I Still Don’t Know Where Things Went South For Me And Obaseki – Hosa Okunbor

Edo State-born business magnate, and philanthropist, Captain Hosa Okunbor has come out to speak about his battles with Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State.

He recently revealed that their saga started when he started supporting Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the All Progressives Congress, APC in the September 19 governorship poll.

According to him, despite meaning well for Obaseki countless of times and with his acts and thoughts, he is very shocked by how things turned out.

He added that he is still wondering where things went wrong as he just cannot place things yet.

His words, “At the beginning when Governor Godwin Obaseki approached me in 2016 that he wanted to run for the governorship of Edo State, he came in the company of a friend, Noggie Meggison, to my house in Ikoyi (Lagos). And that day I accepted him because of the relationship between his late father and I. His late father was like a father to me, in fact he nurtured me in my youth.”

“I told him the relationship between his father and I, that as a child, I was his father’s friend and that I had no choice but to support his ambition. After that, he kept coming to my house with Rasaq Belo-Osagie. When he came, he respected me and we respected each other, we ate together and the relationship was very cordial. I was happy that at least somebody from the private sector like myself had come into the governorship race in Edo State, apart from the relationship I had with the father which was very dear to me. When it came to the time to support financially, he came to me in Abuja with the same Rasaq and I did my little bit to support him and thank God it is the same candidate today that is also his opponent again.”

“He was elected as the governor in 2016 and I was very elated and as we continued, the political class that elected him was all coming to me including Rasaq Belo-Osagie that brought him to me.”

“They were complaining about how he was treating them and how he didn’t want to see them any more after being elected. I kept calming them down. I even quarrelled with Rasaq. I said, “Rasaq, leave this man alone” and I kept talking to the political class and said, ‘’listen, I know bankers, I know investment bankers, you can’t squeeze anything out of their hands. He said he was gathering money to improve our state. He said he’s developing our state and I said so be it, let him be.”

“I kept going back to him to say, ‘’my brother, please manage these people. You have found yourself in the political turf, so please manage them’’ because I believe there are so many attributes of leadership, the ability to manage people, perseverance and patience. I told him that when you have more than 10 workers in your establishment, you will have different kinds of people and the ability to manage them to achieve your desired goals is what is important. As I was fighting the political class, I was advising him on how to manage them because for me the state was my concern, development of my state is top priority.”

“That was why when I was going to China to meet some investors, I mentioned it to him and he was willing to come. I was excited that he was willing to come, I bought his ticket and that of his aides. We went to China and met my investors and we spent good time together, I did that and paid all the bills not because I have too much money but what I wanted to show to my brother was, look I am not coming for Government purse I wanted to show him that I wanted to help genuinely and I seriously meant well for him. To my surprise, I could not believe the things that started unfolding after. I was always wondering what I had done.”