Way back in 2007,  aspirants who jostled for the seat of the Speaker of the House of Representatives were seven in number. That was in June, when Patricia Olubunmi Etteh was set to emerge as Nigeria’s first female Speaker. To select a new Speaker, it was, indeed, a task for the caucuses of the House to prune down the number of aspirants from the South-West.  The northern caucuses were the first to adopt Etteh as their choice.They had followed a directive from the presidential villa to that effect. The South-West caucus did same, including others.

It was the turn of the South-South to announce its own choice for the vacant seat. The caucus members decided to meet at the Protea Hotel, Apo and engage a long session of deliberations.

Almost everybody spoke on the reason Etteh must be Speaker. Towards the end of the meeting, a newly elected member of the House raised his hand to make a contribution. When he started speaking, all the caucus members became silent. The speaker rapped on and ended his speech thus, “I just feel that it would be sardonic, it would be lugubrious, it would be philistinic, it would be raspodious and rasmalodious, if, at the end, this caucus cast a forlorn look towards Madam Etteh and shy away from raising her to the loftiest pedestal of House of Representatives Speaker…” His conclusion was met with deafening applause from his colleagues who chorused; “chei, who be this man?”

It may sound ludicrous, but that was the day Patrick Obahiagbon, representing Oredo Federal Constituency in the House, started attracting great attention to himself. Obahiagbon is passionate about jaw-breaking words, a weaver of Anglo-Spanish vocabularies and indeed, an idiolect. He had not spent a month in the House, when his colleagues branded him as a necessary comic relief.

On any hot day during plenary, when issues got knotty, the trick Speaker Bankole often deployed was to call on Obahiagbon to speak, even when he never indicated interest in doing so. He would get up and then released volleys of ‘rumble in the junle’ words, which must set colleagues rolling on their seats with belly-vibrating laughter!

Yet, Obahiagbon ranks as one of the most serious members of the House of Representatives. He subscribed to the June 12 school of thought and fought gallantly to cause the House of Representatives to give the late MKO Abiola a national honour by naming a national monument after him, even when many of his colleagues stood in his ways several times. He had contributed meaningfully to debates and motions, just as he attended House sittings most punctually. All the same, Obahiagbon hardly missed committee assignments, just as he usually made useful suggestions to House leadership on how to advance the cause of the House.

Obahiagbon is a grass-roots politician. When Comrade Adams Oshiomhole struck like a thunderbolt in Edo and annexed every political space in the state, Obahiagbon moved in with him on strong suggestions.

He did so with the aim of assisting the comrade-governor in raising Edo to match up with great dreams. He probably had the assurances of Oshiomhole that he was safe in the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), at least sufficiently as a platform for seeking re-election. After all, Obahiagbon had helped to efficiently hoist the flag of Edo Sate in the House and more importantly, in national politics.

Alas, on the day of reckoning, somebody pulled the rug from underneath Obahiagbon. Edo politicians succeeded in pushing their own illustrious son out of political reckoning and activism and denying him access to return to the House.

If there are many representatives who are not fit to return to the House, Obahiagbon is certainly not one of them, judging by his memorable contributions and his love for Edo. Denying Obahiagbon House ticket from Edo is like killing a patriot who went to war and won victory for his state.The question is, why? Why would anyone, especially in Edo, not appreciate a committed, willing and focused co-comrade like Obahiagbon?

When the House resumes in June this year, it would have been divested of services of a great man like Obahiagbon. It is a statement that Nigerian politics is still inherently defective. The players are only paying lip-service to the ideals of democracy. Oh! what a pity. It is not time to give up on fine legislators like Obahiagbon and others in different states who were maliciously denied of tickets of their political parties. Perhaps Comrade Oshiomhole would still do something before all hopes are lost?