Penultimate week, Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State set tongues wagging when he directed members of his cabinet to openly show their support for President Bola Tinubu by wearing his branded cap.
The governor gave the directive in Benin-City while swearing in newly appointed commissioners and inaugurating commissions and boards of agencies in Benin.
Okpebholo, who attributed his electoral victory to Tinubu’s support, said loyalty to the president must reflect even in appearance. He added that he would not forgive any commissioner that is not wearing the cap to exco meetings, adding that anyone attending the meeting without an Asiwaju cap, would be turned back.
He said: “This could not have happened if we did not have a responsible president. We have done many elections here, and the major problem we have had is that the president is not with us, but today we say ‘thank you.’ I will not forgive any commissioner that is not wearing this cap. In our exco meetings, if you are not wearing a suit and you are coming to the meeting without this Asiwaju cap, you will go back.”
Before his latest warning, the governor had promised to deliver the state to the APC in 2027 with 2.5million votes.
By ordering governors to wear Tinubu’s cap to exco meetings, the governor has elevated sycophancy to a ridiculous level.
He has turned Nigerian democracy to a laughing stock.
Is he suggesting that he was not voted into power by the people of Edo State but installed by the Presidency?
Even President Tinubu himself would be embarrassed by the governor’s order to his commissioners.
Okpebholo, by his action, wants to be more Catholic than the Pope.
In the South-west where President Tinubu hails from, there are four APC-controlled states, but none of these governors gave such shameful order to their commissioners.
In Lagos State in particular, Tinubu’s cap has not been designated as the official cap for exco meetings despite his effective control of the state.
Was the failed attempt to foist the president’s daughter, Folashade Tinubu-Ojo on Benin market women as the Iyaloja also one of the ways to show gratitude to Tinubu for governorship election victory?
Nigerian leaders should realise that there is a limit to sycophancy.
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