*Edo 2024: Isere’s failed attempt to sell ‘akpangili’ bicycle to Edo people when they can have a Tesla car*

_By John Legbedion_

Nations fail because people settle for less. When presented with the option to pick handouts from the high table or the challenge to build with focused leaders, men lacking in vision settle for the latter because it meets their immediate needs. This, more often than not, deprives them of a bright, assured future. And when things go awry, they are left to the elements and bemoan their ill-luck without realizing that they are architects of their predicament.

This much is lost on our brother, Felix Isere, a rabid hireling of counter-forces seeking to take Edo back to the trenches. His poor reasoning is laid bare in his most recent piece where he advertised his ignorance while spreading falsehoods and mischievous propaganda in an attempt to disparage the performance of the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki over the past seven and half years.

The seven-paragraph hogwash was not just devoid of substance, it failed the basic test of logic, coming across as incoherent ramblings of a troubled and perennial loser whose life is at rock bottom.

I understand Felix Isere's problem. He is a lawyer who is not so good at his job so he resorted to praise singing for politicians for handouts. Unfortunately for him, Obaseki changed the way governance is done, only using the people’s money to pay for value created for and in the State.

Frustrated by the lack of political patronage, Felix had to pack up his wig and gown and flee to Europe to do menial jobs for survival. You can therefore imagine how personal this is for him.

His selfish expectations have 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 have the youths as thugs. 24/hrs electricity supply from Ossiomo Power is powering homes, government buildings, businesses, streets and industrial clusters but that means nothing to him because he prefers that the money be shared among praise singers and palace jesters.

He prefers an illiterate, who could not even manage to pass NECO after trying to obtain high school result from a special centre in Jos in his late thirties. A man without discernable proof for his source of wealth. Whose base philosophy and approach to governance is the ‘creation of boreholes.’  Is that the choice for governor of Edo State?

Unfortunately, yes. Isere prefers this against the choice of a seasoned lawyer who built the biggest corporate law firm in Africa, Banwo and Ighodalo. The businessman-cum-politician is a colossus who has stridden the top echelons of the corporate world in Africa. His well-established leadership acumen, which has earned him numerous chairmanship roles across the private and public sectors, speaks volumes about the capacity that Asue brings to the table.

What better to do than ignore the greed of Felix and his attempt to enthrone self-interest over and above the good of the people.

The Latin maxim; "Nemo dat quod non habet," meaning “no one gives what he does not have” is highly instructive here. Okpehbolo does not have what Edo needs.

Edo people know better.  Who go use akpangili bicycle take compare Tesla. I trust Edo people to choose wisely.

*_Legbedion, a public affairs analyst, writes from Benin City_*