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* Takes Obaseki to task

By Kingsley Abavo

Peter Enoseregbe Uwadiae Igbinigie Esq. is a Beinin based renowned legal practitioner, and Publicity Secretary of the opposition political party; the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State. In this interview with Journalists weekend, he x-rays activities of the Governor Godwin Obaseki led People Democratic Party (PDP) administration; and gave a damning verdict! This is as he appeals for patient with the the President Muhammadu Buhari led APC national Government, amidst array of daunting challenges.

Full details of the interview!

Security situation in Edo

Permit me to say that the worrisome insecurity situation in Edo State, is taking a different dimension because no part of the State is safe anymore. Today; the daily news of unwarranted killings, kidnapping, rape and all manners of criminality is ever escalating. And what the Government had always said as to being on top of the situation is all fallacy. For example, few days ago, the people of Orhionwmon particularly the oil producing area of the local Government area: Umogunokhua, Ugu and the rest of them cried out that they no longer go to farm because their women are raped, men are being killed and crops destroyed by herders yet the Government keep telling the people that it is fighting insecurity. So how does one reconcile this with what is happening? I also heard that one of our own, it was in the news: Jonathan Airewele, his brother was kidnapped and even after paying ransome, the man was still killed. And this indicates the scaring level to which the scourge of insecurity has deteriorated in Edo.

In the prevailing situation; we are worried sick because monthly, the part of the resources the Government takes from Abuja: the security votes is not negotiable. We hear that the Governor gets as much as N750m as security votes. Now, how does it sound that the Federal Government would magnanimously give that humongous amount yet the Governor would sit comfortably in Osadebay Avenue doing nothing to ensure that the people are secured?

It is not only worrisome, it is an aberration! We didn’t expect that this should be happening in Edo. The Ehor Road axis is a no go area; as it relates to road users particularly important personalities, also the Benin – Ore – Shagamu Road is very disturbing. We are in the farming season but people can no longer go to their farms for fear of attack; so how do we expect that there will not be food crisis in the State? We are calling on those who it is their responsibility to remember that they were not given the mandate to be in power for the bidding of themselves; they are servant of the people as it is the responsibility of Government to ensure the safety of life and property of the people. Today, what we have in Edo is an abysmal experience which demands urgent attention of Government otherwise, there will be serious chaos in the society. We also heard of the recent assassination of a young doctor in the University of Benin an indication of how bad the security situation has become in Edo and as we speak, the Police has not been able to unravel the rationale behind the killing. But we don’t need to blame the Police too much because we know it takes so much to effectively tackle modern day security challenges which has become so scientific. And the reason why the Federal Government is giving out so much money to the State Governors as security votes is to ensure that the weaponry and every aspect of the Police is improved upon; N750m, that is the best anywhere in the world yet the Governors don’t service the Police with this money. America who we say has the best security architecture don’t even give out such huge amount of money. So the Governors should tell us how this money is used.

So, APC as a Party is saying that enough is enough in Edo hence we want the Federal Government to direct the States on how this money should be used because the situation is very worrisome, it is disturbing, and we believe that it is high time this is corrected so that we can have a safe society.

But Gov. Obaseki just few days ago sent the Anti Grazing Bill to the State House of Assembly probably because of the heightened state of insecurity

Well, that Bill is over due as we had consistently spoken about it, Edo is the only State in the South- South where the anti – grazing law is absent and it is not enough for the bill to be sent to the House of Assembly, do we even have a House of Assembly? That is an issue for another day! The Bill even if it is passed; it is the level of implementation that really affects the people; we are saying that the State Government has sent the Bill, it is a step in the right direction but the most important, even if there exist no bill, the issue of cattle rearing is a personal business and because it is a personal business; it should be done in such environment that it will not negatively affect the next neighbour. We are saying that though Edo State Government has sent the Bill, it must well encourage the Police and all other security agencies to make them fearless in coming in contact with these criminal elements we have amongst us, so that we can have a safe environment.

State of infrastructural development in Edo; is APC satisfied?

