My work will campaign for me – Gov Oshiomhole

In this interview, Governor Adams Oshiomhole describes the challenge of governance in the last four years, and looks forward to the electioneering season which will come up in July 2012. He granted the interview in the Government House, Benin City. Excerpts:

You have been in Government House for over three years. What is the experience like, changing from Labour leader to being a governor often faced with ultimatums and strikes by Labour unions?

In the NLC, the focus was on the welfare of the workers, the welfare of the people. Job security and civil liberty. In all of that the focus is on the people. That is what defines the struggle at the Nigeria Labour Congress.

In government, the people are the primary focus in terms of the welfare of their rights. Their privileges, their right to good quality of life and I think for me nothing has changed. As I have argued elsewhere those who really have difficulty are people who transfer from being businessmen and women where the focus is on maximizing profit for the individual, family or business, and where the tactics of achieving that is basically, to exploit the workforce and appropriate the difference between what you pay them in wages and the value of what they actually contribute and that is labelled as profit which is reserved for the owners of the business.

The only thing that is fundamentally different, in my view is that whereas as a union man, you dictate, negotiate, demand, you give ultimatum and you go on strike to press home your demand, as a governor, you have the executive capacity to carry out your wishes, rather than waiting for people to persuade you. You do what you are convinced is right. I think to that extent, that is for me a qualitative difference.

For example, Edo State was the first state to pay the minimum wage, if I were in the NLC, I might be pressurising Edo State to try to make my state to live by example, but as a governor, I did not need to be persuaded by anyone, I was convinced about it and I told my union people, I am in a hurry to be the first to implement it to show that it is implementable. That for me is a constructive difference; that you can do it if you are convinced about it.

I have personally experienced the menace of flooding in Benin City. How have you been able to address flooding in the state which previous administration could not solve?

To be honest, every fact of life in Edo State had decayed. In most parts of the country, people look forward to the rainy season and in some parts, people have to organise prayers for God to send them rain but people of Benin City in particular never looked forward to the rainy season, because of the havoc it usually wreaked on the people, because there were no drainage. The one constructed by the Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia government, surface drainage and underground, a very good network, in addition to the moat dug by our great, great grandfathers; all these were not being maintained.

Benin is only city with that comprehensive moat which provided for both security as well as flood control, but over the years governments allowed the drainage to be blocked, and no effort was made to de-silt it. The moat was compromised by the people and government for allowing people, including sometimes, government agencies converting the moat to waste dumps sites.

Others who considered themselves powerful even decided to build houses on the moat. All of these taken together with lack of investment on infrastructure, that was why persons lost their loved ones during the rains. That was how serious the situation was. People had given up on Edo. The official position was that what can we do, we don’t have resources, all kind of explanations.

The same situation was prevailing in other sectors. The one you will not see by the road side was the situation in our public schools. Almost 95 percent of our public schools had witnessed situations where pupils were sharing classrooms, primary one, primary two, they are packed in one classroom. In most cases the students sat on the floor.

That was the situation and this was everywhere including in Benin City, the capital.

Our Central Hospital was built in 1903 and since then, there has been no major intervention other than piecemeal token refurbishing and unco-ordinated temporary structures added here and there. When I visited the hospital, I told the director that even for a healthy person, if he walks into the hospital and spends five minutes there he is likely to require medical help.

In the rural communities, most of them were not accessible which is one of the things, I am happy about that I got involved in politics. In Edo Central, it is common to find people with surface tanks to collect water, rain water, during the rainy season, which they hope to rely on during the dry season. Although several bore holes had been sunk, billions of Naira was allegedly spent to provide water for the people who were told borehole could not be viable, even though they had been paid for.

This was more or less the situation. In other words, Edo had been an unviable entity. From being the heart beat of the nation, one whose citizens were respected, if you remember the old Bendel and Midwest, from that height we came so low that we are now being reported only in terms of armed robbery, other very negative violent crimes. But the good news is that it is not an act of God, it is the result of many years of misapplication of public funds and leadership that had not factored in the people as the essence d primary purpose of governance.

What are the methods you have adopted to turn things around to make the situation better than what you met?

I think the first thing is to try to understand, how did we get here? You rightly reminded us that the last time Edo people witnessed development was in the era of Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia, ironically, as a military governor. But coming from Edo State, he had a kind heart and common passion to build up the dream of the founders of Midwest region. You know this was the only state that was democratically created.

A referendum was conducted and people voted for the creation of Midwest region. I think Ogbemudia might be inspired by the appreciation of the vision behind that agitation which our people massively bought into, voting for the creation of Midwest State and therefore worked so hard to realise the dream. But thereafter, in trying to identify how we got here, we started having one military government after the other, who were not from this state, who were posted, like the way they will post a Brigade Commander, who arrived without a purpose. They did not have immediate or long term interest.

