By Paul Ohonbamu
Governor Godwin Obaseki for the past one year in office has brought hygiene into politics. While consolidating on what Oshiomhole has done, he has opened more areas of development and economic enhancement to the utmost satisfaction of all Edo people who gave him the mandate.
As far as Edo people are concerned, Governor Obaseki is a silent performer, the covenant and promise keeper and a development warrior. The PDP cannot boast of a tenth of the achievements of Obaseki in one year when juxtaposed with their ten rotten years. In one year, Godwin Obaseki has touched on all areas that are encapsulated in the six thematic pillars of this government. From economic revolution to infrastructural development; environmental sustainability, tourism, Arts and Culture.
Godwin Obaseki is even a governor without boundaries as his activities transcend the purview of his duties as governor of Edo State. He came to the rescue of a federal institution, the Irrua Specialist Hospital when Lassa Fever stood sentry with the procurement and supply of health facilities required to arrest the scourge. So, it takes some swallowing when PDP accuses this same governor of some imaginary sin oroffence. Governor Obaseki’s zest and determination for work can only be compared with the unbearable passion of Venus and Adonis.
The Benin Sea Port and Industrial Park are some of the efforts of Governor Obaseki that one would expect the PDP to commend. But because they are allergic to development and have been inoculated against work they continue to engage in shameless rant of disinformation. The truth is that PDP has lost it and the party is finished.
This explains partly why they boycotted the last local government election in the state for fear of electoral defeat. There is nothing in PDP that can endear them to the hearts of Edo people especially when the people remember their ten wasted years in the governance of the state. PDP can only be remembered for a catastrophic economic management of the state.
Today, the party suffocates through their iniquities. With feeble tongue they speak, with leprous hand they strike and with decomposing body they walk. Having refused to participate in the just concluded local government election, the PDP has failed to provide veritable opposition to the dominance of the APC and by implication, has succumbed to the developmental strides of Governor Godwin Obaseki.
I agree with comrade Adams Oshiomhole when he said that “PDP is dead, and that because PDP died in sin, there is no hope of resurrection.” I liken PDP to the unfortunate child who actually won a lottery but lost the ticket. During these years of locust of PDP misrule in Edo State, there could have been freedom of speech, but freedom after speech was never guaranteed and that hampered the proclivity of Edo people to speak. They introduced a novel form of repression; the informal entrepreneurs of violence. It is a logical summersault if the PDP expects to arrive at God’s destination haven travelled the devil’s express way. It is pertinent to take Edo people down memory lane to see part of the express way PDP chose in their ten unforgettable years of misrule in Edo State.
The Ecological Fund that accrued to Edo State in those years was peculated by PDP and its custodians. The fund meant for the kerosene explosion victims in the state between 2004 and 2006 was privatized by the PDP government which claimed it was lodged in Savanna Bank. Up till this moment, just like the ship of SANTA BABRA, that money is missing without trace and the victims have to live with scars which they must carry from the terrestrial to the celestial. That is man’s inhumanity to man.
For ten years, PDP failed to pay the required Edo State Counterpart Fund for the Universal Basic Education in order to attract Federal Government Fund. PDP plunged N500 million into Ikpoba River in the name of dredging. State sponsored terrorism was at its peak when PDP held sway in Edo State.
The PDP killed education in Edo State with several miraclecentres which Comrade Adams Oshiomhole came to rescue.
Compared with the travels embarked upon by Governor Obaseki which are yielding dividends, most journeys the PDP made were either for sporting events, for climbing some mountains or for the purchase of rice even when that could have been done by irrevocable letters of credit. Such were the hedonistic tendencies, primitive accumulation and resource wastage that characterised PDP government in the state.
While Godwin Obaseki is concerned about the dehumanisingtreatment meted out on Edo people in Libya, under the PDP, through conscious policies, the state actually drove people todesperate solution and they ran to Libya and Europe because the people were actually secondary in their agenda.
Unlike the prudent manner Governor Godwin Obaseki allocates resources to achieve optimum benefits for the people, under the PDP, there was social disequilibrium arising from serious economic distortions and resource wastage. The net effect was social dislocation and institutional collapse. At that time, government was not for governance but for looting.
Man’s inhumanity to man was the order of the day. Under the PDP, custodians of state power behaved like demented lions in the wilderness. Yet, our woes were endless until the arrival of the ‘AJANAKU,’ killer of ‘AJANA’ Comrade Adams Oshiomhole who organised, fought and dislodged those predators and scavengers who held Edo people captive for ten years.
Today, Edo people can proclaim in Unison “Freedom, Liberty, Tyranny is dead.” Those PDP exploits remain our woes under their government. With these immutable atrocities and life’s account of PDP which is as long as the book “EMILY” the party only deserves communal anathema and nothing more. According to Okot Pitek in his work “SONG OF LAWINO AND SONG OF OKOR” “what proud poem can be written for the vanquished?”
In conclusion, I urge the remnants of PDP who are still obdurate at heart and malevolent in intent to do a rethink, make a detour and join Governor Obaseki in his laudable work for the overall good of Edo State rather than indulge in apocalyptic prognosis. I will leave you with the words of Patrick Wilmot in his book, “The right to rebel,” “All I have attempted to do is to put up the mirror so that you can see its reflections. But if you don’t like what you see, breaking the mirror will do nothing, cutting off my hands will not save situation and even killing me will do less, for the truth of man cannot be dissolved in his blood.”
.Ohonbamu is the Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Edo State.
