Despite what happened between them during the state’s governorship race in 2020, Edo State Deputy Governor Philip Shaibu claims ex-Governor Adams Oshiomhole is still his father.
Shaibu, speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, said he will make time to apologise to the ex-governor for the unacceptable remarks he used against him during the state’s previous governorship race.
Shaibu stated that his feud with Governor Godwin Obaseki began when he congratulated Oshiomhole on his victory in the 2023 senate race.
Shaibu is from Edo North Senatorial District, the same district as Oshiomhole, who is the current lawmaker representing the district in the 10th National Assembly, Adams Oshiomhole.
The 53-year-old politician had on Monday officially declared to run for the September 21, 2024 governorship election in the state on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Both Shaibu and Obaseki were once allies of Oshiomhole but the political association among them tumbled towards the 2020 governorship election when the ex-labour leader was accused of ‘godfatherism’ which he denied.
In the last election, Obaseki and Shaibu trounced Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) despite that the APC candidate was backed by Oshiomhole and other APC heavyweights including ex-governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, and ex-President Muhammadu Buhari.
Speaking on our programme on Tuesday morning, Shaibu said despite not being in the same political party as Oshiomhole, they now share a cordial relationship, saying he regretted some words he used against the senator in the last poll.
“My relationship with Comrade Adams Oshiomhole is cordial. When I mean cordial, he is still my father. Political, we are in different political parties,” the PDP governorship aspirant said.
“I am happy that the governor (Obaseki) has started inviting the former governor (Oshiomhole) and my father to political functions. That is what I have been praying for.
“And now that he has started, I think that the next step is for me to reach him and also first apologise to him (Oshiomhole) for some use of words during the election but in terms of principle of supporting Obaseki, I will still support Obaseki because God told me that is the right thing to do.
“One of the crises that I had was when I went to the Senate to congratulate Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and I was seen in a viral video. That was where my headache started because the governor’s style is that a friend of the governor, you must be friend to him and an enemy to the governor, you must be enemy to him. I understand that principle and I am being careful.
“What I was waiting for was for the governor to make that move because I will not make that move if the governor had not made the move. Now that he has made the move to be inviting Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, I am emboldened to go and see him,” Shaibu said.