TO EDO OBIDIENTS – FREEDOM IS IN YOUR MIDST

A careful look at the campaign manifesto of the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter ‘the Rock’ (Okwute) Obi, shows that it holds so much promise for a new system of governance which is the yearning of millions of Nigerians, especially the Edo youth.

For good reason, every progressive-minded Edo youth will want to be associated with the former Anambra State governor. That was why, in the March 25 presidential election, Edo state once again proved true to its acronym, the Heart Beat of the Nation, with the OBIDIENT movement upstaging the two political mainstay parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC). Although Obidients delivered Edo State votes for Peter Obi, at the national level they were left disappointed because they were outsmarted at the polls by the rigging structure of the APC and their flagbearer, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

If only they had heeded the advice last year that they should deploy their energy strategically (because the election is akin to a long-distance race), they would have mobilized enough field officers to check the malpractices of colluding INEC officials.

Like the election has proven, electioneering is about strategizing. What most Obidients fail to realize is that even the act of choosing a candidate has to be done strategically. In their pent up angst against the state of affairs in the country, which Edo as a subnational, they have risen against the Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki due to propaganda by the opposition APC, his (Obaseki’s) unusual approach to governance, and of course his own foibles.

Today, Obaseki is the greatest enemy of the political class in Edo State (APC and PDP alike) because he lacks the number one trait of a typical Nigerian politician – the penchant to waste state’s resources by doling out money to all and sundry. So in actual sense, Obaseki is a pioneer of the popular Obidient mantra ‘we no dey give shishi’.

Like is contained in his manifesto, one of Peter Obi’s touted promises is to move Nigeria from ‘consumption to production’. Within six years in Edo, Obaseki has transformed Edo State from a ‘civil servant state’ to one that boasts of an Independent Power Plant (IPP) – 95MW Ossiomo Power, and two modular refineries. With the Edo State Oil Palm Programme (ESOPP) and over 120,000 hectares being cultivated, one of Africa’s largest oil palm plantations is also situated in the state. The governor continues to attract big-ticket investment into the state through SARO Africa Group, Dangote Plc, BUA Plc, Greenhills Agro Products, Presco Oil, etc., amounting to over two billion dollars to boost production, build the capacity of local entrepreneurs, provide hundreds of thousands of jobs for Edo people and boost the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

Obaseki has unleashed the productivity capacity of the states human and natural capital and the gains are gradually coming to fore.

Also, the LP presidential candidate said if elected as president, he would end banditry and insurgency. Today in Edo, Obaseki’s efforts to curb crime and criminality in the state, including the activities of killer herdsmen has been reduced to its barest minimum. With a community-based vigilante system spread across the three senatorial districts of the state, Edo is one of the safest states in the country.

When I posited some of these points to a friend of mine who happens to be a die-hard Obidient, he could not help but see reasons with my point that what Obi is promising Nigerians at the federal level, Obaseki is already delivering in Edo State.

In one of highpoints of his reforms, Obaseki has also digitized governance in Edo, enhancing accountability and transparency in the civil service, and upskilling and tooling-up Edo workers, not to mention the opulent state of the art reconstructed secretariat complex. Today, at N40,000, only Edo State presently pays above the federal government recommended minimum wage of N30,000.

Essentially, Obi’s promise to “Restructure the polity through effective legal and institutional reforms to entrench the rule of law, aggressively fight corruption, reduce cost of governance, and establish an honest and efficient civil service…” is already being fulfilled by the Obaseki-led administration.

Also in consonance with Peter Obi’s manifesto, with a 5G fibre optic network accessible in the Benin metropolis, and being laid across all 18 local councils in the state, EdoJobs, the Edo Innovation Hub, the Edo Production Centre and Edo Tech Park, a digital economy has been created in Edo, leapfrogging the state into the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Inasmuch as one would expect a blindly sentimental Obidient to repeat what they did in the presidential election, by voting along party lines even without having the slightest idea about most contesting candidates, it is still expedient to speak to those Obidients who are more politically astute. Emotions aside, the ‘freedom’ that they seek with Peter Obi at the federal level is already in their midst in Edo, with Obaseki delivering the dividends of democratic governance with people-centric programmes and policies.

Time and space may not allow us expatiate on education where Obaseki’s model, which has made Edo students the best performing in Nigeria, is being copied across Nigeria and Africa; or sports where Obaseki remodeled the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, becoming one of the best-equipped in Nigeria and the state-sponsored football team, Bendel Insurance, which just gained promotion into the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) is currently sitting atop the league; or the expansion of primary and secondary healthcare services in the state and the Health Insurance Scheme (EdoHIS) making healthcare services more affordable and accessible; and so forth.

For roads infrastructure, it may be difficult to dispute that no other governor in the history of the state has done more work on arterial and circular roads than Obaseki, providing alternative routes and easing traffic for commuters in the state’s city centres.

In conclusion, I will not beg Obidients, but speak to their conscience and good reasoning, that for the Edo House of Assembly elections, if they are truly Obidient they should support candidates of the PDP who seek better governance in the state and will help Governor Obaseki deliver such. Afterall, as Obidients are wont to remind us, Labour Party and ‘Obidient’ are not exactly the same movement.

Together, all well-meaning people of Edo must reject those whose stock in trade is leaving Nigerians in sorrow, tears and blood and support the transformative governance of Governor Godwin Obaseki.

- Unapologetically penned, on the 14th day of March, 2023.