WHEN A MAD MAN DANCES IN THE MARKET SQUARE, SOMEONE IS BEATING THE DRUMS: JARRETT TENEBE, THE POLITICS OF GUTTER LANGUAGE, AND THE HIDDEN HANDS USING AN ERRAND BOY TO ATTACK PASTOR OSAGIE IZE-IYAMU

 Jarrett Tenebe and the Limits of Gutter Language

 _By ABURE, Pedro Anetor_ 

Politics, at its noblest height, is meant to be the art of persuasion, vision, and leadership. But when men who lack depth seek relevance, they often descend into the marketplace of insults, mistaking noise for wisdom and arrogance for authority. Such appears to be the tragic theatre currently unfolding in Edo politics, where the APC State Chairman, Jarrett Tenebe, has chosen the language of derision over the language of statesmanship in his recent attack against Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.

His declaration that “there is time to retire and stay at home” was not merely an unfortunate statement; it was the loud cry of desperation from a man intoxicated by temporary power. It betrayed a hollow understanding of democracy and revealed the dangerous illusion that political offices confer divinity upon their occupants. Jarrett Tenebe is not God. He does not control destiny, nor does he possess the celestial authority to decide when another man’s relevance expires.

History is filled with men who mistook the borrowed umbrella of office for personal greatness. They strutted briefly across the political stage like masquerades at a village festival, only to disappear when the drums stopped beating. The APC chairman must understand that leadership is not inherited through loudness, nor earned through crude language. Respect is cultivated through character, wisdom, and service - qualities Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu has demonstrated across decades of political engagement and grassroots connection.

Pastor Ize-Iyamu remains one of the most experienced and intellectually grounded political figures in Edo State. Whether loved or opposed politically, his influence cannot be erased by the emotional outbursts of men who mistake aggression for strength. He has survived political storms, betrayals, and shifting alliances because his relevance is rooted in the people, not in the temporary excitement of factional politics.

Jarrett Tenebe’s comments therefore sound less like confident leadership and more like the frightened rattling of a man haunted by the overwhelming popularity of Pastor Ize-Iyamu across Edo South. The people have spoken loudly and clearly. They know their choice. No state chairman, however dramatic, can impose a political candidate upon a people determined to protect their democratic voice.

It is also important to remind Mr. Tenebe that being chairman of a party does not place him above the people. Political parties exist because of the people — not the other way around. And certainly, it is not his duty to appoint or anoint a Senator for Edo South as though democracy were a private family inheritance. Edo South is not a conquered territory to be allocated from a smoke-filled room by political merchants and emergency power brokers.

The tragedy of his statement lies not only in its arrogance but in its embarrassing lack of refinement. His use of language wanders aimlessly like a confused drummer at a royal procession -loud, disjointed, and without rhythm. Indeed, his rhetoric is as confusing as his political colourations: noisy, unstable, and desperately seeking attention. One moment he speaks as a youth revolutionary; the next moment he sounds like an impatient dictator terrified of dissent.

Such gutter language exposes deeper anxieties within the camp desperately pushing manufactured narratives and suspicious results upon the public. The questionable results allegedly forwarded to the NWC in favour of Ogbeide Ihama continue to provoke outrage because many party faithful insist they were concocted far away from the true battlefield of democratic participation. While genuine supporters mobilised across the field, others reportedly bypassed the people entirely and retreated into carefully arranged halls where pre-written outcomes emerged like poorly scripted theatre.

No amount of propaganda can permanently perfume political manipulation. Even a gold-plated lie eventually begins to smell. The attempt to silence or retire Pastor Ize-Iyamu through insults only further confirms the fear his popularity inspires among political opportunists.

Democracy does not retire men because a party chairman becomes emotional. The people decide. The ballot decides. History decides.

And history is rarely kind to men who trade wisdom for insults and leaders

hip for gutter language.