In the last round of one-on-one exchanges between the two leading candidates in Saturday’s Edo State governorship election, Governor Godwin Obaseki faced APC’s Osagie Ize-Iyamu in a televised debate.
The debate organised by ChannelsTV saw the rivals slug over the funding history of past elections in the state, accusing each other of using state resources to corner political gains.
They also touched on why they became the candidates of the parties each opposed in the election four years ago, with Mr Obaseki saying he left the APC due to the godfatherism tendencies in the party and Mr Ize-Iyamu saying he is a foundation member of the APC so he only came back home.
Mr Ize-Iyamu would challenge his opponent to show evidence that he was qualified to be admitted to the University of Ibadan in 1976, having been disqualified on the same ground from contesting the APC primaries in June.
Mr Obaseki stood his ground on the issue, and both would later sign a peace pact and pledge to play by the books.
As the election set off on Saturday, residents had expressed mixed feelings ranging from hope to fear to apathy. In the mix of that, the PDP raised concerns saying some of its state governors in Edo to monitor the election were being hounded by security officials, a phalanx of whom were deployed to the state.
Eventually on Sunday, Mr Obaseki won reelection and has been congratulated by President Buhari, residents, as well as other stakeholders. While the outcome has been rejected by APC campaign council, some residents believe it is a defeat of the godfatherism tendency in the state.
Meanwhile, in the latest of his series of outburst on the state of the nation, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo said Nigeria was fast becoming a failed state, something he attributed to the inept leadership of the current administration.
The presidency fired back. Presidential publicist, Garba Shehu, said Mr Obasanjo acted unstatesmanlike, calling the latter the “Divider-in-Chief.”
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