What makes a democracy superior to military is the power of the electorate to reward and punish public servant or political office holder, by electing and removing according to their judgment of your performance. Which is why we identify roads, erosion and flood control, de-silting drainages and rebuilding the health centres, introducing free ante-natal health care for pregnant mothers as well as free medical health care for children up to the age of five and reinventing the public schools and building them to a standard primary or secondary schools in Edo State and I will take you out to visit any private school of your choice, and I will show you the public schools.

Community developmenet

We are reconnecting the rural communities with electricity as well as roads, so that when we ask our people remain in the rural area, we are not saying remain in prison or jungle, they will be there and they can have access to electricity, they can listen to radio and watch television. Those of their children who are knowledgeable with some effort they can access the internet and they do not have to come to Benin City to access the internet. For boreholes, we realised that the problem was insufficiency of equipment. We decided to import heavy duty bore hole rigs to drill water such that there is no terrain in Edo State today where we cannot get water.

In Ekpoma and Iruekpen where Prof. Osunbor comes from we now have water, and several other places. These are areas over the past 35 years, there were water tanks but no water and now we have proven that there is water because scientifically it has been established that there is nowhere on this planet where you can’t get water. One terrain could be more challenging than another but the technology exists to deal with it because even in the desert you can get water.

I read in the papers that the current internally generated revenue (IGR) in Edo State is N2 billion per month. It sounds like a fairy tale. Please tell us how you went about this because other parts of the country may want to copy from you by looking inward.

I assumed office on November 12, 2008 and we saw our average earning from the federation account crashing from an average of between N4 and N5 billion a month to N1.6 billion a month with a wage bill of N2 billion and internal generated revenue of an average of N285 million. So when you added the IGR with our share of the federation account, our net receipt was about N1.9 and yet our basic requirement to run the bureaucracy was about N2 billion.

This meant if I did not do something, Edo State was going to continue in what has been known in the past, namely not being able to pay salaries because before I assumed office, it was quite common that for two, three months, workers in the public sector in Edo State were not paid because the money was not there. But for me, coming from my background there is no way I can approach workers, to say, sorry because of some reasons, the pay day is not sacrosanct. For me the pay day is sacrosanct.

It has to be respected and enforced. I was troubled at that point. You know as they say necessity is the mother of invention and I had to look at two things, first, why must we spend N2 billion to run a small bureaucracy? Two, why are we earning so little from internally generated revenue, N285 million a month? When you start questioning, you begin to understand and that makes you to first discover that there were lots of wastages in our system.

Expenditure pattern

Eighty percent of our total earning was being devoted to recurrent expenditure and only twenty percent of the budget was for capital project, which explained the decay in various sectors of the economy of the state. So how do you deal with that?

First we believed we have a team of young professionals. A multi-disciplinary team of young men and women, mostly of Edo State origin, not necessarily living in Benin City; people who have made it and are making it in their private lives. First we must reorder our structure of expenditure, we must put more money on capital project and less on recurrent, but how do you do that without carrying out retrenchment?

Now we went into the specifics. Each of the elements that constituted the recurrent expenditure, subhead by subhead and we discovered that the real cost was not on workers salary, was not as a result of the wage bill. It was generally described as goverhead. So the first year we saved N5 billion on cost of running government.

We aggressively addressed the second question, why are we earning only N285 million.

There is something curious about Edo State, after, Lagos, Abuja and probably Port Harcourt, this state has the highest number of banks and branches of banks in Nigeria.

We tried to understand why are banks locating here; if, as everybody seems to feel that this is a civil service town. As you interact you begin to discover what you might call invisible but viable businesses, here and there, because of the way the Nigeria economy is largely informal, it is informal because of weakness in our information management system.

As we investigated more and more we discovered that a couple of things were possible, so we first corrected the deficiency in the Pay As You Earn, we enforced the law. We had challenges with that, workers did not think a union man, should enforce that law.

The good thing is that I can be accused of having organized several strikes and I will be guilty of those accusations, because I have organized too many, I cannot even remember, right from the age of 16, 17 years, I will be causing trouble. In all my union training and all the union literature I have read, including literature on governance of the left or of the right, the practice of democracy, or progressive, taxation is common. So I have never led strike against taxation. But, who pays what, the law can be made in a way as to favour the rich or the poor. But there is always a tax and states live on tax. But you must pay tax.

We found a lot of people here who occupy 3000, 4000, 10,000 square metres of residential accommodation. They pay next to nothing. Even to process a C of O costs N25,000.00, express, N50,000.00 for a property worth maybe N500 million, N1 billion. People are running private schools, one pupil pays N300,000 per annum and the school is paying only N10,000, over all to the state. Someone has a very big private hospital, where their consulting fee is a minimum of N1,000, just to see the doctor and what he pays to government is N7,000 per annum.