We are all living witnesses to what is happening in Edo. What infrastructure is Obaseki’s administration bragging about? Instead of building new and modern infrastructure, the existing ones it inherited, the Government is daily pulling them down; take for example; the State library we had along Sapele road before the coming of the Obaseki’s administration, was the cynosure of all eyes. People from other States did come to Benin to take a model of it but today it has been pulled down by this Government of PDP led by Obaseki. Now, which other library has been built to replace the one destroyed? Non! Also, the Central Hospital, where is another one built in replacement apart from the one built by the administration of Adams Oshiomhole? Where are the infrastructures? It is one thing for the Government to be shouting in the media commending itself on the non existent growth in infrastructural development. But what is on ground do not truly reflect its claim. I have gone through the nook and cranny of Edo; I have not seen infrastructures that are new save for the time Oshiomhole was here. Especially in this second tenure, the Government is doing virtually nothing to impact on the people because it believes that the Government is not coming again to ask the people for their votes.

APC as a Party, is very dissatisfied with what is going on in Edo; that is why from time to time, we keep reminding the Government that the whole essence of governance is to impact on the people. The people are not feeling the impacts of dividends of democracy here; ask the common man on the street and he will tell you how hard it is to live in Edo State. They have never had it this bad. This is the worst administration Edo people had ever experienced. It is destroying property of even individuals; the Court in some cases have ordered the Government to go restitute the property of individuals destroyed. Instead of doing that, it is appealing; what poor grounds of appeal! I have read the very watery grounds of appeal they filed in Tony Kabaka’s case; all what the Obaseki’s administration is doing, is to buy time so that before the appeal is treated, he will have left office and that burden will now be shifted to the next administration of the State and that is not good enough.

You have also seen Pedro Obaseki; the Governor’s brother crying seriously in the media saying he does not mean well for the people of the State; that underlines how bad the situation really is! If the Governor’s brother who had been singing his praise now suddenly realize all the ills of his brother, so what do you think of the ordinary man on the street? It is the height of the Obaseki’s administration insensitivity to the people’s plight particularly those in the Edo South, where we come from.

APC is not only the Party disturbed even the PDP; the original PDP are not satisfied with what the Obaseki’s administration is doing, he had only joined them and he is destroying the Party for them. That is the kind of person he is, and he is not slowing down showing his character.

So should it now be agreed that APC do not believe the MEGA sloganeering of Obaseki during the electioneering campaign is fully being implemented for the good of Edo people?

Edo people have really been unfortunate; I must say this! The only time we were privileged to have gotten it right was the short time Prof. Osunbor spent in the saddle and the era of Adams Oshiomhole. Let me say this; APC do not believe that Governor Obaseki has the capacity and ability to positively change the narratives in Edo State. We watched him closely in his first tenure and what we saw was very disheartening and dissatisfying. An average Edo man who is sincere would know that the reason he was asked out of the Party was because APC was not satisfied with all that he did in the first four years; coupled with the fact that his characteristics in relating with people was such that does not replicate the attitude of the average APC member. We are very peace loving humans and whatever we say we do but the Obaseki’s administration would say one thing; and do the direct opposite and we found that early enough but the PDP did not know this; that was why they gave him their platform to stand in the last Governorship election and did all that was possible to win. Remember, APC told Edo people then that the biggest mistake they would do, was to allow him continue in Government. But today, APC has been vindicated. All the beautiful, smooth talking, fine campaign promises, how many has he been able to fulfill? Non!

So in the belief of APC the MEGA Agenda has failed?

The MEGA Agenda was merely a political gimmick, it was just to garner votes, he was only building castle in the air; telling the people that he can make Edo fly while there were no wings. First and foremost, if you want to make the State fly, you must provide the wings! So a man who knows that he is not capable of providing the wings yet he told the people he was going to make the State fly even when he knows the infrastructures to so do were not available; it was all a calculated ploy to pull a wool across the eyes of the people to garner votes and ultimately win an election. But today, the true picture of who Obaseki is has been unveiled; it is no longer hidden. So to say he is implementing the MEGA Programme; does he even have any program let alone MEGA?

