The Clown Prince of Edo -By Pius Mordi

For the younger generation, the name Bakin Zuwo may not ring a bell. He was the governor of the old Kano State that included the present day Jigawa State. He held forth for just three months in 1983 until December 31 when then Major General Muhammadu Buhari overthrew the second republic government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. Coming on the platform of Malam Aminu Kano’s Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), he had a populist approach to governance. Bakin Zuwo was not given to ostentatiousness, but saw his office as a vessel for attending to the needs of his people. He so believed in his approach that there was always cash in his Government House office where he routinely fished out freebies to citizens of the state lucky enough to get access to him. To the media, he provided comic relief. One of the most popular lines from him was his reference to Coca cola and Fanta when asked of the mineral deposits in his state.

The soldiers who took over his office after the coup found N3.5 million cash and accused him him of corruption. His response was that it was government money in Government House. Logical, isn’t it? The stories weaved around his response to media enquiries brought comic relief at the time and have endured long after he was gone.

Zuwo was first a senator before taking over Kano’s Government House. Just like him, Edo State’s Monday Okpebholo was also in the senate before becoming governor. The comparison goes beyond there. There has been references to the late Bakin Zuwo when Okpebholo’s theatrics and proclamations that border on the whimsical come into focus. So grateful was he to President Bola Tinubu on his emergence as governor against all odds that he “guaranteed” to give 2.5 million votes to Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election. The estimated population of Edo State is 5.25 million as of 2024, ranking it around the 20th most populous state in Nigeria. Earlier estimates for 2022 placed the population at around 4.77 million to 4.8 million.

Okpebholo directed all his appointees that their head gear should be tailored along the line of the caps weaved with President Tinubu’s personal insignia with the threat that failure to do so may earn summary dismissal.

If he is unable to deal with figures when reading prepared texts, and that seems to happen often, it has drawn comparisons with Bakin Zuwo. Okpebholo has emerged as the clown of the fourth republic, but not because he is inclined towards poking fun. Before the incident in Benin where hoodlums attacked leading figures of the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC), I had feared for the Edo governor when he made a rather reckless statement. In July 2025, Peter Obi had visited a private educational institution, St. Philomena Hospital School of Nursing Sciences, in Benin City and donated N15 million. An incensed Okpebholo warned Obi to get security clearance from him before ever visiting Edo State again. When gunmen stormed the home of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and unleashed a salvo of bullets on the home while Obi, Olumide Akpata and other ADC chieftains were in the elder statesman’s premises, Okpebholo got away with hardly a mention. In African folklore, when an owl crows in the night and a child dies the following day, nobody wonders what caused the death.

But Okpebholo was hardly mentioned over the attack. Even the political leaders involved, including Odigie-Oyegun and Obi did not call him out. That is unconventional by Nigerian standard. I guess that is because Okpebholo was seen mainly as a rabble rouser who may not have understood the enormity of the statement he made over Peter Obi. How does a chief security officer officer of a state make such weighty threat in July 2025 and by February 2026 there is an actual violent attack on the home of a former governor who was hosting Obi alongside other chieftains of the bourgeoning opposition ADC?

And on March 2, the Edo State governor joined residents of Benin City in protesting against the nightmarish state of electricity supply in his state. He told the protesters he would convene a stakeholders meeting where they would examine the engagement of more power distribution companies to solve the power challenge in the state just as the licensing of multiple GSM service providers had solved the communication problems in Nigeria. In campaigning to be elected President, Tinubu had pledged that if at the end of his first term the epileptic power supply in the country is not resolved and stable supply made routine, Nigerians should vote him out of power.

Okpebholo presides over a state where Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), undoubtedly the worst of the licensed distribution companies, handles states like Delta and Ondo. Together, they are yoked in the dysfunctional operations of BEDC. By ostensibly leading the protest against poor supply in his state, Okpebholo urged the people of Edo to heed Tinubu’s pledge made made in the lead up to the 2023 presidential election.

If any other governor had done what Okpebholo did on March 2, Aso Rock would have been up in arms with its apparatchiks accusing the governor of anti party activities. But they know him better and that is part of the beauty of being a Bakin Zuwo. All political actors do not need any explanation to be told that what emanates from Okpebholo should be taken in its face value. He is the the kind of guy everybody understands without his having to explain himself or face any query. In this perilous political time, you have to envy Okpebholo.