Special Adviser to Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, on Media Affairs and Publicity, Kassim Afegbua, speaks to Special Correspondent, TITUS OISE, on activities of his principal, influence of fledgling SDP in the state’s politics, among other issues.
Edo State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dan Orbih, accusing Governor Adams Oshiomhole of reckless spending of state’s resources
As far as we know, the PDP state chairman and his sinking co-travellers are not just desperadoes who are looking for relevance; they are also individuals who do not have the intellectual capacity to understand the dynamics of governance, the execution of processes of governance and the delivery of services to the mass majority of the people. He is at best a dramatist, a very bad one at that, who is trying to make an impression in a state where they have lost relevance. It is understandable that having been denied the patronages and grand acquisition that used to be the hallmark of PDP rulership in Edo State, they will naturally be crying like the baby cow looking for milk to suck from a cow that they have sucked dry in terms of the collective patrimony of Edo. So, to that extent, one would not expect anything different from their sing-song.
But, again, we have a basis for comparison. PDP state chairman and his fellow renegades piloted the affairs of this state for 10 good years and the record they have to show is that of apathy, depression, degradation and personal aggrandisement at the expense of the state. So, if they now wake up suddenly and see the monumental achievements of a comrade governor in a state that was hitherto classified as a poor state by the PDP when they were calling the shots, you can understand their anger. They are not angry that we are doing so much; they’re angry that we have come to put a lie on the long held notion that the state has no money to develop itself. We know, with verifiable evidence, that since the intervention of the comrade governor in Edo, he has been able to alter the narrative of under-development to a positive narrative of development and wonderful achievements. We have no apology to render to the PDP chairman and his bandwagon.
Growing popularity of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Edo North following the defection of Abubakar Momoh to the party.
In this country, you cannot just wake up in the morning and give that kind of adulation to a party that has not even been able to find its feet whether at the local, state or national level. Even the leadership of the SDP is phlegmatic. The leadership of the party is made up of failed politicians, turncoat politicians, who at every turn of elections want to register a party, a party I will call briefcase party, which they will use to negotiate.
I don’t know where you get your popularity rating for the party. Abubakar Momoh had enjoyed so much support from the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and now that the party has metamorphosed to the All Progressives Congress (APC) has decided to jump ship. Let’s see how he will test his popularity. But I have witnessed a few of his rallies and I have seen one or two canopies mounted in different localities where he spoke to people. I don’t know if that is what you call popularity; but of course the elections are there to decide.
Oshiomhole embarking on projects few weeks to the elections in what some people believe he is doing to woo voters.
You don’t determine when projects should be done. You determine when projects should be done depending on the availability of resources. Have you seen any abandoned project in Edo? You should please go round. We are not in the PDP culture of abandoning projects or building elephant projects and money fully paid. When we start a project, we follow it to a logical conclusion. When we started the Airport Road, nobody gave us the benefit of the doubt that we would complete it. Today, PDP chieftains are pasting posters on the electricity poles. That is the dubious nature of the PDP. Go around the roads we constructed, they have littered the whole place with their posters. We’re very civilised people. We left their posters hanging on the poles. The projects we have started now would be driven to conclusion. We have demystified governance by creating access for people to see the governor. People from the lower strata of the society who hitherto had no access to the Government House do so now. We are able to embark on projects despite that the PDP-led federal government is short-changing the state government every month. In the last 16 months, they have been deducting over a billion naira from our allocation as a result of what they call oil theft.