But he still has over two years?

We are already in 2022 and by the time we get into 2023; it is a pre – election year and attention is not usually paid anymore to governance and infrastructural development. Edo State Government cannot start a project today that will take a year or two to finish because before you know it, by 2024 any Government can come! Edo State as it is today, Obaseki has not laid the foundation of any proper and well articulated project that will be completed in his time. Rather, we will be seeing this continued ragmattazz that he is doing in the media with his co- travellers till the end of his tenure and he moves out of the State.

And we are in this mess! We have seen the humongous debt which the Obaseki’s administration has plunged the State; whereas we are not seeing the people oriented projects upon which the borrowed funds are being spent. So, it is a bad omen for Edo; it was a bad choice to had voted him as a Governor.

You said APC is aware that the Obaseki’s administration is about taking a fresh loan of N7bn

Yes! We are aware that the Obaseki’s administration is about borrowing a fresh loan of N7bn from the capital market. The question now is: what are the projects tied to this N7bn? It is very disheartening that banks and other financial institutions are giving out loans without following the due process; expectedly, any bank or financial House giving out loan to Government should insist at least a project is tied to it. But what we see in Edo is the reverse.

We are also shouting now, the House of Assembly that is even non existent, the few members who are the Governor’s co – travellers, will give approval for whatever that is brought to them even though illegally, so that the loan can be collected and we worry about the actual use it will be deployed. We know it will go into private pockets like previous loans secured by the Government and this is why APC is making it known to Edo people now, that there is another move to plunge the State into more debt because he knows that PDP will not again win election in Edo. The people made the mistake; PDP was a forgone Party until they gave ticket to Obaseki and even now the crisis that is rocking the Party has completely subsumed the Party. Obaseki knows that come 2023 and 2024, the PDP will not win election in Edo and the APC Government that will come to inherit this debt, will be saddled with the responsibility of paying off this debt thus plunging the State into deeper poverty. So, that is why APC is appealing to the State House of Assembly not to give approval to the loan proposal. Except they want to tell us that they have a share in the N7bn otherwise, they must ask questions as to what the loan is tied and also ensure that any project (s) to which it is tied, should be one that must be completed before the Obaseki’s administration exits office. If not, APC will not tolerate it as a debt that we will inherit when we come on board in 2024, as we are very optimistic that the baton will change and PDP will be kicked out of Osadebay Avenue.

But rumour is rife that the man is preparing seriously to return to the APC with his recent boycott of the PDP Governor’s meeting in Port-harcourt as testament and so many other covert moves

It is not rumour, I must tell you that he is trying to return to the APC because the truth is that he has not been officially admitted in the PDP as a member. We are well aware that even the membership card that he was issued at the point of joining the Party is not genuine. Now, he too has realized that the membership card he is carrying, is fake. Also, he could not fuse himself into PDP because of his attitude and character. Let me take you down the memory lane. Before he came to the PDP, the Party had a full structure from the Ward, local Government, to the State level. But when the man came, because of his exurberance, zealousness and domineering attitude, he wanted the whole thing to be changed. And let me tell you; constitutionally, once anyone has been elected into a tenure flavoured position except the condition set out in the same law that made him to be so elected is breached, he cannot be removed from office. The executive of PDP in Edo were statutorily flavoured; to last for four years and thereafter, a fresh Congress will be held. But because he came in after all that had been done, and his attitude was brought to bare, he started scheming to remove from office persons who were duly elected without recourse to the Constitution of the Party and that cannot be, hence the members have consistently told him; you cannot do this to us because we have an existing executive in place before you came in, let our tenure run to its logical conclusion, the man said no! And that is why he is having issues with the PDP and he has also discovered to his dismay that the PDP will not surrender to that his careless, arrogant disposition and his feelings today; he cannot safely say that he is a member of the PDP and he has left the APC, he has destroyed his membership card, he has removed the Party’s flag from his office and now he is neither in the PDP nor in APC and that is very worrisome for his co – travellers. And now particularly, I will mention names here; Charles Idahosa Akakasiaka like his brother, Pedro is crying now, said in 2021: I have advised my Governor that we are not in PDP and we cannot be in PDP let us go back to the APC where we naturally belong and the Governor seems not to be listening. I can authoritatively tell you today, that he is running from pillar to post in Abuja. If he is in Edo, he is in the PDP and once he arrives Abuja, he becomes APC member and that cannot work well for anyone that is leading a State and that is why we do not have a coherent Government in Edo because he is confused and in a state of disarray.

