Has Oshiomhole kept his promise?

The governor and his economic team have not only failed to keep their promise, but refused to replace those they retired from Edo State Civil Service and the state’s agencies. Almost all the thriving businesses — Bendel Breweries Limited, Okpella Cement Factory, Ewu Flourmill, Michelin, Edo Transport Service, which the APC inherited from PDP, have collapsed because of the suffocating business environment Oshiomhole and his economic team deliberately created in the state in nearly eight years.

And many respected institutions had said that the present high rate of unemployment in Edo State is largely responsible for the predominant incidence of youth restiveness, armed robbery, kidnapping and cult related activities. We can no longer be deceived: it is now clear to our people that Edo State is increasingly down because of the wide of the mark economic, social and political policies of an incompetent, inexperience, shambolic, thieving and empty government being led by the out-going self-serving and self-aggrandising governor Oshiomhole, aided by his Head of Economic Team, Obaseki.

With self-styled technocrat as Head of Edo State Economic Team, youths unemployment and under-employment remain a huge horrendous—at the state, with eight out of 10 qualified youths unable to find jobs.

The technocrat’s tag does not fit Obaseki. One of the shinning features of a good technocrat is that he intellectualises and concentrates on finding the facts and the right way of doing things. Former APC and Accord Parties’ gubernatorial aspirant and cousin of the APC candidate, Dr. Pedro Obaseki, accused Godwin Obaseki recently of plagiarism. Plagiarism is the criminal offence of stealing the intellectual property of another and using same without the original owner’s consent.

Dr. Pedro Obaseki said that the obvious and blatant plagiarism of his intellectual property by his brother is symptomatic of his lack of ideas and outright dishonesty, wondering why the people should trust him with the future of their children. Dr. Pedro Obaseki, who narrated his experience in the hands of his brother, said that his ambition and programmes for Edo State tallied with that of Ize-Iyamu. ‘’I will rather support my brother, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu than go with Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s puppet candidate who is still going about with pampers”, Pedro Obaseki had said.

Nothing punctures the technocrat’s tag of Obaseki than the recent lawsuit of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the APC’s candidate. The PDP recently approached a Federal High Court, sitting in Benin City, to disqualify Obaseki, from contesting the governorship election. The Edo State Chairman of the PDP, Chief Dan Orbih, alleged that Obaseki made false claims and provided false information on oath to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The party is asking the court for a declaration that Obaseki’s statement that he graduated from the University of Ibadan with a B.A. in Classical Studies in 1976, made under oath in INEC form CF001 at Part B, paragraph C dated 11 July, 2016 was false.

The choice before Edo people is between a pseudo technocrat and a true, trusted, sincere, accessible and humane leader—-represented by Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu. Having served in the past as Chief of Staff to the Edo State government and later the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Ize-Iyamu had piloted the engine of governance and would therefore need no induction course to swing into action from day one, just as no one can bamboozle him to derail good governance as can be done to a typical green horn, like his main opponent, Obaseki.

Perhaps, the most popular but outlandish criticism has been that Pastor Ize Iyamu served in Chief Lucky Igbinedion Administration—-a government in which all the critics themselves served or harvested enormous advantage anyway. And like many right-thinking persons have asked: is it coherent for instance, for us to blame the current Chief of Staff, Mr. Patrick Obahiagbon and the SSG, Professor Julius Ihionvare, for the financial bleeding of the state in almost eight years by Oshiomhole-led government? Surely no.

Omoregie writes from Upper Sakpoba, Benin-City

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