TheCable

Adams Oshiomhole, governor-elect of Edo state, says Godwin Obaseki, the governor-elect, can only disappoint the state and not him because he is an individual among four million people.

Speaking with journalists on Monday at the state house, Oshiomhole said conflict arises only when one refuses to accept that his or her tenure is over.

He said one of the reasons he was in the Aso Rock villa was to invite President Muhammadu Buhari to visit Edo state to commission some projects.

“That is very important, if you say he will disappoint me. I am not the state; I am only one out of about four million Edo people. So his obligation and his loyalty should be to the people of Edo state,” Oshiomhole said.

“The oath of office he is going to subscribe to says that he will defend the constitution of Nigeria,  he will do everything to uplift the quality of life of Edo people. Nothing in his oath office will include ‘I shall not betray my predecessor’, because I have no interest to be betrayed.

“For me, I have presided over Nigeria Labour Congress for eight years and I had a successor; there was no story of me having conflict with my predecessor, because conflict only arise when you refuse to accept that when your tenure is over, it is over.

“As for the campaign, and this is the problem, the media picks the negatives from the mouth of those who are the least competent. That I campaigned for him, I was this, I was that.

“That is the way it should be. Look at what is going on in the US, is Obama not vigorously campaigning for Clinton? Is Obama’s wife, the First Lady of US, not as vigorous perhaps much more than Bill Clinton?

“But these are skills I acquire from short floor, which they will never acquire. I am a product of struggle as a result of my many years of being exploited fighting the oppressors. I deployed those skills and I defeated them. At a point they said I should allow the man to talk, did the electorate complain?”

He added that PDP lost because it could not convince the electorate of its legacy while in power in power in the state.

“We did not rig the poll, else we would not have allowed our party chairman to lose his unit,” he said.