I read the desperate attempt by the Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, to celebrate victories that are completely absent in the first 60 days of his administration.
What is most interesting is the messenger that has been recruited to implement this grand deception of the people — none other than John Mayaki, who is now known to make up alternate truths as he goes along, depending on how much of his personal interest is being served at the time.
Remember Mayaki, in 2020, famously fell on his sword in the well-publicized admission that he lied for his political interest when he reported that one time Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mike Igini, was given sacks of money by former Governor Godwin Obaseki ahead of the 2020 governorship election, which Obaseki won with record transparency.
Please refer to Premium Times, dated December 25, 2020, with the headline, “John Mayaki apologises over fake report that INEC official collected bribe” for more details.
In much the same way, the government of Monday Okpebholo appears to have sufficiently satiated Mayaki and his personal interests, and he has gone to town labouring to turn the truth on its head.
All that Edo people have known in the past 60 days of Okpebholo’s government is doom and gloom.
Just yesterday, a protest was carried out by drivers over the hardship they face from hoodlums close to the government who have made their lives a living hell, demanding all kinds of unlawful levies from them with the veiled protection of the government of the day which seeks to reward the hoodlums for their roles in the election that brought Okpebholo to office, an election widely perceived to be the most flawed and manipulated in the nation’s history and whose outcome is now being keenly challenged in the courts.
The havoc Okpebholo has wreaked on local government councils all in his effort to access their funds to settle the many political godfathers who helped him into the shaky office he presently occupies is replete in the media space with thugs moving from one council to another with horse whips, dangerous weapons, under Government House police cover to flog elected local government chairmen and chase them out of offices.
If nothing else, Edo State has been a gangland of sorts in the last 60 days.
There was an attempt to reverse the Edo e-governance system, after indiscriminately dismissing the senior civil servants responsible for the smooth running of the digital platform, leaving Okpebholo and his government severely hamstrung.
The attempt to reverse the revenue collection processes set up by Obaseki had to be hurriedly jettisoned when the monthly revenue took a massive nosedive in November from over N8 billion to less than N2 billion.
Quite curiously, all the roads celebrated by Mayaki on behalf of Okpebholo are either Obaseki’s projects or ongoing Federal Government projects. These include Temboga Road, initiated and completed by the Obaseki-led administration, as well as Ekenhuan Road. Other road projects touted by Mayaki to whitewash Okpebholo are ongoing Federal Government projects, including the ‘repairs of the critical portions of the Benin-Auchi Road, and ‘ongoing repairs of the Benin-Abuja Road.’
The only project that Okpebholo initiated, without any procurement process being carried out, is the white elephant flyover bridge in Ramat Park, which expectedly has not seen the light of day.
To be fair, all we need to see from Okpebholo in these early days is his strategic plan to move Edo forward from the enviable place Obaseki took it to, but clearly that plan is none existent because Okpebholo never planned to be Governor. He only stumbled at the last minute on the APC ticket, when the party saw that Obaseki’s argument for a governor from Edo Central Senatorial District is the only reasonable thing to do. Ab initio, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, and other APC leaders wanted a governor from Edo South, while Philip Shaibu refused to see reason with Obaseki that it was not politically fair for Edo North to take the position. This was the cause of the differences between Obaseki and Shaibu.
So, instead of coming to the media and trying to dupe the people about non-existent achievements, Okpebholo should work on a plan and share it with Edo people, and a good place to begin is to simply read and meticulously study the over 400-page detailed transition documents handed to him by the Obaseki administration.
Osagie is the Media Adviser to His Excellency, Godwin Obaseki, Governor of Edo State (2016-2024)