Former deputy governor of Edo State, Comrade Philip Shaibu, an accountant turned politician, has built himself into a big political brand, graduating from students’ union president, Majority Leader State House of Assembly, member House of Representatives, to becoming the second citizen in Edo.

Speaking to Sunday Sun in Abuja, Shaibu reflected on the rough roads he passed through deputising his boss, former governor Godwin Obaseki, describing him as a wicked man, he is still deeply hurt by the treatment meted to him by the former governor.

He also dismissed the duo of Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi posing any form of threat to the re-election of President Bola Tinubu, just as he attributed Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda replacing Abdulahi Umar Ganduje as National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as an attempt to make the ruling party as a youth-driven party.

Have you forgiven Obaseki?

Obaseki has not asked for forgiveness, and we will cross that bridge if he does then. So, it is only when someone admits that he has done something wrong and seeks forgiveness that they can be forgiven.

Even the Holy Bible tells us to seek forgiveness from God if we have forgiven those who offended us. But the offender must be the one to seek forgiveness first before he can be forgiven. If Obaseki realises that he offended me and seeks forgiveness, I will forgive him.

Are you still very hurt over the way he treated you?

Honestly, I am still very hurt about what Obaseki did to me, but it is not to the extent that I will not forgive because of my Christian background. If I consider the human perspective, it will be very difficult. He needs to admit that he has done something very wrong to me.

He also needs to purge himself of wickedness because he is really a very wicked person. He needs to purge himself of it, not for my sake but for further engagement that he may have with people. He needs to be human, have human feelings, and change from his very bad upbringing.

What I see in him is a child with a very terrible and disturbing upbringing, to the extent that it made him grow up to be too wicked. His childhood upbringing toughened him to become a wicked person, and I can confirm that he is a wicked person.

However, because we don’t want wicked men in society, I will be happy if God can touch his heart to realise that he has to repent from his wickedness and become a man with human feelings, so that he will not hurt other people.

He did a lot of damage, especially in his second term, which made people tend to re-evaluate any person who wants to seek a second term in office. His transformation and attitude in the second term completely showed the kind of person he really is.

The Obaseki of his first tenure is entirely different from the Obaseki of his second term. He gave me a different perspective on how I should see human beings. As a trusting person, I always go the extra mile to stand with the person I trust.

I saw Obaseki as someone genuinely coming for transformation, and that was why I sacrificed a lot of things for that transformation. Anybody, regardless of where he is coming from, who is interested in transformation, does not need to preach to me.

I was one of those who inhaled teargas, suffered, and were brutalised with scars on my body to have this democracy today. So, anybody who will derail this democracy is not my friend.

What will you tell those who think that you are hurt because what happened truncated your political future?

No, It is not true that my political future is truncated. Yes, I wanted to be governor in 2024, but God said it was not my turn to be governor of Edo State, and that is why it didn’t work out, not because of Obaseki. If God wanted me to be the governor, I would have been, despite all the nonsense Obaseki did.

But I think my eventual conclusion was that there was another person that God had given the grace to be the governor of Edo State in 2024, and that person is Monday Okpebholo.

He did not invest or go to the extent we did in terms of preparation to be the governor, but because God gave him the grace to be the governor, some of us who were even well prepared had to take everything we had worked for, to take that position and hand it over to him, and by the grace of God, he won.

It was not the fight with Obaseki that truncated my governorship ambition. It was not just my turn to be governor because 200 Obasekis cannot really make me governor or stop me from being governor. It is only God who can make me or not make me the governor.

For me, God has always guided my footsteps. If you follow my political history from school, it is God who made it possible for me to get to the apex of student unionism in Nigeria, becoming the number one student in the country. I became a member of the Edo State House of Assembly and the first to break the jinx of back-to-back Majority Leader.

I spent eight years there. God made it possible. He also ensured that I became a member of the House of Representatives, Deputy Governor for eight years, even when Obaseki attempted to truncate it in the second term.

I am the first deputy governor in the history of Nigeria who was purportedly impeached and reinstated within three months. Those are the kind of things that God does in the life of his child. As far as I am concerned, Obaseki never truncated my political future.

What are you missing most out of Government House since you left?

I am still in government, and I am not missing anything out of the Government House because I worked there using my own personal resources, using my own already established structure to work for the government

I did not stay in Government House for eight years. I stayed in my private house for eight years because the Deputy Governor’s office was not befitting of that office.