Is APC door open to him?

I won’t be categorical here because one of the fundamentals of a political party is that of all inclusiveness. No matter how bad a person may be, if he comes sober with repentance from his wrong doings, he may have the gate open to him. Based on that I will not say Obaseki will not be accepted if he comes but; the but is that even though APC is a Party of all inclusiveness; we are also very conscious because of the critical state that we are in, the kind of persons that we will open the door for except we have the fullness of assurances that what his attitude is; he is going to change and we see it being changed then of course, we can open the door for him. But where we are very sure that what he did in his first tenure or his first time in the Party is what he is coming to continue, of course, we will be very weary of his coming. So we cannot be very sure and state categorically that our doors will not be opened to him. We want people to join the Party. Anybody that is in the PDP today particularly those who erroneously and inadvertently, out of sheer political pursuit of daily bread accompanied the Governor to the PDP, are willing now to come back; the door is widely open to them. We have started harvesting a lot of them; members of the PDP particularly those who left with the Governor from APC because that is not their home, if the Governor find good reasons to say I want to return to the APC my home, I am ready to change, not only ready to change, but I am ready to abide by the constitutional provision of the APC as a Party; very, very important, if he is ready to keep to the tenets of APC as a Party, then of course the door will be open to him. So, that is the assurances that he will give us as a Party and that he will not come to destroy the Party for us like he did before or like he did in the PDP. We will not accommodate such a person but our doors are open; if there is a change of heart, a change of character, there is a change of attitude, a change of approach and a change of mind towards all that he did wrong against the Party, he is ready to correct them, of course, the door will be open to him.

APC Government performance under President Muhammadu Buhari

I want to let the world know that our cry and complaint about the APC particularly at the national is rather unfortunate, because the Party has done so much to positively change the narratives. It should be noted that the APC Government came on board when there was economic crisis globally and Nigeria cannot be an exception. This is a nation of a mono economy: solely dependent on revenue from the sales of oil. The APC came into Government during a global fall of oil prices but thank God, it is gradually rising again. Also, amidst that, the global pandemic of the coronavirus struck but today, as I speak with you, Nigeria is one of the countries the EU has given approval to produce machines for the treatment of Covid-19. This is a plus to this Government which is doing everything humanly possible to take the nation from the schackles of economic depression: it is not peculiar to Nigeria. I want us to believe it; every other country in the world is passing through this phase. In the prevailing situation, the Buhari led APC Government is taking a lot of steps to ameliorate the unintended pains of the people and positively impact them. The insecurity scourge is relentlessly been tackled, few days ago the security agencies took delivery of some of the most sophisticated weaponry in the world from the U.S. A, Germany and France in the history of security in Nigeria. With synchronized efforts therefore, lasting peace will be achieved in the nation. So, I want to passionately appeal to Nigerians to be patient with the the APC Government as it is people oriented, and doing all that is humanly possible as a responsible and responsive political Party; to deliver its electioneering promises to the people who gave her mandate. It is true that all may not be well now, but the truth is that the Federal Government within the scope of available limited resources, is not closing its eyes to the challenges as they are.

So you are assuring that APC has the capacity to positively re – position Nigeria before 2023?

If Nigeria can be ajudged by the EU as one of the progressive States in Africa, and if we can be ajudged by other developed nations as a country on the right path in terms of governance, I think that is a plus for us and I appeal that our people should give us the time and patience the situation demands. And remembering the point the APC assumed office in relation to what is being done: the building of infrastructure; the railway sector, bridges and roads, health, education and other sectors, is a reflection of the fact that the Government is not feeling unconcerned and closing its eyes to the challenges as they are.