Yesterday, we were greeted with another story by the Edo State government’s paid propagandists that Governor Godwin Obaseki was attending, as a panellist, Africa Heads of State Summit in Das es Salaam, Tanzania.
The message from these peddlers added, “thrilled to join African Heads of State today to discuss our role as leaders in investing in areas of education and skills development, to drive productivity and economic growth on our Continent.” It was also put there, “FROM STRATEGY TO IMPLEMENTATION IN EDUCATION.”
On July 13th, he was also in Lagos for the BusinessDay CEO Forum as a speaker. The theme of the discussion was, ‘Charting a Course to Growth and Development.’ And as one would expect, these media aides went into town narrating how the governor, “whose visionary leadership has led to remarkable achievements across all sectors of Edo State…”
My inquisitive mind raced like a bank teller when I read the stories of the Das es Salaam Summit. I contacted a colleague we often share notes on challenges and prospects in Edo State. He doubted if Governor Obaseki was a panellist at the summit. We searched the summit’s website; nothing of him was mentioned as such. We downloaded the pictures of the panellists, he was not among them yesterday. So I contacted the organizers through an e-mail for them to tell me specifically if he truly was a panellist, participant or delegate. And if he is a panellist, at what point will he speak during the two days summit? While I await their responses, I make these submissions on behalf of truth and conscience.
Governor Obaseki should not let himself be seen as insensitive to local challenges the state faces until he is again embarrassed as the ruthless leader that was recently stuck in mud in his home town no matter how Federal Governmentalized, some want to look at it. A commissioner or the SUBEB chairperson can attend such summits. He cannot afford to abandon ‘physical governance’ in Edo State and be seen gallivanting in the name of Forums, Seminars, Conferences, Public Speaking or Wooing Investors. He was elected to attend to localized problems worse than he met them seven years ago, not as a motivational speaker trying to convince non-stakeholders that Edo State is an Eldorado Hub. Through any and every means available to us, we must redirect the steps and thoughts of the governor even when he is adjudged as one who does not listen.
The lives and well-being of the people of Edo State Matter.
Two weeks ago, the leadership of the Edo State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) took the administration of Governor Godwin Obaseki to the cleaners over the state of health facilities in the state and the welfare of doctors under the state government’s employment. The state chairman of the association, Dr. (Mrs) Udoka Imoisili, stated this at the opening ceremony of the Annual General Meeting of the Association of Resident Doctors under the Edo State Government Employment (ARD EDGE) where she lauded the doctors for being able to organize their AGM despite harsh working conditions they operate.
She said a tour through “most of our hospitals across the state is nauseating. There are no restrooms, dilapidated buildings, ragged furniture and fittings, no light source and devoid of water, the environment, is only fit for poultry.”
This appraisal of the condition of our public health facilities is coming from professionals who are not into politics, so they cannot be accused of partisanship. If one of the most sensitive sectors is adjudged to be this bad, as can be compared to poultry, what is the fate of others? As soon as you cannot afford private hospitals in the state, you are already a casualty as a patient.
Obaseki goes to speak of the education sector outside when for the past seven years, public schools have become derelict, some are closed down under different pretences while there are no single government teachers in some. He prides himself on reforms and policies like EdoBest and others. Can we agree the policy cost will go as much as the much talked about $75,000,000 World Bank loan? What about the annual budget for education and other such interventions? What is their translatory effect on the sector abandoned by ‘roaches’ criminals and propagandists?
State security is one of the worst in the South-South region. Lives are wasted at will by kidnappers and gangs of criminals. Even within his nose, in Benin, cultists, brandishing dangerous weapons on social media, kill each other like flies. The last time he empowered the police and vigilantes, he gave them old 1984 Siennas that were barely functional, whereas other states give state-of-the-art armoured vehicles.
If we talk about the agricultural sector, we will have to talk about how loans were secured from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and the World Bank without getting to farmers. Those who were part of the management of the funds have gone to build palatial mansions in their homes without the fear of reprisal or even EFCC.
We were recently told that the state is investing taxpayers’ money of over #19,000,000,000(Nineteen Billion Naira) in renovating an abandoned private hotel in Benin. While there is no transparency or detailed accountability on how much the old property was acquired, the question before every sane mouth is whether that should be top of the priorities of the state government. Benin City is ravaged by perennial flooding, and the roads are so bad that one will wonder if they are left in such states as the artefacts he was dragging with the revered Oba of Benin before he was stopped on his track.
Oluwabamidele Elempe, a Truth Live News Columnist and Public Affairs Commentator, Wrote from Abuja, Nigeria