When I saw the amount of money needed to renovate the Deputy Governor’s lodge to make it habitable for me, I opted to stay in my house so that the money could be used to do roads and build schools. I sacrificed by staying in my house for eight years. No furniture allowance for eight years.

I was not paid as expected and when due, as they normally pay appointees and elected officials. I was not paid a lot of entitlements for eight years. I didn’t have official vehicles, other entitlements like transportation, or foreign trips.

These are things in court now. The government did not pay up to 20 per cent of them. As far as missing anything is concerned, I can tell you that the only thing I missed is the trouble with Obaseki.

Does it worry you that Nigeria is becoming a one-party state, the way your party, APC, is poaching and spending money to entice the governors?

It is not true that anybody is spending money to entice anybody. You cannot have an Asiwaju as president of Nigeria and think his own party will struggle. He is a colossus and a man to study when it comes to politics.

Don’t forget that he was the only governor in the opposition party who survived under former president Olusegun Obasanjo. We all saw the fight, the struggle, and how PDP swept the entire country, and the entire South West would have become PDP if not for the man who understands politics and dares to stand against Obasanjo.

Lagos was deprived of funding. The local government was not funded, yet he turned the economy around. He didn’t even need federal government funds to get the state working. You can’t have such a man as president of Nigeria and think other people will still be roaming the streets in another party.

Nigeria is not becoming a one-party state. APC is just growing larger and larger every day. PDP is not dead. We have many other political parties, including the one that came up recently, the ADC. There are many others seeking registration themselves.

There are a lot of political parties that made it wrong for anybody to think that the country is turning into a one-party state. It is just that there is a one mega party courtesy of Bola Tinubu, Renewed Hope Agenda and his political wizardry.

With the mega nature of the party the APC has become, will it be right to conclude that the 2027 presidential election is already won and lost?

You saw recently how we were able to transit from one national chairman to another, bringing in a young, dynamic, and vibrant man to pilot the affairs of the party. Let me tell you, the implication of that is that APC will now be the youth party of Nigeria.

The new chairman will galvanize all the young men and women into the APC. There are a lot of things I do not want to say publicly, but I can tell you that APC is the party for Nigerians to be.

Is the party planning to retire the old politicians?

No, no, no, no, we need the experience of the old politicians for the young men not to make mistakes. If there are no old men in a system, then it will fail becausee the children taking charge will never be able to do what is right and positive without the experience of those old men.

There will be a lack of guidance. Let me say that we, the youths, seriously need the old men around for the experience they have gathered to be able to guide us, because if we make a mistake, it can collapse the system. We don’t need to make those mistakes that will collapse the system. That is why we need the elderly around.

The point I am making is that with the young, vibrant chairman now, it appeals to the younger ones to join the party more. We are going to be seeing an influx of younger people into the APC than we have had before. That is another Asiwaju political strategy and school that must be visited.

What are your fears for the 2027 presidential election?

I don’t have any iota of fear. Asiwaju is the president of Nigeria now; he will be re-elected the president, by the grace of God, in 2027 to stay until 2031. Yes, we need him, not only for the politics, but to conclude the solid foundation he is laying.

The foundation of our country was shaking, and this man is here to stabilise it. Do you know what he brought on board that his predecessors didn’t have? I was one of the Buhari guys when he contested. May he rest in peace. It was so because of what he did as a military general.

I saw courage. I saw a strong will. That is what I have also seen in President Tinubu. He has the political will and the courage. He showed it with his statement when he was sworn In by announcing that the fuel subsidy is gone. It takes not just a political will, courage, and what we need in the country now.0p

The African continent needs leaders with strong political will and courage. The problem with Africa is the leaders who do not have the political will and courage. African leaders should be stubbornly solid to drive the process, because we are people who challenge anything, even if it is something good.

Your confidence Is showing that you are already dismissive of Atiku and Obi, as no longer threats to Tinubu in 2027?

They are no threat to President Tinubu’s re-election, including those forming a coalition. We just held the Anambra governorship election, and saw what happened there, just like other off-season elections. The electoral process worked in Anambra.

The election Is very interesting because an average Anambra person does not see only the governor contesting. They see an image of Odumegwu Ojukwu. APGA is their party. The majority of the rural people are voting for the late leader, Odumegwu Ojugwu.

They voted for him, while others voted for the governor. When you combine the governor and Ojukwu’s vote, APGA will always win Anambra State, unless the governor performs woefully, and that is the only way that APGA will not win Anambra. I believe Ban on opportunity

You can see that our electoral system is working, and I congratulate the governor and our candidates because the electoral system is working as it is going to work in 2027. Asiwaju will win even in Anambra, and I can tell you that for free.

