By Osehobo Ofure
To be great is to be misunderstood’—Ralph Waldo Emerson.
A few weeks ago the Edo state government did what only a government like the one presently running the state can do. Governor Godwin Obaseki revoked over 18 hectres of farmland belonging to Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu. There was no excuse for the faux pax. And this week it was a sponsored tuke-tuke driver who alleged that after endorsing Ize-Iyamu ahead of the 2020 governorship election, he promised to support his union with N200million, but the promise was yet to be fulfilled.
He also said all was not well with the APC in Edo State, as Ize-Iyamu was a self-centred politician, who assumed leadership position for selfish reason, thereby using and dumping people.
The revocation of Ize-Iyamu’s land and the weird allegation, coming close to a year after the Edo state governorship elections, is interesting and that is because Pastor Ize-Iyamu is an invigorating conundrum that the politicians who campaigned to Make Edo Great Again find as a hard row to hoe.
Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu is a riddle. Despite his being misunderstood by these fickle minded reactionaries, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu’s greatness continues to soar, limitlessly. The reality- this preacher, politician and philanthropist continues to wax stronger within Edo state’s political firmament. Expectedly so, this is because he remains an astute political strategist and an unfaltering torchbearer of true progressive politics.
Without sounding immodest, the reality today is that he remains the issue in the politics of Edo state. At a point in the history of this state, the late sage, Pa Tony Anenih, was the issue. Even while the great man was around, students of politics in the heartbeat of Nigeria will say that Ize-Iyamu was the issue.
Most politicians in the state dread the Ize-Iyamu political brand name whether in the urban or grassroots setting, during election and even long after elections are over. For those that show contempt for the brand name, they search for falsehood and fabricated half truths to try and stain him. For sure, Ize-Iyamu has become such a significant issue in the Edo state political firmament that a mere mention of his name amongst friends and even political foes sends a soul riveting impact.
Yet Ize-Iyamu’s foray into politics is not for personal gain but the political emancipation of his people from the yoke of democratic tyranny and bad governance like the one currently in Benin City, where the PDP is supposedly in government. The political ignoramuses might deride him; the grovelers of progress and the reactionaries in our midst are used to impugning his character, but that is the man still standing like the rock of Gibraltar. Ize-Iyamu has the uncanny power of political liberation; he is imbued with an unusual sagaciouness, being a shrewd native with vast street sense and public service experience. This man of indefinable propensity for building bridges has this creepy nerve for discerning good friends. He has this gift of seeing greatness in others when such people never give greatness a thought and guiding them to enviable heights. This is his fault.
The man prefer to go about life quietly, doing what he knows best, sowing seeds of love and harmony and promoting happiness for all who choose to follow the gospel of Jesus Christ; but many people prefer to drag his name into their dirty schemes and even criticise him, out of sheer envy of his result oriented political track record. Yet others do simply because they cannot in their lifetime rival his steadfast commitment to finding solutions to political and other challenges facing his state of origin.
Ize-Iyamu thinks Edo dreams Edo; he lives Edo and sleeps Edo. But the reactionaries, out of steep spite of his large-heart and enormous goodwill, will query his source of strength. And simply because the man is doing what they cannot ever do or are not privileged to do since they are not in a position to do it, they harbour the ache in their bellies.
There are empirical examples of Edo people, that have benefited immensely from Ize-Iyamu’s large-heartedness. But sadly, these same people still hypocritically relish speaking ill of him or futilely try to bring him down. In the past or now, they has failed and even in the future, their evil plots against him will fail. Surprisingly, Ize-Iyamu does not begrudge such backstabbers back. Most of us see this as a weakness but he sees that to be one sacrifice of greatness that he must pay.
Ize-Iyamu is indeed and always politically determined to succeed. And it is this uncommon determination to politically liberate the masses from the yoke of reactionary politics that compelled him to stay in politics. His often-talked-about political superiority complex does not mean haughtiness, although it might appear to be so in the eyes of the mischievous among politicians and political watchers who want to see it so.
Ize-Iyamu feels a higher esteem over the obstacles he desires to surmount and he is blessed with the rare courage of overcoming them, with enough energy reserved for any eventuality. The blind can never see this.