By Erasmus Ikhide
 Published
July 7th, 2009
The critical
mass of Edo people who filed to vote and voted in the
boiling sunshine of April 14, 2007 for Adams Oshiomhole and
Action Congress, AC party deserve the very best this
government can, and must offer them. And that is given. We
are committed to doing just that so that through our efforts
at sanitizing the streets, desilting the drainage and
rehabilitating the roads as we are doing on a durable term,
the state, once again will be in the comity of compatible
Cities, Towns and Villages where modern infrastructures are
readily accessible.
We know that the challenges are daunting, not as easy as
they seem on the surface due to meager resources that is
accruing to the state coffer; nonetheless the people
reluctance to yield to the state Government’s appeal to
embrace the painful but rewarding option of paying our taxes
in accordance to Federal laws of Pay As You Earn, PAYE. By
the time the necessary requisites are meant, the good
governance we crave will manifest in the existence of a
political space that promotes accountability, fiscal
discipline and responsibility, social justice, and
transparency towards service delivery for all.
The people who are the greatest resource of this
administration, the Edolites remain the primary objective of
the developmental agenda in her quest to repositioning the
state. Oshiomhole owes it a duty to function within the
context of dialogue, consultation and constitutionalism in a
state where misbaptized gang-stars had strove in obscene
madness without recourse to the peoples’ plight. The
critical resources of this administration remain the people
who insisted that the right thing have to be done for once,
and at all times.
Oshiomhole whom the people entrusted their sovereignty to
leader them in the next 4 years exemplifies that paradox of
a doer-activist-Governor they crave, who would rather
perform to justify his mandate than to fizzle out the
aspiration of the people and dash their risen hope. His
coming will put to rest the branded lies that civil activism
is automatic visa for institutional and leadership failure.
Nelson Mandela, a core activist and the Saint of slum of
modern day South Africa didn’t fail, none Albert Einstein of
Israel . We are certain that Oshiomhole will improve the
lots of our people since he is adequately positioned and
surrounded by enablers who have done very well in their
various fields of human endeavour.
Now this. Think of Edo State in the hands of misbegotten
political leaders in the next 8 years who wound down a
mutant of misgovernment for all they care! Think of Edo
State in the hands of these political rascals who undermined
all the laid down rules and regulations that guide
socio-economic and political development of a fledging
democracy in other to entrench unbelievable corruption and
waste!! Think of Edo State in the hands of these electoral
twitters and self-appointed leaders who engaged in criminal
distortion and mis-governance and arrogance of power with
suffocating streaks to create apathy in the minds of honest
people to dare the
Scene!!! Think of Edo State …!!!!
What has been more sinister in all of this is the penchant
to continue to loot and keep our state in ruins, without
care about the needs of the downtrodden who are looking up
to them for succor and respite in the midst of grinding
poverty. The closest the people have ever come since the
days of Samuel Ogbemudia and Ambrose Alli is now when the
govern repose virtual confidence in a Governor they elected
to deliver the goods.
Those who run the state too close to the edge in time past
and their party who ought to have lost the spin to criticize
the current Action Congress, AC party administration are
wont to remind us of our unenviable past in which might is
power and power symbolizes corruption. They are now
criticizing Oshiomhole for not doing over, overnight, what
took them several years to ruin!
If we do think of how many years it took the PDP to run the
State aground, we would realize that we are now hundreds of
mills away from that given political rascality and violence,
electoral rubbery, social irresponsibility, fiscal
indiscipline, and leaders that operate in Government House
more like mafia gangs in Hollywood movies. They were there
when the worth of the naira note begins and ends with when
allocations are made available in the state’s coffers and
its disappearance. They were there when the allocations of
the state were used to minister to the vanity of godfathers
who have arrogated the peoples’ rights to themselves.
But now we are hopeful that in the end the people of Edo
State in particular and Nigeria in general will celebrate
the coming of Adams Oshiomhole; I hope word ‘‘celebrate’’ is
the one that will rise from the ashes of the State ruined
and shine as he once did as a labour leader.
Erasmus Ikhide is the Senior
Special Assistant on Media Affairs
to Edo State Governor, Comrade
Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole.
Contact: ikhide4edogovthouse@yahoo.com
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