Edo People Should Show More Interest on How They’re Governed!
Gov Obaseki, unable to deliver on his promises
By Editorial Board
The present set of Nigerias are intellectually lazy when it comes to demanding for their rights. We concentrate too much on demanding accountability from federal government and look the other way when state governments plunder our commonwealth.
For instance, Edo people have refused to demand from their governor, Godwin Obaseki there share of the subsidy removal palliatives which includes trailer loads of grains; N5bn for buses; Covid 19 palliatives under Buhari’s administration; $75bn World Bank school improvement loan; over N60bn Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) agriculture loan amongst others.
Ekiti State just started construction of a 2nd overhead bridge as part of their urban renewal process; Ebonyi State with less opportunity for revenue generation, and a non oil derivation state has become a reference case in political development amongst Nigerian States.
Whereas, Edo under Obaseki has remained the capital for ‘ongoing projects’ in Nigeria. There are no visible records of legacy projects that Governor Godwin Obaseki started and completed in his eight years.
The only projects that will be listed as started and completed in the life of Obaseki’s administration, are those owned by private investors who his government has given incentives such as land, tax relief and infrastructural support.
Other than these, there is a long list of ‘awaiting projects’ spread across the state. Such projects like the Philip Iheanacho’s privately owned Museum of West African Art; the re-moulded Stella Obasanjo Hospital; the utopia Benin Port; the ope-ending construction work at College of Agriculture Iguoriakhi; the phantom Edo North Airport; the power-point illustrative Abudu College of Education; the theoretical and blue-sky Education Hub in Iyaro, will all remind Edo people of Obaseki’s ghostly tenure as governor.
Market women in Edo state will also not forget in a hurry how Obaseki renaged on his promise and refused to rebuild Ekiosa market, but instead, seized part of their land to his business acquittances to build the elite Jara Supermarket.
The Oba market traders will not forget Obaseki’s failed promise to rebuild the burnt market, and rather turned his eyes away from the squalor they were made to face in his eight years as their governor, despite the unbearable daily revenue they were forced to pay by agents of government.
The landlords who have lived in peace for more than a century years within the precinct of Edo State Police Command will loathe Obaseki for forcefully acquiring their ancestral homes to give way to the privately owned Benin City Mall.
The incoming administration will have to revisit the contract worth N80,219,725.00 for the Installation of streetlights on 3.3Km Auchi-Jattu-Otaru-Polytechnic Road, Etsako-West Local Government Area, that was awarded through the Ministry of Energy and Electricity, on August 20th 2021, allegedly to Obaseki’s relative for inflated cost.
The former Vice President Yemi Osibanjo also, will carry the burden of failure and will regret allowing himself to be used as a purpose vehicle to defraud Edo State people, in particular, the Iyanomo people who lost over 1000 hectares of farming land to an offshore registered Amaya Capital Partners that Obaseki touted as core investors in the now moribund Benin Enterprise Park project.
The Benin Traditional institution will forever look back and mark the eight years that a younger Obaseki reigned as a modern ‘king’ and remember his expansionist conquest that has converted the grounds of the remains of Oba Ezoti to the property of Iheanacho’s MOWAA white elephant project on Ezoti Street in Benin City.
The students and staff of Ambrose Alli University will live with the regretful and forlon memory of how Obaseki reduced the ivory tower to rubbles through series of special panels and acting vice chancellos.
No doubt, on November 12, 2024, Mr. Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki will successfully defend Pubilius Syrus position that; “One ungrateful person does an injury to all needy people.” Politicians who will be faced with oppressive challenges in the future, may find it difficult to earn the support of Edo people.
Read Also: Governor Obaseki’s Scorecards: The Countdown to 2024
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