Will you still contest for governorship race again?

We have a new governor, Okpebholo, and as a product of his second term, my prayer for him is to continue with the way he started. And by grace of God, to not only get a second term ticket but to even do better.

He will not get a second term and do less like Obeseki. I am a product and a firm believer of the second term. I am somebody who can go to any length to support a second term for any governor who is doing well.

I don’t believe that four years is sufficient for any governor to conclude his programme. When Okpebholo won, automatically, in my heart, I started preparing for a second term for him, and my prayer for him is to succeed and end well.

Are you aware that the glorious pictures you painted about this government is entirely different from the feelings of the masses three years into the life of this administration?

I am not sure we have the same statistics. Are you aware that the costs of foodstuffs in the market have come down drastically? The amount of money you took to the market to buy a small quantity of food, then will buy more today. But it is not something that is celebrated.

Asiwaju is not just that kind of leader who blows his trumpet. He is a silent worker, determined to achieve the target he has set to achieve. A leader is somebody who does not lament but looks for solutions.

A leader is the man who goes into a reform, which may be difficult and attract abuses, but stands firm, knowing that tomorrow will be better for those who are shouting. That is the leader we are looking at.

I can tell you that before the end of the first quarter next year, we will see the economic indices adding up for people to start feeling it positively. Things are more difficult last year than this year, and by next year it would be better because there is a steady growth in the economy.

That growth is what will translate into wealth for our people, and I can bet that between the first quarter of next year to second quarter, we will see great improvement in the life of our people.

The prices of things, especially food, would continue to drop and will never increase again under the Asiwaju-led administration. It will be going down because the key is for us to be able to eat and have a place to sleep.

What is your take on the northern hostility against President Tinubu?

I don’t think there is any northern hostility against President Tinubu, but there are northern elites who feel otherwise, because in carrying out reform, it will and will not benefit some people. And people not benefiting from those reforms because they are used to a way of life, will not be comfortable with the reforms President Tinubu is changing.

For instance, I was one person very loud, for a long time, against subsidisi0ng fuel because it is not a policy for the poor. Why should anybody who can buy a car clamour for the government to subsidize the fuelling of the car?

I also saw that it was a round-tripping business. If the subsidy was really for the masses, there are other sectors that it would have gone, but not the petroleum which was a deal. New billionaires emerged without even having an office. What were they doing?

They were doing one vessel will go, and the same vessel will return. The same product will be round-tripped and monies paid. It got to a level that people were spending dollars on the streets of Abuja. They were using dollars to buy things in Abuja. It was the beneficiaries of the subsidy that were behind it.

Now it is time to do the right thing because the reality has dawned on us. How many of those guys who were beneficiaries of subsidies and spending dollars then are still doing so now?

Why are you rating this government high when non-state actors have overrun part of the country?

I don’t want to believe you when you say that the government is doing nothing. When you talk about security, you don’t just talk about it as if it involves the president alone. What are the governors doing? We have 36 states plus Abuja, 37, but what are their contributions to securing their states before evaluating the support of the federal government?

As deputy governor of Edo state, I acted as governor for one month, and there was no single case of kidnapping in the state throughout that period. I was able to clear the bush, restructure the security, bring in new security architecture within that one month, and clear up everything, which lasted for three months, and there was no single incident of kidnapping for those months in Edo state.

Everybody needs to contribute their own part to the centre we hold. The problem of Nigeria is that everything is placed at the centre. We need to decentralise, and all those people who are at the state level should also up their game.

This thing is doable. I have narrated my practical experience when I took charge in my state as the Acting Governor. I did it with the active collaboration of the federal might.

We were in the opposition party because the federal government agency was under APC control, but I used the same security to change the narrative in Edo state. So, it is not political, but the actors playing their roles.

Don’t forget that most of the things we are seeing today are inherited; some are political, and we need to deal with them in that segment.

I can tell you that the issue of insecurity will soon be a thing of the past. The political situation of Nigeria is not as bad as it used to be. The President has come up with his own programme, and the Service Chiefs have been so proactive with the President reshuffling and getting them what they need.

Security is a very delicate and complex matter, but I know that we recently had a little change in the system. We can see everything moving, and the good news Is that as we progress, the security challenges will be a thing of the past. I am seeing lights at the end of the tunnel because we have a president with strong political will and courage. That is my hope for Nigeria today. (The Sun)