Albert Obaze: The Lone Opposition Voice & Necessary Evil In Edo State

Edo State is sliding into a strange political silence. The structures that should form a credible opposition have gone quiet.

Parties that should question power now praise it. Groups that once challenged government excesses have folded into the ruling APC. The space for dissent has collapsed.

In the middle of this silence, one person has refused to bow. Albert Obaze.

Albert has become the lone opposition voice in Edo State. He stands alone, often unsupported, and sometimes unfairly criticized.

But he keeps talking when others won’t. He asks the hard questions. He calls out the government when others stay quiet.

His critics attack his style. They say he is emotional, rough, childish, or uncouth. They say he goes too far.

But his methods, however unconventional, produce one clear result.

He gets the government’s attention. He forces issues into the public space. He does not allow the state to drift into comfortable silence.

Albert recently paid a heavy price for his courage. He was physically attacked by a certain “Double Chief”, who it was discovered to be a brother of an Edo State government appointee. The appointee, Dr. Rita Otibhor Arewele, heads the Edo State Senior Secondary Education Board.

The attack was not an accident. It was intimidation. It was a message. It was punishment for speaking out.

Yet Albert refused to stay silent.

The hostility toward him is not hidden. In a leaked audio, the Edo State governor, Monday Okpebholo, even swore that he must jail Albert Obaze.

That alone shows how uncomfortable power has become with a single citizen who refuses to bow.

When a government begins to see an ordinary critic as a threat, the citizens should pay attention.

It is easy to dislike Albert’s methods. It is easy to say he is too loud or too raw. But emotions must be set aside. Personal feelings must be pushed aside.

Style is not the issue. Substance is the issue. What Obaze represents is bigger than his flaws.

Albert represents dissent in a state where dissent is dying. He represents the right to question authority. He represents the courage to stand alone when everyone else has surrendered.

These things matter. Once they disappear, they are hard to recover.

A functioning democracy needs its Albert Obazes. It needs citizens who will speak up even when it is uncomfortable.

Edo State does not need perfection. Edo State needs courage. Edo State needs voices that will hold power accountable.

This is why Albert should be supported, not mocked. Encouraged, not attacked. Protected, not abandoned.

You don’t have to like him. You don’t have to agree with every word he says. But you must recognize his importance.

He is doing the job others are too scared, too compromised, or too comfortable to do.

The Edo State House of Assembly is in the pocket of the state executive.

The Edo PDP is comatose.

Some popular activists in the state are secretly loyal to the State APC, but ferociously opposed to the same party at the national level.

However, Albert Obaze is the lone opposition voice in Edo State. And right now, that makes him necessary.