Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams
Oshiomhole recently marked the fifth
anniversary of his administration.
During a media parley, the former
Labour leader spoke on his vision for the
state, the challenge of the office and
what keeps him going. MUYIWA
OYINLOLA was there.
Congratulations on your 5th anniversary
as the Governor of Edo State, your
opponents would think the celebration
was a waste of state resources.
We are not like any other government,
our selling point is the trust line between
the governed and the government and
every responsible and honest steward
must, as a matter of duty and obligation,
account to his master. I am the steward
of Edo State. I have the privilege to be
entrusted with the management of the
resources of the state and the state is not
made up of a few elite but also of people
in the rural areas and as well those in
the Urban areas. In terms of election, the
people are more in number than the
elite and so on the occasion of the 5th
anniversary and my first year in my
second term as I have done over the past
four years, it has become a tradition to
face the people and tell them what has
changed since November, 2008 and
today but more particularly between last
year and now so that they follow up the
progress we are making. If you call that
extravagance, well that would your
choice of words
but I call it practical accountability, open
governance. In the trade union world
when you are elected at a certain period
you hold your meeting, you give report
of your achievement and where you have
challenges you explain it to the people.
So I don’t see what was extravagant; I
didn’t see people drinking champagne or
eating three course meals, rather I saw
women under the sun and when we
finished, a few people came to the
Government House for lunch.
Your Excellency when you were
addressing the crowd you spoke about
copying certain processes from Lagos
State especially in the area of financial
re-engineering. We want you to tell us
the peculiar situation of Edo State?
You see what I make is that people don’t
like to say they copy except when you
talk about America and Europe but what
I’m saying is that there are a lot of good
things that are happening in the
Nigerian environment and sometimes,
you don’t need to go out to find what
works and adopt it. Lagos has always
been there and at a point, things were so
bad that Lagos became so impossible that
you use odd numbers and even numbers
to manage your traffic and military
officers were deployed to use the
horsewhip to enforce simple traffic
rules. That was how
bad Lagos was. General Obasanjo was
reported as saying that Lagos was an
urban jungle. Today, Lagos is not a
perfect place but everybody agrees that
good things are happening in Lagos.
Ojuelegba used to be where we recruited
our area boys when we wanted to make
Lagos a bit less uncomfortable for the
big people plying the road. The last I
passed Ojuelegba, I
couldn’t find area boys. Lagos was
known for de-humanising mass transit
called molue where you enter with clean
cloths and come out with tattered rags
and we are beginning to see roads that
where blocked and opened up with
several lanes, so for me, that shows that
things are changing in Lagos but we
need to understand what has led to those
changes?
By 1999 when Tinubu was the governor I
had to represent workers before him and
he was obliged to convince me why he
won’t do the level of wages we wanted
him to pay and I realised that from that
interaction that Lagos revenue was
N600m and when you add that to what
they get from the federation account, it
was difficult to pay salaries. But today, I
understand from IGR Lagos generates
some good amount and with that they
have been able to connect some bridges,
things have changed in Lagos.
Oshodi has been cleaned up, it was
something for me that I could copy and I
can say I went to Lagos to proudly copy
what works and I came back to Edo to
re-engineer our tax system and we
raised our own locally generated
revenue from about N285 million and at
a point we hit N2 billion because we
didn’t need to depend on Abuja to be
able to do everything that we needed to
do. It requires courage, clear thinking
and a level of determination to be able
to get the people to realise that citizens
have obligation to the state to pay taxes
so that in turn
they can become real stakeholders to do
the things that we are doing in Edo State.
If we are going to expand and carry out
urban renewal like what they did in
Lagos you do need to sometimes get rid
of certain things in other to restore the
right of way and expand the roads.
There are a couple of things we copied
from Lagos, land use charge,
consumption tax because I’m sure that
some of you at one time or the other
have travelled outside Nigeria and even
those of you who have not travelled just
watching debates in other countries,
central
to every election debate is tax policies,
and tax defines the character of a
government. The left wing government
would want more taxes so that they can
take from the rich in other to provide a
robust social safety net for the poor.
Right wing party believes everybody for
himself and God for all of us. They can
build private roads and send their
children to private
schools and fly private aircraft but for
the government that is pro-people you
can fly your jet but you must pay. Look
at the intra-city tram which would have
been done many years ago is now
happening in Lagos. Imagine if
somebody had made up his mind to do
thirty year ago what Fashola is doing
now, life in Lagos would have been lot
more comfortable than it is now but we
recognised that the fact we failed in the
past is no reason why we should fail
now.
What is your take on the national
conference and what you feel is the way
out for Nigerians to move forward?
Well, I have no new views, the one I
have canvassed before and from pages
of your newspapers and electronic
media we even have a full broadcast of
what I said but I also recognised that
there are many Nigerians who believe
that we should keep talking but I say we
should get on with the job. I don’t
begrudge those who believe that talking
can solve it, but no one should begrudge
me if I say we should start working.
On the continued closure of Nigerian
universities?
I have a particular difficulty on this
matter and this is why I have not