We saw that there were people who were given government land for farming which was converted to private use. They become landlords. We saw that banks, all these guys with double br*asted suit, talking about accountability and corporate social responsibility, ninety five percent of them are tax defaulters, they falsify their records, under declare their earnings and therefore defraud the state.

We had to get people to carry out the audit and the laws are very enabling to empower public authority to investigate any body, including the deposit you pay to the bank. It is possible to establish what you are worth, and through this we are able to improve our locally generated revenue from that paltry sum to an average of N2 billion which we attained last month. But we are not celebrating.

Cleaning up the system

I think we ought to be able to do better, if we can clean up the system and get even more aggressive.

People were surprised because government has never announced they have money in the past, this is the first time a government says, they have N13.5 billion. It is a very small money and some of our neighbouring government earn this in ten days. But when you recognize that our monthly earnings from the federation accounts at that time, was about N1.6 billion, N13.5 billion represent almost nine months of total earnings from the Federation Accounts.

In my first year budget, we decided to put seventy percent of the total capital budget to deal with the flooding and roads in Benin City rather than going to every senatorial district, local government. If we do that we won’t be able to build any road. Some people criticised me that we were only working in Benin. I said fine, but the good thing is that Benin is our capital and there is no hamlet in Edo State that does not have its people living in Benin.

Even my village as small as it there are my village people who have been living here for so many years. If you touch Benin City, you touch a fair representation of every hamlet in Edo State. Even politically, there is nothing wrong with that. So I know I have a four year tenure, subject to God. I can plan that this is what I am going to do for the first year , second year, this is what I will do, third and fourth year.

Explain your plan for deflooding Benin City.

One thing in management, is that you just don’t throw money at a problem. The first thing is to try to understand the problem and to get value for money you must carry out certain studies. So I was clear that to deal with the problem of flooding in Benin we needed a holistic approach. We commissioned a foreign consulting firm to revisit the Benin City master plan, they carried out some studies and came out with what we now call, Benin City water storm master plan. They have been able to establish the number of water basins within the city and where to channel water to. So when we are building a road, or constructing drainage, we know exactly where the drainage will lead to.

We are taking the first bold steps now of dealing with one of the basins and we are dredging a modern canal spanning, totally over fourteen kilometres, and the first canal is about seven kilometres.

We can now channel the secondary drain into the primary drain. If we are constructing any road, we will channel it into the primary drain, and the water will flow to the river. We also insisted, as a matter of policy, that every road must have drains on both sides. Having looked at the habit of our people, who throw all sorts of things into the drainage system, we also decided to cover the drains on the two sides of the road and then convert that to walkway so under the walk way, you have a flowing drain.

We have manholes you can open up and de-silt if it gets blocked, so basically that is what we have done and that is what we are doing right now, and you will find out that there is no one road in Benin we are doing that does not carry drainage, walkway and even street lights.

Will your coming from Edo North be a problem in your bid for a second term?

No. First is that Edo people have been extremely kind and generous to me even the first time because the only thing I invested in this project is my reputation as a labour leader. They trusted us that those qualities they saw that if I get involved in governance I will make a difference. That was all I invested. It is that power of support that enabled us to overwhelm the godfather and his rigging machine down the drain.

Three years four months down the road, we have demonstrated that Edo state is working again and so for me therefore the campaign is being done by those contractors working in various parts of the state and because they are working in every local government, the campaigns are going on by what people see. Just give me two minutes, we will go to one or two places on project supervision and I want you to listen to people’s comment, I will not say anything to anybody and you are likely to hear people say, forget about campaigning for 2012, carry go, Osho baba we are for you.

There is nothing our opponents are going to be able to point at that they achieved.

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Gov. Oshiomhole’s Example

SIR: The Governor of Edo state ceased being Comrade when he argued that prices are never stable, and so, even if he would not subscribe to “fuel subsidy removal” per se, he supported fuel price increase. He, like most of the other Governors swallowed the yeast of President Goodluck Jonathan (GJ) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), because of the minimum wage of N18.000 that the labour forces insisted upon.

I felt disappointed in Adams Oshiomhole particularly because he was a reputable comrade, as the former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress who was positively fierce in logical arguments. In respect of the fabricated “fuel subsidy removal”, however, he turned his back against the masses. Why did he conveniently overlook the fact that GJ was merely covering up stealing in the oil and gas sector? Yielding easily to imperialists, means Oshiomhole sees nothing wrong in their political operations. Who, then, should ordinary Nigerians look up to for the struggle for a better Nigeria?

