The current noise surrounding the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) has taken a strange turn — one that exposes more than it conceals. The loudest voices defending the project today are neither trustees of MOWAA nor serving officials of the Edo State Government.
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‎They are former aides, former commissioners, and former media handlers of ex-Governor Godwin Obaseki — men and women who no longer hold any official mandate, yet speak as though MOWAA were their private estate.
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‎This is precisely why Edo people are asking: what are they jittery about? If MOWAA is indeed a transparent, public-spirited, non-profit cultural trust as they claim, why are its real trustees silent while political retirees run paid campaigns to sanitize it?
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‎Why should Obaseki’s old team act as the mouthpiece of an institution supposedly independent and community-owned?
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‎There’s an unmistakable pattern here — the same circle that controlled Edo State finances, contracts, and communications is now suddenly “clarifying” MOWAA’s ownership, structure, and intent.
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‎Yet, none of them can show a single official document detailing who approved the demolition of the Central Hospital, who authorized the ₦3.8 billion “donation,” or who signed off the land to a private foundation.
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‎Edo people are not fools. We can see through the coordinated media defense, the selective storytelling, and the sudden activism by those who once governed in opacity.
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‎If MOWAA is clean, then let it stand the test of legislative scrutiny. Let the trustees come forward. Let the books be opened.
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‎Until that happens, the question remains:

‎If Obaseki is no longer Governor, why are his men still defending MOWAA like it’s his private company?

‎What are they hiding — and why are they afraid of the truth?