commented on it and I don’t think I
really want to comment on it because
somehow I helped in mediating between
the federal government and ASUU in
2009 the very agreement that is in
dispute. All I will say for now is that
under the Nigerian labour laws,
agreements are enforceable because both
the Trade Union Act and Labour Act
recognise the status of collective
agreement entered into between an
employer and employee and the key
issue is that both sides should act in good
faith because making any statement for
and against either side might not
promote the cause of peace.
You had earlier said your only regret
was the fact that your wife was not there
to celebrate with you and what struck me
was that you may probably be thinking
of marrying another wife. How soon are
we expecting that?
I wish you would have avoided the
question because really when I talk
about my late wife, people may not
understand why. You are in a position to
judge whether to agree or disagree.
When a man in my own case has the
privilege of being elected as a state
governor or president, my wife’s status
changes automatically to that of first
lady of the state or the country, with all
the glamour that goes with it. To have
the kind of wife I had, who was familiar
with all the police stations in Kaduna
and outside, and sometimes searching
for her husband who might
have gone to work and detained by
police on account of Trade Union work,
it was her lot to stand by me and she
bore all the deprivations of a husband
you were never sure where he was going
to be in the next few minutes. At a point,
she called me an absentee husband. In
one interview she said I have donated
my husband to the Nigerian workers, so
she went through all that pain and the
day we were inaugurated, which usually
is a day when women put on their very
best befitting the status of the first lady
of a state. On that occasion, my wife and
I
discussed and I said to her, I can’t
change my identity now because I have
been a worker and have used khaki as a
factory worker and President of the NLC,
and I don’t want to look different and
she agreed rather that than going to buy
lace, she opted to wear the same khaki,
except that mine was better sown than
her own because her tailor was not used
to sowing khaki for women. So I looked
around and imagined that she should
have been by my side today to share the
joy of the 5th year anniversary. If you
come from my background, any
woman who agrees to marry a man who
is not rich, a man who alternate between
police station and cells and lives in a one
or two bedroom apartment that is your
real love and when she says I love you, it
was from her heart. I just imagine how
she could have felt seeing all these
people, the only worry she have ever had
was that who was going to employ our
children owing to my agitations. She
feared that after leaving the NLC, our
lives would be lonely because it would be
a payback time for all those big people I
harassed in the course of my work. So
it would have been joyous for her to see
that five years down the road, I have
more people around me than I had
before. Her second fear was that she
never approved my involvement in
politics because she was very proud to
be referred to as the wife of Oshiomhole
because she saw the affection because
most Nigerians were happy with my
stewardship at the NLC. She was worried
that once I got into politics I would be
ridiculed and all of that would go.
She felt I should keep the name but I told
her even before I went into the NLC,
NLC was a write-off as military
apologists and the human rights
community distanced themselves from
the NLC and I said you can always
choose how you want to be remembered
that am going into politics to redefine
and demystified governance and
reconnect with very ordinary people and
politics offers that platform for anyone
who believes the ordinary man deserves
a better deal. So for all that and for
many other reasons, that is one thing
that I regret that she should
have been there to also see the other side
of life. I have seen it all, in this state
now, there are people who will call me
the oppressor and you know who they
are, the oppressors of yesterday, if you
ask ‘Mr fit it’ who I am, he will tell you
I’m oppressing him because I have de-
fixed him. It would have been nice for
my wife to see life’s full circle that those
guys who
feasted on us and cheated the state that
we have reduced them to political
vegetables and placed them on
permanent political oxygen. The leaders
of APC came to Benin to show solidarity,
when the party was formed, we believe
that it would bring change to the PDP
government but the way they are going
we are wondering if PDP was a party of
killers like Audu Ogbe would put it.
Why is APC looking for PDP members to
follow them?
PDP is not a tribe, that you should do the
DNA to find out if there is something in
the gene. Nigeria has been more or less a
one-party state and there are many who
are not convinced about the message or
promise but they went into PDP, because
that is the only game in town. The
beauty of a two viable alternative
political platforms is that it offers the
opportunity for people of like minds to
come together regardless of where you
were before and Edo is an example.
Before I got here, those who are with me
now were either in PDP or ANPP and
some in
their private bedroom grumbled over
what was happening. They all used to
pay political pilgrimage to Uromi for
political blessing not because they were
convinced but that was the only way it
could be done. Once we open a platform
those who were genuinely unhappy with
what was going on there left to join the
ACN now APC and those who are happy
with the godfather remained with him.
They have been people in this state who
took advert and they said if you asked
them to paint the face of God that by the
time they finished painting that face,
what you
will see is the face of godfather and that
was blasphemy and that is how far some
people went and by praise singing like
that you could become a minister,
senator and governor for people who
believe that the end justifies the means. I
think that in every political party you
would find some good and bad people, I
don’t think that there is pretence that
every person in APC is an angel nor is
there a suggestion that everybody in the
PDP is a devil.