Be that as it may, the Governor spoke like a comrade again when he promised never to outlaw commercial motorcycling (popularly called okada) in Edo state. Henceforth, I will resume addressing him as Comrade. I always lament that rulers who outlaw okada do so because they lack sympathy for pedestrians, and they themselves are driven in official vehicles when they don’t fly. Banning okada is as wicked as some members of the National Assembly who were seeking to ban workers’ strike in Nigeria.

Many remote streets are not plied by taxes and the residents who have no cars suffer untold hardship without okada. People who have 20 cars also take okada when they are desperate to reach a destination in a bad traffic situation or when their car breaks down. Anti-people policies are easy where opposition political parties are under duress. Opposition political parties must however exist in Nigeria to chase-out the PDP that has been deceiving ordinary Nigerians about power and other amenities since 1999.

*Pius Abioje,

University of Ilorin.

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UNCOVERED ! HOW GOVERNOR’S MOTHER FUNCTIONS AS FIRST LADY.

The 1st Lady of any state is supposed to be the wife of the Governor of that state.

In Edo State,the situation is very different.

Since the death of Comrade Adams Oshiomole’s wife,the office of the 1st Lady,the Governor’s mother has taken over the function of the 1st Lady of the state.

Since the death of her son’s wife, she has been enjoying all the trappings attached to the office of the 1st Lady and her house at Iyamo,near Auchi in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State is a Mecca of sort with visitors and favor seekers coming and going.

Indeed, the house is a beehive of activities.

Mama Oshiomole is in her 70’s and like her Comrade son,she enjoys talking a lot.

In fact between her and the son,they have perfected the art of talking so much that it is difficult to determine the other.

All manner of people troop to her Iyamo home to see her.

This is a pointer to the amount of political influence,she wields interestingly,the profile of the visitors is diverse as they across classes,such as businessman,contractors and politicians,who besiege her house on daily basis from the rise of the sun to its set for one political favour or another.

The politicians even try to outdo themselves in bid to secure her attention.

Currently,Mama Oshiomole along with wives of Council Chairman is campaigning for second term for her Comrade son.

Despite her age,she still seems agile to mount the soap box and campaign vigorously for the son’s second term bid.

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Two die as 7 female students fall into well in Ekpoma this morning

Tragedy struck early this morning at the Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma, after seven female students fell into a well located inside one of the hostels inside the school compound while fetching water and doing other things around the well.

According to eye witnesses, three girls were washing on top of the well, which is the hostel's only source of water, while the remaining four were sitting on its top, when all of a sudden the well collapsed beneath them. All seven girls fell into the well.

Other students around the hostel when the incident occurred rescued 6 of the alive. Unfortunately one died inside the well. Another one died on the way to the hospital. The remaining five are receiving treatment at the hospital.

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Lebanese Business Man abducted in Auchi

An Edo State-based Lebanese businessman whose name was given as Sarkis has been abducted by men suspected to be kidnappers.

Sarkis, who is the Managing Director of Reality Nigeria, was reportedly abducted on Tuesday night at his residence in Auchi, Estako West Local Government Area of the state.

Sources said the gunmen scaled the fence of Sarkis residence to gain access after which he was taken away to an undisclosed destination.

The source said the kidnappers were yet to make contact with the family members or the community leaders on what is required for the release of…

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5 dead, 10,000 displaced after clashes in Benin

Clashes that broke out after Muslims were violently targeted in Benin have left five people dead and more than 10,000 displaced, a Red Cross official said Tuesday.

“We have recorded so far five deaths — on both sides, those that have been attacked and the attackers,” said Dan Enowoghomwenwa, secretary general of the Nigerian Red Cross in Edo state, said

“We have over 10,000 internally displaced persons in various places.

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We must not surrender to fear in 2012

GOVERNOR Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has urged Nigerians to stand firm in the Year 2012 and should not surrender to fear, even in the face of intimidation and violent attacks by those desperate to spread mutual hatred.

In his New Year message, Oshiomhole who noted that the Nigerian nation, and not a particular religion or ethnic group, is under attack, urged the people to rise as one to face the challenge and defend the integrity of the polity.

He said: “in the Year 2012, we can confidently look forward to a brighter future, because we have all the ingredients that engender socio-economic and political progress; namely, an enterprising people and a government that works.

“For our beloved country, the times are certainly hard across all spheres of governance. In particular, the deficits in the security of lives and property and the management of our diversity have attained levels that give renewed cause for grave anxiety.

At this juncture, the Nigerian nation, not one particular religion or ethnic group, is under attack. We must respond as Nigerians and rise as a people to face the challenge, united by a common resolve to defend our collective security and the integrity of the polity.

“I believe strongly that Nigeria is all that we have and we have a duty to make it work. I urge that we continue to extend support to Mr. President in his efforts to respond to the multifaceted problems he inherited.

