The vacuity in Samson Osagie’s reasoning is laid bare in his most recent interview during a talk programme organized by The Standard Gazette in London, United Kingdom, where he fruitlessly sought to denigrate the outstanding performance of the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, over the last seven and a half years.
In the tirade curiously spiced with strife, hate, and lies, Samson Osagie advertised his ignorance when he clearly noted that “the governor tried during his first tenure with the execution of some projects” but “coming to his second term, he practically did nothing apart from medical outreach, which they conducted there and there.”
The vituperation coming from a failed politician who has been relegated to the dustbin of history after representing his Orhionmwon/Uhunmwonde Constituency at the National Assembly for eight years and leaving the people poorer is nothing but an insult to the sensibility of the people of his constituency and indeed all Edo people, considering the governor’s achievements and the enormous positive impact on the Edo people in the past few years.
Osagie is embittered, confused and is now moonlighting as an attack dog of the APC. Pray ask when last he visited his constituency. Not only has he tried fruitlessly to regain political relevance, but he has remained a disgraced and failed politician who hides away in Abuja because he cannot bear the shame of going back home after his disastrous 8-year stint at the House of Representatives.
With his political history honestly established, anyone who reads Osagie’s hogwash against the governor will understand the basis for the idiocy on display, which is why he has taken on the cause of attacking the governor in a desperate and failed attempt to revive his buried political career.
His failed political career has blinded him to the tech revolution in Edo State or the return of oil palm plantations, with Edo boasting of the largest oil palm development programme in Africa. Hubs for creatives that have opened a new vista of opportunities for Edo youths do not impress him because it is better to leave the people more impoverished like he left the people of Orhionmwon and Uhunmwonde Constituency after 8 years at the National Assembly.
The 24-hour electricity supply from Ossiomo Power that is powering homes, government buildings, businesses, streets, and industrial clusters means nothing to Samson Osagie because he prefers that the monies be pocketed and shared among palace jesters and his league of failed and relegated politicians.
Will Samson Osagie claim that he is not aware that after a 75-year journey, made significant progress with the emergence of Mota Engil Africa, the company handling the Kano-Maradi rail project of the Federal Government, as the preferred bidder for the development of the Benin Port Project?
Why does Osagie prefer to claim ignorance to the fact Governor Obaseki has transformed Edo into an industrial hub with the establishment of at least two modular refineries that are currently refining crude oil in Ologbo, Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area and his Orhionmwon Local Government Area of the State?
Because he does not travel home, Osagie is not aware of the N10bn rubber plantation that has been resuscitated in Urhonigbe in Orhionmwon Local Government, which is employing his brothers and sisters and reviving the local economy.
What of the development of two ethanol plants in Ologbo, Ikpoba Okha and Ovia region of the State?
The age-old aphorism ‘an empty vessel makes the loudest noise’ would have gone out of fashion, but nonentities like Samson Osagie would continue to provide justification for it to hold true again and again that indeed the hollowness of a vessel inevitably makes its ricocheting echoes a nuisance.
Samson Osagie and his co-travelers should take note that Governor Obaseki deserves all the accolades that he continues to get from across the world and the taunts and tirades from him and his ilk can never detract from the governor’s legacy.
Edo people know better and will not be deceived by the efforts of charlatans like Samson Osagie who are blinded by their selfish interests and hatred for the governor and cannot see beyond their nose, making them incensed by the progress recorded in Edo in the last seven and a half years.
Ewere, a public affairs analyst, writes from Benin City