The politics of Edo State Governorship contestation have been very intriguing since the return to civil rule in 1999. Very curiously however, the 2024 Edo State Governorship Election appears the simplest and the most predictable. Not in anyway denigrating the league of other contestants for the high office of Governor of Edo State, what is largely before us is a Three-horse race.

We have Monday Okpebholo, the candidate of the All Progressive Congress APC, the Ruling Party at the Centre. We have Olumide Akpata, the candidate of the Labour Party LP. And we have Asue Ighodalo A.I, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, the Ruling Party in Edo State. The trio are predictable in so many ways having shown unique tendencies, and their uniqueness makes the choice before the Edo People an easy one come September 21, 2024.

As the Edo People go to the Polls to elect a successor to Governor Godwin Obaseki on the 21st of September, 2024, barely a month and one week from today, they are faced with three major candidates amongst others, and the next Governor of Edo State will most likely emerge from this class of three.

One is very mute and unable to articulate his plans and vision for the State. Another has pretty dance steps and lovely jingles but less and thin on policy programmatic, and appears distant regarding his understanding of the Edo challenge. And the third is clear on policy, on programs and on his vision for Edo State. This position is as true and as firm as the Himalayas.

Monday Okpebholo is mute, he hardly and scarcely speaks to the issues others canvass on his behalf. Senator Adams Oshiomole goes about Mute Monday’s campaign as though he is the candidate. It will be impossible for Edo People to hold Monday Okpebholo to anything should he become Governor because he has not made commitments or spoken to anything. And the Edo Voter has proven over the years to be open minded, inquisitive, logical and beyond the coercive inveigle of perceived Godfathers. So Mute Monday is basically not an issue, he is a nonstarter and his candidacy is perhaps the worst mistake of the APC.

He released a manifesto very late in the day because he perhaps was unable to grapple with the necessity of putting out a manifesto. And when he made one available, it became a poorly doctored version of Pastor Ize-Iyamu’s 2020 Manifesto. Monday Okpebholo is very manifestly unprepared for the high office of Governor of Edo State, and it does look like Adams Oshiomole is attempting to return as helmsman over Osadebe House with Mute Monday as surrogate Governor.

Monday Okpebholo is in many ways a no no to the Edo Voter. Not only has he not made commitments to the Edo People, he lacks proper grasp of the manifesto that he says will guide him should he become Governor, and he runs a campaign that has made Godwin Obaseki rather than the future of Edo State the issue. His sail to Osadebe House is rudderless, so not choosing and electing not to Vote him for Governor is indeed a simple one.

Barrister Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party has great and nice sounding jingles that he dances very well to. He was not an Obidient, yes, the only thing he did for Peter Obi during the 2022/2023 electoral contestation was to invite him to address the Nigeria Bar Association NBA Conference, like he did Bola Tinubu (who was represented by Shettima), and Atiku. He joined the Labour Party to reap the fervour and the monentum of the Obidient Movement, but beyond the jingles and his dance, Olumide has not come to the campaign with issues, policies and programmatic.

Dancing Olu D, yes dancing Olumide is probably the last of the leading three candidates to present his manifesto to the Edo People. His politics has been about what the PDP and Governor Godwin Obaseki didn’t do right, and little, very little about what he will do. It has been about PDP bashing and very little about his manifesto. And when he bothers to say what he thinks he can do, he never tells the people how and where he intends to raise the resources to achieve them. He comes across as an excited young man who intends to learn on the job but the sophisticated Edo Voter wants more than that. The Edo Voter is more interested in the future of the State than Obaseki bashing, and that’s how and where Dancing Olumide lost it.

The third person and apparently the Choice of the Edo People is Astute Asue Ighodalo, fondly called A.I not the now famous Artificial Intelligence but called by his initials. He was the first of the leading three candidates to present his manifesto called PROSPERITY FOR ALL to the Edo Electorate. In it he set out his vision for an Edo State that works for all. He articulated his programs, policies and programmatic, and tells how he intends to achieve them.

He has consulted with the largest number of Edolites at home and in the Diaspora knowing that the challenge before the Edo People and the State is about forging a united Edo that works for the good and benefit of all. He has pledged to bring his wealth of knowledge and experience to bear in taking Edo State to a new level of progress and prosperity. And he means every bit of it.

Astute Asue Ighodalo is not a rookie, of the leading three candidates running for the high office of Governor of Edo State he has the most boisterous CV and the most illustrious resume’. He has been Chairman of several Blue Chip Companies, and the Chairman of a successful Bank. He runs one of the most successful Law Practice in Nigeria, one that ranks amongst the best 3 Commercial Law Firms in the country. He knows how and where to raise the funds to fulfill and make real the promises of his manifesto. He knows how to improve the Internally Generated Revenue IGI of Edo State without stressing the people. He knows what to do and how to do it, little wonder the cliche and mantra of his campaign ASUE/OGIE GO DO AM. With A.I in the saddle as the next Governor of Edo State, a New Edo State is manifestly possible.

If you want to know more about why and how the choice of A.I is an easy and simple one, please google search his manifesto and see what future he promises Edo State, and see his well articulated pathway to PROSPERITY FOR ALL EDO PEOPLE. ‘Asue Ighodalo na the man wey sabi’, he has said that he wants to make Edo State the envy of all and he means it. I believe him, and so do the Edo People. Edo Voters are in unison in the fact that not only does the Asue Ighodalo candidacy meet the quest for Justice, Equity and Fairness in Edo State, that Asue Ighodalo is the most qualified, the most competent, the most capable, and the most credible of the three leading candidates seeking to occupy Osadebe House as Governor of Edo State come September 21, 2024, and A.I is the choice they have made.

May God Bless Edo State, and grant the Edo People the candour and competency to pull through with the choice of Asue Ighodalo; to thumbprint the PDP his Party; and to defend that choice come September 21, 2024.

Prof Chris Mustapha Nwaokobia Jnr. Convener COUNTRYFIRST MOVEMENT, a Good Governance Advocacy Group.