Jarett Tenebe’s Edo APC And The Squandering Of Success

By Tony Erha

‘Emperor’ Tenebe as a chairman of the Edo wing of the so-called biggest ruling party in Africa, that also prides itself as “progressive” and a “congress” has utterly derailed. A man who once allegedly accused his kin of stealing his personal wristwatch worth over a whooping US$250,000 (over N360 million), deserves to be rejected because of impropriety and worldliness, and not to be trusted with the leadership of a party that should minister to the need of a state and its people. It’s the same thing as making Senator Dino Melaye the governor of Kogi State. With Tenebe on Edo APC’s saddle, it is everyday ‘Filaga Filogo”, an Edo awry political expression that was coined from its incessant crisis – where members bicker and throw broken chairs, bottles, and other dangerous cudgels at one another.

When the noble acts of bygone kings are narrated before the one on the throne, it is an innuendo of indictment and a wake-up call for him (the present) to mend his wrongful ways.

It is usual that Edo’s tongue is laced with idioms, only decoded by the children who are imbued with wisdom, and not the imbeciles.

This dovetails to Emperor Jarrett Tenebe, the tempestuous and tough-talking chair of the Edo State chapter of the Nigeria’s ruling political party – the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Tenebe is a likeable person because he could be attractive so behold, as he also tends to be calm, shy, withdrawn, and friendly, in a one-on-one encounter with him.

In another moment, Jarett would blow ‘hot’, leaving all in utter confusion, as if that wasn’t the same person who was jovial a little while ago.

This is a complexity of split individualism or personality which the psychoanalysts usually talk about, and that which tediously engage them.

The Tenebe’s uninspiring doings as chairman of the Edo APC, when x-rayed and compared to those who had assumed similar position of a ruling party in the state, since its creation in 1991, leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

There were accommodating Chief Solomon Aguele, Chief Dan Orbih and Dr.  Anthony Aziegbemhi who served as chairmen of the then ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP). There was also the socialite Chief Tony Omoaghe of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), now APC, until an erudite Chief Anselm Ojezua.

Also, the era of Col. David Imuse (rtd) as APC chairman, had ushered in purposeful party engagements. Painfully, he would have propelled more tangible party and members’ discipline, if not for the catastrophic handling of that government by an overbearing ex-Governor Godwin Obaseki that terminated Imuse’s short reign when the ruling APC, moved into the PDP, and APC as opposition.

Let’s skip the Imuse’s narrative, and revisit it later in this piece.

‘Emperor’ Tenebe as a chairman of the Edo wing of the so-called biggest ruling party in Africa, that also prides itself as “progressive” and a “congress” has utterly derailed.

A man who once allegedly accused his kin of stealing his personal wristwatch worth over a whooping US$250,000 (over N360 million), deserves to be rejected because of impropriety and worldliness, and not to be trusted with the leadership of a party that should minister to the need of a state and its people. It’s the same thing as making Senator Dino Melaye the governor of Kogi State.

With Tenebe on Edo APC’s saddle, it is everyday ‘Filaga Filogo”, an Edo awry political expression that was coined from its incessant crisis – where members bicker and throw broken chairs, bottles, and other dangerous cudgels at one another.

Once upon a time, I had a disapproval article condemning the police arrest, public parade and detention of the same Tenebe and Akeem Zibiri, then another politician of the PDP, from the Etsako tribe, by an impossible Deputy Governor Philip Shaibu, an Etsako PDP kingpin, who was swollen in the head. Should that now justify Tenebe’s transferred aggression at others?

Before becoming its acting chairman and retaining the position through the help of Governor Monday Okpebholo, who appeased angry members of the party, who were against his confirmation, Tenebe would have been thrown out.

There is traitor politics in Etsako, where the first to fall in politics is the mincemeat. This is not a generic stigma to its politicians, but a few. Not too long ago, the news media was replete with reports of mistrusts between Senator Adams Oshiomhole, a former APC governor of the state, who rose to be its National Chairman, and Engr. Abubakar Momoh, an incumbent minister from the area.

Ostensibly, Tenebe’s assumption speaking publicly against these and some other Edo APC stalwarts, is that because he as Edo APC chairman, is more prominent than all in the party’s hierarchy.

The public can’t forget how an obscured Mr. Oshawo (not Ashawo), conjoined Philip Shaibu, Oshiomhole’s benefactor and blood relation, to plot the removal of an almighty Oshiomhole as National Chairman.

Back to Colonel Imuse (rtd) and his worthwhile APC chairmanship, which ‘Emperor’ Tenebe failed to emulate. Imuse was a brilliant and disciplined student of the elitist Annunciation Catholic College (ACC) Irrua, who was one year ahead of me, in another pioneering secondary school that I attended.

He was a hardworking brilliant village boy, who made one of the best grades in his WASC final examination. Through same self-help and discipline, he attended universities and other courses, thus becoming a respected medical doctor – a dentist.

As Imuse’s childhood friend, since 1972, and being a journalist and pro-democracy activist, I haven’t only been abreast of his progress, but also of Edo politics and the rule of law, since 1979. Without having to be immodest, there is hardly a party chairman, military administrator and governors I didn’t interact with since 1979.

More so, I doubt if Tenebe actually imbibed the drills of the Nigerian Army, which gives soldiers the edge in human affairs. Dr. Imuse was a disciplined officer, as I observed in his several duty posts, in the Army, particularly its medical units, including the Military Base Hospital Benin, which he headed. Whatever happened to Tenebe, a man said to have been a soldier?

Tenebe, a deputy, was brought by Pastor Ize-Iyamu, into the Imuse’s Committee in October 2021, after Obaseki ditched the party, and nearly all APC state LGA and ward executives moved to PDP. Imuse had borne the pains and cost of running the party. He had solely provided over N9 million to bring members into the state executive, which he rejuvenated.

Obaseki had waged a war of attrition against APC and Imuse, as the party was chased out of its secretariat at No 23, Airport Road, Benin City. Several vehicles were allegedly burnt by the Obaseki’s PDP thugs, with some belonging to APC members. Imuse had provided part of the running cost of APC, which he ran from hotels, for years until the party got another secretariat off Airport Road in Benin.

He mostly abandoned his residence to stay in hotels. There were rampant court cases induced by the Obaseki’s government, with frequent travel within the countries, the cost of which Imuse mostly borne.

When it mattered the most that the Legacy Group, a PDP faction that was opposed to the Obaseki’s PDP, be made to join and swell the APC, Imuse, who initiativeed the move swung into action. He, with Lawrence Okah, the APC secretary, travelled several times to have meetings with Chief Dan Orbih, at Ogbona, near Auchi. Imuse later invited Senator Adams Oshiomhole, who flew from Abuja to Edo State, for another meeting, to merge forces.

There came an opportunity when Imuse was pressured by the Obaseki’s PDP, with a N250 million bribe, for him to abandon APC and join the PDP. Imuse bluntly refused the bribe.

Now, he is being treated like he has no stake in the party he had built that simplified the recapture of APC’s governorship power, because he dared to contest for a governorship primary, which he has a right to.

I doubt if Tenebe still calls or answer telephone inquiries of Imuse, his benefactor, whom he once called his good boss, just the way he threw away the ladder others gave him to climb to the top.