“Many nations have passed through the dangers and travails unleashed by secular and sectarian violence. Certainly, several are going through such difficulties even now. Solutions come by dint of faith in God; conscious efforts to nurture unity and consensus, as well as a firm resolve to defend the integrity of the polity.

“Therefore, we must not surrender to fear, mutual hatred or desperation to repartition the polity.

“At this point, our thoughts go out particularly to those who lost their loved ones in the recent violent attacks on innocent Nigerians. While we share in their grief, we cannot afford to give up the common Pan-Nigeria aspiration of the vast majority of our people.

“We in Edo State re-affirm our unflinching support to President Goodluck Jonathan as he leads the nation to find the right mix of solutions to the multifaceted problems and seek to put the nation on a sound development footing.

“I assure Edo people that everything will be done to apply the machinery of the state to make life better for us and our children.

“I wish Mr President and all Nigerians a happy and fulfilling 2012, with a prayer that God should bless our efforts to fix Nigeria.”

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Thieves Raided Benin Hospital to Steal Babies For Rituals

Some thieves yesterday morning reportedly invaded the maternity wards of the central hospital in Benin, the capital of Edo State, attempting to steal newly born babies.

Many of the patients of the hospital, who confirmed the incident to our correspondent, appealed to the state government to provide adequate security in the hospital. One Mr. Bernard Isokponba said his wife who gave birth on Monday told him that the thieves stormed the female ward of the hospital in the midnight looking for placenta and babies.

Some of the staff of the hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the thieves could be agents of some politicians who have always used placenta, fetus and newly born babies for rituals. 

The secretary of the hospital management committee, Isaac Isain, confirmed the incident, but denied that the invaders targeted newly born babies. “Thieves invaded the hospital and stole some handsets and cash from patients on admission. 

Some suspects have been arrested and are now at the Adesuwa police station. This is not the first time thieves will enter the hospital”. He however said the management of the hospital had put measures in place to ensure adequate security in the hospital.

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I was offered N2.5b to forget my mandate – Oshiomhole

Simon Ebegbulem, Benin City

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state celebrated his third year anniversary last Saturday in a grand style. It witnessed different Nigerian artistes.

Edo people also used the occasion to watch an international friendly between the Super Eagles and the Bostwana national team. Amidst his anniversary events, Saturday Vanguard cornered the Labour leader turned Governor for this exclusive interview.

And as usual, he bares his mind on some of the security problems bedeviling the state, his optimism on President Goodluck Jonathan led administration and the proposed removal of the fuel subsidy. Governor Oshiomhole also speaks on his preparedness for the forthcoming 2012 governorship election in the state, asserting that “this election will be the easiest for me”, among other national issues. Excerpts:

Nigerians are worried about the menace of Boko Haram. How can we check the problem?

The federal authority should know all the facts because I am sure they have facts which I cannot have. And I want to believe that they are dealing with it to the best of their ability. This is something that is completely known. But I believe the government is doing its best to tackle it.

Gov Oshiomhole

You know security issues are not easy. I am sure there are couples of things they must be doing that they cannot discuss in the media. We just pray that somehow we are able to sort out this issue. I like to believe that the Federal Government is doing its best. I think everybody is worried that things we used to watch in the movie or on TV are now happening here.

But I am aware that the Federal Government is trying to acquire some gadgets to check the excesses of both the Boko Haram and kidnappers. For us here, we have made effort to empower security agencies in Edo. Over four 400 kidnappers have been arrested and facing trial today in the state. We have bought about 100 vehicles and communication gadgets to assist them. And they are doing their best. But my appeal here is that when I see the PDP in Edo state talking about insecurity in the state, I ask who is responsible for security?

The security of Nigerians is in the hands of the Federal Government and it is a PDP government. All security agencies are under the Federal Government. We are just here to advise and to compliment the effort of the Federal Government. But the constitutional responsibility for peace and security is the responsibility of the Federal Government.

And when they are talking about security, they are indicting the PDP government because that is where the power resides. Do you know that I have given a couple of orders that a couple of people should be arrested? They told me no, that Abuja has given a counter order and those people are walking freely in the streets. However, I know that President Jonathan is doing his best to solve these problems.

Removal of fuel subsidy

Nigeria for me is a reality. We passed through the civil war and we cannot break up. Yes, some of our country men and women are angry but I believe in the unity of this country and I will work on the side of one Nigeria. The problem is that we have far too many, greedy and selfish people who are ready to undermine the system if it does not work according to their selfish interest. I do not see how oil subsidy affects the disintegration of Nigeria.

It was not oil that brought us together. The issue of debating whether oil subsidy should stay or go has been on right from the time of the military, so you cannot say that the military never thought of it.

