This is how I suggest you think about the consequences of your choices as the September Governorship election beckons.
In the last several months as Commissioner I have had so many young Edo sons and daughters from within and “without” visit with me with several amazing ideas and suggestions.
Some of them have brilliant Tech related solutions while most of them are just young entrepreneurs who see Edo as a fertile ground to prosper especially with a Govt that places a high premium on intelligence, creativity and productivity.
In all their multiplicity of ideas, what I see is many more young people seeing good hope and prosperity potentials in our land, they can see now that hardwork through industry is great gain, they can see that young people are beginning to sit at the dinner table of civilization, rubbing minds with societies leaders on how to make better arguments for the younger generation, they can see that Government is opening her window to innovation amongst youngsters and giving them the yeast to prosper, they are seeing decent young men and women participating actively in the Governance of Edo State and making good contributions to our collective development.
Apart from opening my doors to all people especially young folks, there’s a sense of a renewed breath of fresh air that greets them when they come around and that satisfies me.
In the last half a decade, there’s been some sort of a Renaissance, a beautiful revival in the zest young folks enthuse when it comes to the re-engineering and reinvigoration of the ease to get jobs within EDSG, stemming from people getting hired when they had no “long legs” in government, people getting hired simply based on merit, people getting soft loans and grants just by meeting the basic requirements etc.
This has birthed some vim, vitality and verve in public trust of/for Government and that trust today is resplendent all over.
In the next few weeks, you will be deciding on the path our state is going to take for the next decade. The next Governor of our state will determine the course we will travel on for the next 10 years and thus, our collective decisions matter now more than ever before.
Most of us witnessed what happened last week at the Benin airport, we saw people about our age and those slightly older brandish weapons in broad daylight all in an attempt to cause chaos in an otherwise peaceful environment. These characters, we used to see all over the place in the previous Government, most of us thought they were worn out and tired but we were wrong, they were simply waiting for now. They are attempting to break away from the cage Governor Godwin Obaseki locked them in for 8 years and want to come take over our streets again.
We saw them celebrate how they have now earned N1billion off the sweat of our mothers and sisters in the markets and our brothers and sons who drive public buses to eke out a living. We saw them move around with security men and sirens all over Benin even when they had nowhere to go to. The fear on our streets was palpable, nobody dared to talk or ask questions, we literally had to hide our wives so they don’t forcefully take them from us.
It was extremely bad and the weak ones in society were emboldened just because they were members of their unions and could carry weapons while the hardworking ones like most of us had to cower at the mention of their names.
School had no glory because the unschooled and unscrupulous were wielding the powers on the streets.
Nobody talked about encouraging entrepreneurship, nobody talked about developing talent, nobody talked about encouraging innovation, nobody talked about encouraging MSMES for our people, nobody talked about striving to get a first class because what was the point!!! All the things we couldn’t talk about now are the things we freely celebrate for the last 8 years and they are not happy with the progress you have made.
This election is either about taking Edo to where she used to be 10 years ago when the Lions and Tigers killed maimed and destroyed at will even as they stole from the people to build mansions or moving Edo closer to becoming a first world economy.
This election is about having Edo innovates and several other tech hubs scattered across the State to spur innovation and encourage entrepreneurship.
This election will determine whether Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon, Cisco and other big tech players will still come to establish their branches and learning centers in Edo or not.
This election will determine if we will have more Rema and Shallipopi pop out of our creative brothers and sisters or if we will have more kabaka’s pop out from our bellies. This election will determine if we will progress more in Edo or if we will become like Kogi where they can’t pay N30k minimum wage.
Do not forget, the prosperity of our economy and the quality of lives we live is directly proportional to the quality of leaders we have in that society.
Let’s be mindful as we make our choices for September 21, 2024.
Ogbeide Ifaluyi-isibor is the
Honourable Commissioner for Digital Economy, Science and Technology Edo State