Okpebholo: Quietly Turning Edo Around for Good

Fred Itua writes that Governor Monday Okpebholo is leaving no stone unturned in ensuring that development gets to all the nooks and crannies of Edo State.

There are men who walk into history with drums behind them. And then, there are those who carve their names into stone with bare hands. No noise, just purpose. Monday Okpebholo is the latter. A man shaped not by applause but by assignment.

He does not need the echo of a microphone to be heard. He is the hush before the storm, the pulse beneath progress, the quiet fire burning behind change. In a land fatigued by flamboyance, Edo found in him a governor who governs with steel wrapped in humility.

No grand entrances. No thrones. Only boots, files, and unfinished roads.

And where others saw impossibility, he saw blueprints.

Born into modesty, Okpebholo’s story is not one of overnight stars. He rose, not by stepping on backs but by standing on values. He learned early that power borrowed from the people must return with interest.

Not in promises, but in pavements, pipelines, and peace.

He speaks little. But when he does, communities listen. Because every word carries weight, every vow finds feet. They said the Rahmat Flyover was a mirage. He brought cranes to its rescue. Steel rose like morning sun, and doubters blinked in disbelief.

He did not boast. He simply said: “We must finish what we start.” There are places in Edo where shadows ruled. Where boys, barely men, bore arms in cults and claimed streets as kingdoms. And where kidnappers turned forests into hell.

Okpebholo did not call for a summit. He called the fight. No hashtags. No hollow condemnations. He stormed the dens with task forces, rearmed the state’s will, and told the dark: your time is up.

Peace, like dew, is returning to the land. It does not arrive with fanfare. It comes in the form of markets reopened, roads less feared, mothers sleeping without dread. He wears his party colours, yes, the green white, blue and red of APC. But he does not serve colour; he serves cause.

To him, politics is a ladder to the masses, not a throne above them. He builds loyalty, not with rewards for cronies, but with open books and unshaking hands. When others bought time with excuses, he bought tractors, engineers, and timelines.

He rewards not sycophancy, but service. In Okpebholo’s Edo, the civil servant who shows up is seen. The teacher who teaches is heard. The health worker who stays at duty post is not forgotten.

He does not hide behind curtains when the city is flooded. He walks inside the waters. When the storm tore through Etsako, he didn’t send a commissioner.

He came with sleeves rolled, not for optics, but for ownership.

His ears are not locked in offices. They are wide open at town halls. A child once asked about her torn classroom roof. The roof is no longer torn.

This is not magic. It is governance, honest and unscripted. Some say leaders forget. That they campaign with memory, and govern with amnesia.

But Okpebholo remembers: He remembers promises made under canopies. He remembers widows, artisans, forgotten councils. He remembers that the seat he holds is rented, and the rent is paid in service.

He has no tolerance for corruption; not in words, but in war. Files move. Budgets meet concrete. Contractors work or walk. His government is not a party. It is a mission. And that mission has no room for thieves.

Edo is not shouting anymore. It is working. It is healing. And while others search for legends in Lagos and Abuja,

we, here, are witnessing a quiet epic unfold in Benin. Okpebholo is not asking for praise. He is planting a legacy. Not the kind built in monuments, but the kind whispered in markets: “This man dey try.”

Not the kind written in marble. But the kind sung in streets: “Our governor no dey make mouth. E dey do work.”

So let it be said: There was a Monday when Edo began again. And history, when it looks back, will call his name without stammering.

-Itua, Chief Press Secretary to Edo Governor, writes from Benin.