Whether it stays or goes is not what will disintegrate the country. But I think we should be careful in the way we comment on very serious national issues. We have seen many countries passing through serious economic turmoil. United States was almost going bankrupt just few months back. They had to pass a law to raise their borrowing requirement. Greece is currently going through serious liquidity crisis, almost bankrupt. They are dealing with it their own way. The entire Europe is experiencing economic crisis but I have not heard anybody talking about disintegration. Disintegration is not the solution. This country must be defended and we must defend the country.

I think we can engage in a very healthy national conversation. What is the best way to fix the economy? Should subsidy be removed or should it stay? This for me is a healthy national conversation, but no one should go beyond that and talk about disintegration. Nigerian cannot be on the mercy of few individuals.

PDP has vowed to recapture Edo in 2012. How prepared are you for the 2012 guber race ?

I appreciate your recollecting their exact word. They want to take over. That is a military language. Coups have been outlawed and it remains outlawed. Those who are still wallowing in the past that they want to take over are day dreaming.

That is probably why I heard they are considering a General, may be they expect the General will bring out the guns from the barracks. They will use the armed forces, both serving and retired to rig the election for the General. That is probably why they are using the word take over. But I am sure that the General will reconcile with the reality that coup plotting is not in place in a democracy. The people will vote.

He has to persuade those voters and we will meet in the field. And he will be able to speak to his pedigree and I will be able to speak to my pedigree. Both when he was a soldier and myself when I was in the NLC. Everybody has a pedigree before we came here and we will enlighten Edo people to look at the characters and ask themselves the question, who can we trust? That issue will come.

But I believe that politics is not magic, it is not one of those miracles. We can see through the behavioral pattern of the electorate. Since we assumed office here, on the basis of a certain campaign against godfatherism which is a campaign against imposition, campaign against pocketing public resources and subjecting the people to wallow in hopelessness, Edo people have since bought this message. I take you down memory lane. By January 2009, from the PDP leader down to their stewards, they were boasting that my being Governor was because the judiciary was just generous to me; that otherwise Edo was a PDP state. What is their evidence?

They pointed to the fact that all the members of the National Assembly were PDP, all the Local Government chairmen were PDP, that the state House of Assembly had the 2/3 members in PDP. They came to a conclusion that I was a governor by chance; that it was because Chief Anenih had disagreement with Osunbor that was why I won the case in court as if Chief Anenih controls the judiciary.

It is not courtesy of Chief Anenih. It is because they rigged the elections. And we are able unlike in the past where once you rigged election, they called you and gave you some money and asked you to forget the mandate.

They tried to do it to me, they offered me over N2.5billion to forget the election. I said no, I cannot monetize it because my purpose of getting into politics was not because I needed money to complete my family house. I wanted an opportunity to make a difference.

I also reminded them that people died for that election, so I could not do that. From that situation, we went into some bye elections arising from the nullification of some of the elections they rigged. When we won the first one in Akoko Edo, Chief Anenih said I deceived him, that the next time around, he would teach us a lesson. If you remember, it was after Akoko Edo election that he started abusing me; that I don’t know the difference between labour and politics, that they will chase me out of Government House.

That was how we defined the battle line. I have defined the struggle till date. After Akoko Edo, it we went to Etsako Central election. Under Prof.Iwu, Chief Anenih had all the influence. They got Iwu to post away the Resident Electoral Commissioner because the man was obstructing them from rigging in Akoko Edo. They brought in an INEC Resident Officer, one Raji who they have used in rigging election in other places. They ask him to come to Edo.

The then Minister of Defence, General Abbe, decided to disband our Operation Thunderstorm because he felt that it would create an obstacle for them, in terms of the arms they wanted to move to the area. And they even decided to impress on the then Inspector General of Police that they should bring Police from Abuja. They brought police from Abuja under the command of an AIG.

But I said they could change everybody but they could not relocate Edo people. We went into that election. They tried to rig and we got some of them arrested and we won them hands down. After that, we went for another election in Akoko Edo and we defeated them again. We also had a re-run in Ovia South West again we won the election.

The godfather now knew that people of Edo state were determined. You cannot see what is good and replace it with what is bad. And of course, they said because those elections were isolated, that when we had a general election, where everybody is manning his own area, that they will use all their Federal might and resources to fight. We went into this last election. They spent so much money, yet we rooted them out.

The whole of Edo South, the largest senatorial district, they could not win even one seat. We now know how they do their rigging and that is why they are in the cage today. In Edo North, even with Senator Braimoh and Akogun, the leader of the House of Reps, we defeated them beyond any question.

The whole of Edo South, they lost their deposit. The whole of Edo North, they lost their deposit. In Edo Central, we made few mistakes; first we fielded one or two wrong candidates. One of them has already returned to PDP. That shows we should not have fielded that candidate. One DPO that has been working for the godfather tampered with the election in that area but we still won in some areas. Yes, they won few seats in the Central.

