the next, they’re in transit spiritually, politically, or just literally.
Godwin Obaseki chose the last. Nearly a year since leaving Edo State’s top job, he’s been spotted nowhere near Benin City. And that, his allies insist, is precisely the point.
They say he’s not hiding. He’s hibernating, a self-imposed exile designed to give his successor, Governor Monday Okpebholo, the space to breathe. Obaseki, they explain, left Edo just before handing over on November 12, 2024, and hasn’t returned since. He’s now on a fellowship abroad, studying and reflecting, with no political ambitions in sight.
His former aide, Chris Nehikhare, paints the absence as a courtesy, not an escape. “His presence would make Okpebholo uncomfortable,” he told reporters. “Edo people would judge the new government daily against Obaseki’s record.” That record, Nehikhare insists, includes more than a thousand kilometres of roads and a clutch of institutional reforms.
Still, the timing invites speculation. The state government has just ordered Obaseki’s one-time deputy, Marvellous Omobayo, to return official assets or face arrest, a move some read as part of a broader reckoning with the last administration. Meanwhile, whispers about possible EFCC interest hang in the air, despite denials.
The PDP, Obaseki’s party, calls the talk petty. “If the EFCC wants him, they can write,” Nehikhare said again. “He will answer.” What bothers them more, they say, is the “obsession” of the Okpebholo government with its predecessor. “They can’t stop looking back,” another spokesman added, “it’s the Obaseki Derailment Syndrome.”
Perhaps Obaseki’s silence is a strategy. By retreating, he feeds his mystique, letting friends defend him while critics search for him.
Or maybe he’s just tired after eight years of fighting his own party, his deputy, and the politics of potholes. Whatever the reason, the former governor’s invisibility has become his latest act of control: ruling the conversation by leaving it.
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