PASTOR IZE-IYEAMU, LUCKY IGBINEDION AND EDO ELECTION 2016
As a Country, we should have a truly transformed heart for genuine and dedicated service instead of focusing on the things of the world and political power that will not last forever. Our Leaders should not see elections as their ultimate destines and then become desperate. Rather focus should be what will truly be beneficial to the people and the nation. At this ,many Nigerians are looking back on their lives and sensitizing that many years of opportunities had been stolen from us through our land that was divinely assigned with grand economy and greatest of Nigerians. Those with right mind can recount panorama of leadership errors, self centredness, incompetence, besetting transgression, corruption, fraud and untrustworthiness had outsized administrative impact in many years of the country’s independence.
As Edo State prepares to go to Poll to elect who will continue from where Comrade Governor stopped or who will take Edo State backward to where it was 8 years ago. Onething has been running through my mind. Where is Chief Sir Lucky Igbinedion, the Former Governor of Edo State, One time Chairman of Oredo Local Government, whose His former PA and SSG to The Edo state Government is contesting for the Governorship Slot under once almighty Peoples Democratic Party. I believe that these two individuals are like Rice and stew. One cannot do without the other. Why hiding the influence of Chief Lucky in scheme of things. Is it because he is a bad market? That the Our Pastor Governor does not want him to spoil his market for him. It is clear fact that whatever Our Pastor Governor was, is and will be, Chief Lucky hands are in it. I expected Chief Lucky to lead the campaign instead of leaving it for old Generals whoever want to leave the stage for the younger generations. Even at over 70s, 80s and close to 90s years of old, these Old Generals of looting still want to lead the campaign for Our Pastor Governor to be. Why castigating Chief Lucky in the morning and dinning with him in the night updating him on the Journey so far and how the campaign is unfolding. Finally, on Thursday 15TH SEPTMBER 2016 WHILE ADDRESSING THE PRESS DURING HIS FATHER’S BIRTHDAY, Chief Lucky has come out to say that the Next Governor of Edo State MUST come from their Political family and this leaves us with no other person, Pastor Barr. IZE-IYAMU.
Even in the context of constant flux and the implication that everything is perpetually evolving, the latest contribution by Chief Lucky Igbinedion, a former Governor of Edo State, to the business of image laundering,or more precisely, reputation laundering, stretches imaginative elastic to yield a point. Ahead of 57th Birthday on May 13th 2014, I could vividly recalled what Chief Lucky declared in an interview he granted with Journalists in His Abuja Residence, where he said and I quote:” in the darkest of days when I was the governor and the state was broke and could not pay salaries, I would run to these two individuals and they would borrow me money. They borrowed the state money”. Then the lenders in question, excuse Igbinedion illiterate usuage, were his father and Esama of Benin Kingdom, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion and the Chairman Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees then, Chief Anthony Anenih. In case anyone needed corroboration, Chief Lucky said,” Chief Anenih is around here, you can go and ask him whether I borrowed money from him or not”. What about his father? Should not he also be asked whether he actually lent money to Edo state through his son?
His claims prompt disturbing dimensions, including reflections on the riches of the named individuals, their motives, their possible gains from such deals, especially in economic terms as well as in relation to manipulative influence in the corridors of power. It stand to reason that Chief Lucky Igbinedion may have unwittingly provided insights into the phenomenon of political godfatherism, long identified as a major drawback of the country’s politics, with negatively weighty implications for socio-economic development. It also stands to reason that Chief Lucky and His team of Administrators then led by the SSG to Edo State Government, Pastor Ize-iyamu were colossal failures. In issues of Governance, states in Nigeria now need a man with innovations, visions and creativity to govern states now. It is very clear that what is coming from Abuja is not enough to pay salaries talk more of providing basic infrastructure for the people. Today in Edo State, comrade Adams Oshimole does not owe salaries to state Government workers, he is not borrowing from individuals to pay salaries. Rather most of the borrowing of the Comrade Governor is for infrastructural Development. Any government that wants to succeed must not borrow to pay salary. Not only is Comrade Governor not borrowing when other states are doing so, He has set a standard in the country for being the only Governor that is paying N25,000.00 as a minimum wage, when most Governors in Oil Rich Niger Delta Region are owing salaries ranging from 5, 6, 8, 10, 13 months respectively. What this has shown is that Oshimole is a blessing to the people of Edo State. This is because He was not elected by the people to lament, but to provide the leadership which the state has lacked over the years. It stands to reason that the Comrade Governor and His team of administrators led by the past and current SSG and His economic adviser led by Dr Godwin Obaseki were genius in management of the affairs of Edo people. They will not satisfy everybody, but with continuation of those agenda by someone who is inside the government is a very big advantage.