Then we had the Presidential election. Our members supported Jonathan and they came up with one trick, telling people that from now on, everything is PDP but I came out to say no; that was only for Jonathan now. We must be back to pure politics. And we defeated them in the general election. On the basis of evidence, just last April, we are not talking of few years ago, few months back, we moved the people back to ACN after the Presidential election and we won.

We won two senatorial seats. Of the 10 House of Reps we won eight, of the 24 House of Assembly, we won 19. So where is the godfather’s strength? We have confined him to his area and he is down and out. The only reason that he is still breathing is that Abuja has placed him on political oxygen but how far can he go?

He can be relevant in Abuja but in Edo, people have moved on. I keep saying it put the PDP’s name in a ballot paper and my name in a ballot paper, I will defeat him even in his village. Because I can pinpoint what we have done in his village. I have built a road and schools in his village. As far as I am concerned, when they say they will capture, that is a military language.

They must democratise their language because if they don’t know, elections will be conducted on the basis of one man one vote.

Many people have told me that they said they will flood Edo with soldiers both retired and serving. I will like to see. If President Goodluck Jonathan did not use soldiers to rig elections for him, how their own retired General who was not in the combatant wing will use the army, serving and retired, to rig election in Edo state. We are waiting to see how he will do it.

But if you ask me, this election will be the easiest because it is not being contested by strangers. I have been here. The people can see what I have done in three years. The PDP has been here.

The people can see what they did in 10 years. Even the road, with due respect to Prof.Osunbor, he built some roads but Simon, where are those roads now? The roads have all failed because they built them without drainage.

The election will be won and lost on the basis of issues. The report card of PDP between 1999 and 2008 and ACN report card to July when the election will take place, that will be about three and half years. Then the second level is to look at the character, who is Oshiomhole and then the people will look at whoever will be their candidate. They will look at his pedigree, his accomplishment. Some of us have been detained in the course of the union work. We can say why we were detained. If they have also been detained in the course of their own work, they should be able to tell us also why they were detained.

The beauty of democracy is that once you have come to the village square, you are entitled to go through the extreme. It is not going to be what they are thinking that they will print result sheets and announce results then we can go to court. I want to see how they can do it. For me, I want to continue to deliver to the people of Edo state, use the current mandate to the fullest so as to justify why we are asking for a second mandate.

PDP says the FG contributed to most of the on-going school projects, that it is not the sole effort of your government.

You know when I read all these PDP lies, my only complain is that it is not in the mouth of a liar to lie to those who know the truth. The media knows the truth. Therefore, if you find people who live and survive on lies over the year, you just ignore them. This is why we call them People Decieve People or Papa Decieve Pickin. PDP was in government since 1999. In Edo state, at the state level, at the Local Government level.

They had absolute control of everything. And the Federal Government is a PDP Government since 1999. If it is true that the funds were there just for people to take, what stops them from going to Abuja to collect the money to develop the state. After all, some of them in their electioneering campaigns against my candidature said Edo state should not be isolated, they should be in the main stream of politics.

Now, how come they who were in the heart of PDP with their godfather as the leader of PDP, did not get the money to develop the state if what they are saying is the truth? In fact, that makes it more annoying and that is the more reason Edo people should stone them. You are part of the Federal government, the “Leader” here, the godfather is the leader of PDP at the national level. You said these funds were there. Why did you not take them? It means they hated our people.

Let me tell you, there is a Universal Basic Education and I did not hide the fact that I was shocked on assumption of office that for six years, PDP government refused to access the UBE fund because they were not ready to contribute the counterpart funding. And I decided that we must raise the counterpart funding which they were not prepared to do ,even when I met an empty treasury. Because when I assumed office, not one dime was in the treasury. I met a huge debt of N10billion. So we raised N2.5billion to pay the counterpart fund so as to develop the state.

So for me, these are just empty, incoherent, laughable statements which for me portray them more as people who are in politics with no purpose.

Their second allegation is that we have been borrowing. Again , you go to the stock market, you know how much the Federal Government has borrowed or is borrowing. Within our South South region here, I am surrounded by PDP controlled states.

You know how much they have borrowed through the capital market and you know how much they earn from Federal allocation. Edo is the least in this region. We have only gone to the stock marker once and we raised only N25billion where others have raised N100bilion, others N50billion.

For us to raise that money, we had to demonstrate that we had the capacity to pay back and from December last year when this bond matured, we paid from the Federation Account because it is deducted at source, N520million monthly to service that bond, including both capital and the accruing interest rate which we are already paying into a fund that is being managed by a board approved by the Stock Exchange.

