By John Mayaki
If anyone told me that some self-styled progressives are unhappy over the ongoing construction of Ramat Park flyover in Benin city, I would have dismissed it with a wave of the hand – but I would have been wrong. I have now seen a lawyer and one of the spokesmen of Edo PDP candidate, Asue Ighodalo, Barrister Daniel Noah Osa-Ogbegie celebrating over the rumored “collapse” of the flyover.
I first came across the post tossed casually on Facebook by a friend who taunted the opposition with the alleged collapse – satire, or a bait, if you ask me – and within minutes, Ogbegie thought it was an exclusive scoop, took the bait, swallowed the hook, choked on the line, and is now gasping for credibility after he collapsed his own integrity. He is still pained that his man lost the election and he has refused to move on.
Daniel Noah Osa-Ogbegie, Esq. calls himself a “statesman” and an advocate but he is fast becoming a certified purveyor of fake news. He is enraged with indignation and unwilling to fact-check the news because he also refused to accept the reality that Senator Monday Okpebholo defeated the candidate we both supported. So, he then immediately penned a tragedy about a flyover that never fell – he simply turned metaphor into meltdown, if you ask me.
Here is his title: “Ramat Park Flyover collapse: A metaphor for failed leadership”. It reads like Ogbegie saw smoke on his PDP WhatsApp platform where they cook fake news and called the fire service without checking if it was just jollof rice burning in someone’s kitchen.
Ogbegie has however agreed that his passionate obituary for a project still standing tall and firm was a bait he fell for, he however refused to bring down the post. Am happy he is unhappy with the kind of comments it is generating – he is being roasted till now.
One would think he inspected the rubble himself. One would also think he would drive past Ramat Park and touch the concrete or ask an engineer. But no, he sat in his chambers and churned out falsehoods. Thankfully, there is no rubble, not even a crack. No collapse. No structural failure. Just satire, served hot and Ogbegie devoured it cold.
But something collapsed – Ogbegie’s good judgement as a lawyer did. I think the fragile strand of integrity holding the opposition PDP in the state altogether collapsed. He committed a blunder – Ogbegie cried wolf when there was none and he is now left flying in shame.
This is the thing – when your hunger for scandal outweighs your appetite for truth or good news, as seen among the loyalists of former Governor Godwin Obaseki and Asue Ighodalo, this is what you get. You simply dig your own credibility’s grave instead. Ogbegie did. Ogbegie’s reputation collapsed irretrievably.
Even more shocking was how he signed off the jejune with some grand and flourish words about himself. “Lawyer. Advocate. Statesman. Apostle of Edo Renaissance”. Wonderful – an inflated résumé of a man who mistook satire for reality and ran a political marathon in the wrong direction.
Perhaps a junior counsel knows that “evidence” is not something you mine from Facebook comment section or PDP WhatsApp platform. That was how his candidate approached the tribunal without evidence and I just hope Ogbegie is not part of his legal team. Ogbegie failed as a lawyer here. Lawyers check facts, Ogbegie failed to fact-check.
As for being an advocate – yes, I quite agree with him. Ogbegie as an advocate of misinformation, as we can now see. Advocates defend the truth but Ogbegie defends lies and promotes falsehoods.
Statesman? That is quite rich. Real statesmen are guided by wisdom and not Facebook or WhatsApp posts without evidence. Statesmen verify information before vilifying, and they don’t jump on misfortunes and celebrate them against their own state. Ogbegie failed this test too. Statesmen show restraint, Ogbegie didn’t. Ogbegie is immature.
And then, Ogbegie also said he is an “Apostle of Edo Renaissance”. This one deserves a standing ovation because if this is what apostleship looks like, then it was better we’ve gone from renaissance to recession.
Ogbegie cannot become an apostle of progress by spreading falsehoods and building narratives on broken logic. Ogbegie cannot be an “apostle” of Edo’s rebirth while publicly embarrassing the state with fact-free alarmism. We deserve thinkers in Edo state and not fake preachers who preach sermons of shame from the Church of Clout and Confusion
Meanwhile, the flyover still stands but Ogbegie’s credibility doesn’t. Something collapsed. It was Ogbegie’s sense of judgement. May Edo not collapsed under Governor Monday Okpebholo but may the enemies of the state be exposed and may they also collapsed one after the other.