Back to the issue of discussion, from a more perspective, Chief Lucky’s revelations, hint at illegalities, particularly on account of the implied non-official nature of the process, which is why they have the character of disclosure. Apparently, the stated deals were known only to a closed ring of collaborators ( Chief Luck, Pastor SSG, Esama and Chief Anenih), outside the view of lawful institutional structures that should otherwise be aware of, if not endorse such course of action. Some people were wondering what these old generals were doing at Our Pastor Campaign flag off. They are the one to coordinate the campaigns, so that they may likely get the monies they borrowed Chief Lucky back since Comrade Governor has refused to dance to their tones.
From the look of things, Chief Igbinedion manifested not only social anxiety, but perhaps also a sense of guilt. Seven years after he left office following two four-year terms from 1999-2007, he seems to have suddenly awakened to the fact that his track record needed clarification, especially in the light of superlatively superior governmental performance by Comrade Adams Oshimole, who is on the final stage of his government, with an agenda: FINISHING WELL. Indeed, Chief Luck’s power years pale into insignificance, expect as a model of ineptitude when compared with Oshimole’s tenure, which is widely acclaimed as demonstrative of good governance and an example of competent administration. Moreover against this background, it is possible that Chief Luck may have a guilty conscience for frittering away his time in power, which is general acknowledged as an era of wastefulness and wasted opportunities of Edo State. Sadly, he cannot turn the hands of clock, but he believes he can use our Pastor to get what is left for them in Edo State or if possible recover those monies they borrowed without following the due process.
Chief Lucky’s defensiveness mirrored a subconscious burden conveyed by his words. “for you to loot, he declared,” there must be something. Edo state had no money”. This latter logic is contradicted by the fact that in January 2008, he was declared wanted by EFCC concerning 142 counts of financial fraud. Specifically, he was alleged to have embezzled 24 MILLION DOLLARS using front companies and he gave himself up in the same month. Furthermore, in December 2008 he was convicted by the Federal High Court, Enugu, on corruption related charges. He was actually fined 3.5 MILLION NAIRA after peading guilty to a one-count charge of neglecting to make a declaration of his interest in account in a new generation bank. So Edo people, hope you are reading this, if all I stated here were not facts, I want somebody to counter me. Astoundingly, Chief Lucky said,” if anything, it is EDO State that owes me money and not me owing EDO State”. Wonders shall never cease. If the borrowing and the lending were open only to him and his collaborators, as the picture he painted suggested, it is intriguing that he has an obviously misplaced sense of the state government’s financial indebtedness to him. It is unclear whether he implied that he also lent money to the state, which he did not recover before he left office. If he did lend the money on his path at that time, what his occupation and monthly salary income before he became a Governor.
This character took hyperbole to a new heights with his claims that somewhere along the line, he got tired of the office of the Governor and desired to quit before the end of his tenure, which would have been unprecedented in the country’s political history and earned him a place in the pantheon of frustrated patriots, if he could be dignified by such description. Then he somersaulted, uttering words that expressed absolute nonsense. :first and foremost, ”he began,” you do not have the money to do some projects you want to do even though there was no way I would have completed the projects with the whole money in the whole world”. Tragically, this declaration unveiled his unpreparedness for helmsmanship as well as fundamental visionlessness. Without intending to do so, he also betrayed the fact that he ran a government of uncompleted projects, meaning that he left a legacy, if it could be so called, of inchoateness, which amounts to nothing.
This article is not a propaganda issue; I want you to look for his interview on the Nation newspaper 12th and 13th May, 2014. I leave you to judge more from that side. Onething that is very clear in this Election, the two major candidates has been in power before now. One served as SSG to Chief Lucky and the other as Chief Economic Adviser to Comrade Governor. It is also on records that the Chief Economic Adviser to the Comrade Governor never collected a salary for those eight years. What a man of impeccable integrity. Putting Edo State first, before his personal gains. I have not seen a leader like this. The good people of Edo state, I am leaving you to make your choice. Are you to move forward or backward? Your vote will determine that. This is another challenge to you. I was in University of benin during 2007 and 2012 elections. I saw the true spirit of Edo people. Now that Chief lucky has made this point that the next Governor must come from their Political family. What were his reason? Is it to recover what was left? I rest my case.
PaschalCandle, a graduate of International studies and Diplomacy, University of Benin, a public affairs analyst writes from Abuja.