As we speak, this year alone, we have already paid over N6billion. So what is left now is N19billion. You see, people who have no brains will not be able to understand how government works. But the important thing is only to remind them that this government is not the first to take bond in Edo state.

The PDP Government also accessed bond in Edo state. The issue is have we pocketed this money? The money is still available and that is why not one of our contractors has abandoned site on account of none payment. We are the least borrowed state across the country.

Allegation of expending N3b for third year-anniversary celebration

Even if these people don’t know God, even if they must lie by habit, at least they should lie in a way that makes some sense. What is the line up of the anniversary that it will cost even a N100m, not to talk of N3billion? What they are confused about is the fact that this government enjoys enormous goodwill. I am sure when they heard that the Super Eagles were coming to play an international march with Botswana at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, they thought that Oshiomhole must have hired them.

I will get a copy of the letter from Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to you where they said, ‘Comrade, we want to come to Benin to acknowledge your contribution to the development of sports and development in the state’. (He gave the letter to Saturday Vanguard). So we did not lobby, we are not the one paying. This is purely the gift from NFF, not out of pity for us but in acknowledgement of what we have done. When we were doing these roads in Benin, they said we were planting flowers.

When we wanted to do the Airport Road, they said we wanted to destroy the Oba’s palace. But thank God, the Oba is far more knowledgeable and more exposed than any of these political rascals. We said we were going to remove those funny roundabouts which Osunbor put on Akpakpava Road, to create an additional lane to make it three lanes, they said it was impossible. But today, people hardly remember those funny looking PDP roundabouts on Akpakpava road.

When we decided to build additional two service lanes on Ugbowo road to Uwelu to create additional lanes, the then Minister of State for Works said it was impossible; that he would revoke the contract. How can you revoke what is not yours.

There is nothing we have planned here to do that they have not tried to twist. But for me, it does not bother me anymore because the people are watching and seeing our developments. In any case, if they said Edo is broke and we are spending N3billion, where did we now get the money?

How has it been ruling Edo state in the past three years?

For me it has been quite exciting, no dull moment. As I have said to many people I thank God that I decided to get into politics and I thank him for what he has used His infinite powers to accomplish for us in terms of being able to prevail over some of these very powerful dark forces that have dominated the state for a long time.

I have come to the conclusion that our people are extremely easy to govern. And they are a very appreciative people. They are willing and ready to corporate for anything they believe is in the interest of the majority. I have had enormous support across social classes, even to some extent across political divide. So it has been a very rewarding experience for me. But I must confess that in the first few months in office, I was a very troubled man. I was troubled by the fact that I assumed office at the peak of the oil crisis. Oil prices collapsed and the allocation to Edo state also collapsed to a level that was below what we needed to pay salaries. And given my background there was so much expectations. But three years down the road, I am a happier person, far more confident and with a sense of fulfillment.

I am proud that from what seems to be a complete hopeless situation one has been able to re-engineer the governance of the state, the politics of the state such that even my most ardent critic now accepts that things have changed and Edo is changing. At least we have cured our people of that self doubt.

Now, our people again can proudly refer Edo as the true Heart Beat of our great country. I feel quite happy that God has used me and other people in government to bring about this re-awakening and to God be the glory.

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Edo Deputy Gov’s wife to pay N12m damages to soldier

A Federal High Court in Benin, Edo State, yesterday, ordered the wife of the Deputy Governor of Edo State, Mrs. Endurance Odubu, to pay the sum of N12 million as damages to Captain Olorunduyilemi Stephen, an Army officer with the 4th Brigade.

Captain Stephen was allegedly beaten up and detained by security operatives attached to Mrs. Odubu in January last year.

Following the assault and detention, Captain Stephen went to court, seeking for N502 million as damages. He also prayed the court to order the defendant to tender an unreserved apology, to be published in five national dailies and three electronic media, for the beating he received from her security operatives.

Trial judge, Justice Adamu Hobon, in his judgment, yesterday, also ordered Mrs Odubu to tender an apology to the Army officer in three electronic media and two national dailies.

The court held that the use of siren was for emergency use by fire fighters and top government officials, which the wife of a deputy governor was not entitled to as she was a private citizen.

Justice Hobon further noted that the defendant did not charge the complainant before any competent court since the incident occurred in January 2010 which, according to him, meant that the complainant did not commit any offence.

The court described the beating of the Army officer as unlawful and awarded N2 million as special damages for medical bills and car damage, and N10 million as general damages for infringing on his fundamental human rights and illegal detention of Captain Stephen.

It will be recalled that Captain Stephen was allegedly beaten up along Sapele Road Benin City on January 11, 2010 when his car almost ran into the convoy of the Deputy Governor’s wife. The security operatives were said to have forcefully dragged him out and beat him up before taking him to Mrs. Odubu’s residence.

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