Crusoe Osagie: Tribal warrior defending failed refugee, Obaseki

By Fred Itua

Crusoe Osagie, only you could vanish for more than a year, resurface from a foreign address, and still speak with the confidence of someone who left the books clean. You spent years as the loudspeaker of the last administration. You issued press statements with a weekly rhythm, wrote flowery essays about “transformational projects,” and swore on every available platform that Edo State had ownership stakes in the very businesses that are now exposing your claims as fiction. If loyalty were graded by volume alone, you would have scored an A. If it were graded by truth, the story would be different.

The irony is almost poetic. The projects you once defended with King Kong chest beatings are the same ones now unravelling under the simplest test of accountability. The moment your principal left office, both of you disappeared into silence as the state began to open the files. The same files you told Edo people contained “transparent partnerships and clean contracts.” Suddenly, the ownership structures have no government equity. Suddenly, public lands were transferred without due process. Suddenly, basic questions about money trails have no answers. And suddenly, the authors of those grand claims are sending in commentary from outside the country instead of walking into the relevant agencies with documents in hand.

A clear conscience doesn’t run. A clear conscience doesn’t hide behind distance. A clear conscience returns. So before writing epistles from abroad, maybe return home with your principal and explain to Edo people why the projects you swore were government-backed now appear to have been private adventures wrapped in the Edo logo. Approach the authorities. Face the audit. Bring the documents. Edo people deserve clarity, not cross-continental storytelling.

Your new article tries to shift attention from the substance of the probes to an old, tired trick; divide the state along ethnic lines. You drag Edo South into every paragraph, painting the governor as some vengeful figure targeting Benin interests. Crusoe, that line of argument is beneath even you. Edo South is not your personal political shield. The people there are not pawns for your deflection. And you know all too well that the governor’s actions have nothing to do with tribe. They have everything to do with answering a simple question: who truly owns what?

Two of the biggest capital projects of the current administration, Rahmat Park Flyover and Adesuwa Junction Flyover, are both in Edo South. Massive infrastructure sitting right in the heart of the region you claim is being “crippled.” There is no ambiguity about who benefits from good roads. Roads boost local trade. Roads improve movement. Roads open up communities. Governor Monday Okpebholo understands that you develop a state by fixing infrastructure, not by writing sectional speeches from a distance.

Your argument collapses under its own weight. If the governor were hostile to Edo South, why would he place these projects there? Why are more ongoing road rehabilitation works happening in the same Edo South you claim is under attack? Facts don’t fear accusations. They simply stand.

Let us go through the projects you cried about with a little more honesty than you offered in your essay.

The Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) is not demolished. The problem is the century-old public hospital that was brought down to make way for it. You told the world glowing tales about the project. At a time in your tenure, you practically became the spokesman for the project. You defended the demolition of the Central Hospital with venom, pulling down all critics. Today, the ownership structures show no government equity. So tell us, Crusoe: was it love for Edo South that made your principal promise the Oba of Benin a Royal Museum, only for it to morph from the Benin Royal Museum to EMOWAA and finally to MOWAA without a single clear benefit to the people? So the real question is simple: how did Edo people get schemed out of MOWAA? That question must be answered, not drowned in sentimental writing about “cultural renaissance.”

Ossiomo Power, which you praised like it was the eighth wonder of the world, is now facing well-documented questions about land acquisition, and exclusivity clauses. Edo State cannot inherit liabilities because someone once wrote long essays describing it as a miracle project. If land was grabbed without due process, should the host communities remain silent?

Presco is another emotional bullet in your narrative. You try to whip up fear by claiming 13,000 hectares were revoked. Yet you leave out the fact that the Certificate of Occupancy was never revoked. What happened was the reckless action of an individual who acted without the governor’s authority. That individual has been dismissed. That is what accountability looks like. This is what you never saw fit to do in your years in office.

Your attempt to shield these murky dealings behind ethnic sentiment is petty and disappointing, even for someone who has mastered political spin. There is nothing about these probes that targets any region. They target opacity. They target irregularities. They target contracts signed without Cabinet consent or legislative oversight. They target the absence of public equity in projects the previous government swore it owned.

Add the Radisson Blu Hotel in Benin City to the questionable project list. The hotel is also at the center of an ownership controversy involving allegations of fraud and mismanagement of state funds under your principal. An assets verification committee and the state assembly are investigating, with findings indicating that the state’s initial 70% stake was reduced to 20% shortly before Obaseki left office. This occurred after the administration allegedly used taxpayer money to fund the project and then transferred ownership to private entities, leading to calls for a forensic investigation and public accountability.

And yes, they target the habit of signing away public land to private companies using quiet back-channel arrangements. If Edo State land was transferred to private hands under questionable circumstances, what exactly is wrong with asking questions? Only those who fear the truth fear a probe.

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Crusoe, governance is not storytelling. And your new life as a visiting correspondent for Edo politics should not include rewriting history. If you and your principal have nothing to hide, return home and face the facts. Stop issuing long-distance accusations. Stop pitching Edo South against the rest of the state. Stop acting like accountability is an attack. And stop pretending that asking basic questions about public assets is a crime.

The truth is simple: this administration will not be blackmailed by an on-the-run former governor and his restless spokesman. If you have documents, evidence, records, or anything more meaningful than adjectives, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Edo State House of Assembly are open. Walk in. Show your receipts.

Until then, spare Edo people the melodrama. They have lived through eight years of it already. This is a new chapter. This is a government cleaning up the blurry pages you left behind.

You may rest your case, Crusoe. But the facts are just beginning to speak.

• Itua is Chief Press Secretary to Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State.