Equation balanced!

True talk.

All are devil. No good person in Nigeria politics oshimole inclusive.

He should have put it this way "not everybody in PDP is an angel and not everybody in APC is a devil"

Meanwhile the PDP slow poke in benue state had to borrow money to pay teacher's salary just last month.
And he was not ashamed to so.
You can imagine that for an agro state with
rich and plentiful land ,
hardworking and law abiding people,
with a rail line
and a major river(river benue) that can be used for irrigation.

bloggernaija: Meanwhile the PDP slow poke in benue state had to borrow money to pay teacher's salary just last month.
And he was not ashamed to so.
You can imagine that for an agro state with
rich and plentiful land ,
hardworking and law abiding people,
with a rail line
and a major river(river benue) that can be used for irrigation.

The States did not get allocation for last month and just got it November 3rd. Most States are owing now. Oshiomole just said the truth but to add more, APC seems hungry to bring about change in Nigeria and hence that ideology is embibed in every progressive Nigerian. I won't be surprised if civil societies and labour become sentimental to APC's course. The recent move by almost the entire performing PDP Governors with exception of obly Akpabio tells a story about the friction between PDP and good Governance.

The South West should try, despite Nigeria's Federalism, to set up legislation that'll discourage migration into her Region. It could be in the form of higher taxation for indigenes of her non-allies/potential enemies i.e non-members of the Old Western Region. It could also come in the form of proposing mandatory identification/Social Security numbers for its residents---Primarily indigenes of the states party to the agreement--- (lack of which will earn you heavy fines and trips to Prison) with the objective of lawfully and systematically denying same to certain people. Linked Digital Fingerprinting of criminals (which can be shared by law enforcement in these states) should be encouraged with the aim of viciously prosecuting violators. A first time offense should carry a very heavy fine, a subsequent offense should carry a mandatory 10 yrs minimum sentences. The first wave of Prisoners should be housed on one of Lagos' deserted islands and as more are caught, they should be put to work building more Prison Units and complexes that would be needed to house the impending wave of violators that would undeniably be convicted. While incarcerated, they should be put to work for the benefit of their host Govts and its inhabitants e.g Farming. Only people that are financially and Professionally worthy to the Region should be issued these instruments of identification. This will kill two birds with one stone: First, the Region will be decongested of people useless to its development because you shouldnt be able to get anything done without the I.Ds (school, housing, medical care etc). Next, when hit with the reality that they cannot destroy their own homes then flee to others, they will do whats right and elect credible candidates that'll work for their own good and that of the country.

If its the law, it is right. This is how you fight fire with fire in the 21st century.

Apc has more devils than pdp

kingoflag:
The South West should try, despite Nigeria's Federalism, to set up legislation that'll discourage migration into her Region. It could be in the form of higher taxation for indigenes of her non-allies/potential enemies i.e non-members of the Old Western Region. It could also come in the form of proposing mandatory identification/Social Security numbers for its residents---Primarily indigenes of the states party to the agreement--- (lack of which will earn you heavy fines and trips to Prison) with the objective of lawfully and systematically denying same to certain people. Linked Digital Fingerprinting of criminals (which can be shared by law enforcement in these states) should be encouraged with the aim of viciously prosecuting violators. A first time offense should carry a very heavy fine, a subsequent offense should carry a mandatory 10 yrs minimum sentences. The first wave of Prisoners should be housed on one of Lagos' deserted islands and as more are caught, they should be put to work building more Prison Units and complexes that would be needed to house the impending wave of violators that would undeniably be convicted. While incarcerated, they should be put to work for the benefit of their host Govts and its inhabitants e.g Farming. Only people that are financially and Professionally worthy to the Region should be issued these instruments of identification. This will kill two birds with one stone: First, the Region will be decongested of people useless to its development because you shouldnt be able to get anything done without the I.Ds (school, housing, medical care etc). Next, when hit with the reality that they cannot destroy their own homes then flee to others, they will do whats right and elect credible candidates that'll work for their own good and that of the country.

If its the law, it is right. This is how you fight fire with fire in the 21st century.

Some mothers sure do have them.*smdh*
What do we call this one now,teh stewpid or the village ideot?

pokur:
Some mothers sure do have them.*smdh*
What do we call this one now,teh stewpid or the village ideot?

Like I said, you 11th century brain dead Moose, my suggestion is for the 21st century. So, its either youve got a counterpoint or just shut up and suck on the barrel of a Ruger.

Dont forget to pull the trigger.