The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Oshiomhole

  • ASUU condemns Oshiomhole for demolishing UNIBEN’s property

    ASUU condemns Oshiomhole for demolishing UNIBEN’s property

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Akure zone has condemned the Edo State Governor, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole for allegedly demolishing a residential building belonging to University of Benin.

    The union, which claimed that the management of UNIBEN had filed an Appeal against a lower court judgement which favoured the governor, described Oshiomhole’s action as an act of lawlessness.

    Besides, ASUU urged the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu to intervene in the crisis between the governor and the university management.

    It will be recalled that a State High Court sitting in Benin had ruled in favour of the state government in 2014, as owner of the residential building purportedly belonging to the university.

    Speaking at a press conference held at the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), ASUU Coordinator, Akure zone, Dr. Alex Odiyi blamed the governor for taking laws into his hands rather than allowing the case to run its course at the appeal court.

    Odiyi alleged that the governor was doing this because his days in office are numbered and his real intention is to share these properties among his political associates.

    He said the governor had “made seeming overtures to the staff of the university who were affected by his lawless and promised to make amend by compensating those who suffered some losses by his condemnable action.

    Odiyi called on the minister of Education to step into the matter and ensure that the university of Benin administration lives up to its responsibility of protecting the property of the university.”

  • In Edo, Oshiomhole’s achievements ache PDP

    In Edo, Oshiomhole’s achievements ache PDP

    When Edo State governor assumed office on November 12, 2008, many were set to put him to task if he dared fail to deliver on his campaign promises. As a labour leader who cut his political teeth from his many struggles to emancipate the poor masses and workers across the country, it was a huge responsibility for him to take over a state that was in ruins and total infrastructure decay. The education sector was a festering sore that finds expression in the manner of neglect that the previous administration had treated it. Edo State was notorious for  many miracle centers which provided accommodation for all categories of persons from different parts of the country to sit for the West African School Certificate Examinations with the hope of coming out with flying colours even when such examinations were hardly taken by the students.

    With the dubious cooperation of the examination officers and the invigilators, desperate students easily parted with huge sums of money to buy their way through the corridors of examinations with promises of superlative grades. This was the practice inherited by the Comrade Governor from the PDP 10 years’ preoccupation of Edo State before the courts gave verdict that threw away that regime of waste and non-performance. Seven years down the line, the Comrade Governor has rediscovered the missing link in the education sector and appropriately repositioned the sector to the admiration of all. While the state was usually placed in a distant position of 30th amongst states in Nigeria in terms of performance at national examinations, the story today has assumed a more positive and rewarding classification. In the last three national examinations, Edo state came 2nd and has been adjudged as one of the heavily transformed states in terms of infrastructure, manpower and investment. The latest ratings and outcomes are the end product of the heavy investment which the government has put into this sector to rediscover its lost glory. Added to this is the fact that Edo State is tuition free for both primary and secondary schools students.

    When Comrade Oshiomhole presented his first budget to Edo State House of Assembly, populated by majority of PDP lawmakers, rather than encourage a governor that was willing to work settle down, they threw up partisan interests over the Edo interest. First, the initial budget was scrutinized, altered and later adjusted to suit the peculiarity of the PDP godfathers. Aside from frowning at the percentage allocated for capital project, the Comrade Governor was told pointedly that he was not the messiah that Edo State was waiting for. And that if he must work, he must operate within the labyrinths of the godfather’s desires. Yet undaunted, the  Comrade Governor took his case  to our highly revered Oba of Benin, who wrote a scathing letter to remind the Edo State House of Assembly that if Benin City could not be respected for being the headquarters of Benin Kingdom, at least it should be recognized as the capital of Edo State. The PDP chieftains were asking for the portion of the budget that would be available for sharing like the “Dasukigate” money. They had to back down when the Comrade Governor told them that if they were prepared to share money, he would issue them cheques, if that would persuade them to put pen on paper to sign the Appropriation Bill. The rest as it is often said is now history.

    The huge economic infrastructure which the Oshiomhole administration has brought about can be explained from the point of view of his determination to alter the narrative in Edo’s political economy. Rather than continue the tradition of skewing budget in favour of recurrent expenditure, the Comrade Governor has sustained a tradition of ensuring that capital expenditure carries a higher percentage in all his budgetary proposals and laws. More than anything, this explains the huge infrastructural component of the administration spread across the three senatorial districts of the state. As a direct consequence of this initiative, the state is now becoming an investment haven for different categories of businesses. There is bamboo wood furniture company in Anegbete, there is ceramics tiles company in Benin City as well as Yongxing Steel Company. These companies have recruited over 1,500 capable youths who have been trained and gainfully employed to provide one service or the other.

    The Okpekpe road race has become an internationally accepted road race by the sheer insight of the government and a sports marketing company which seized the initiative of utilizing the beauty of the Okpekpe Road to bring this to fruition. This event has not only entered into the calendar year of the International Athletics Federation but has become a source of economic boom to residents of the entire Edo North each time the event was hosted. That is one way to boost the economic wellbeing of the people.

    It is instructive to note that Comrade Oshiomhole’s intervention in Edo state has paid off in different areas. As we speak, even when states across the country cannot meet up with their salaries commitments, the Comrade Governor has almost completed building a brand new Edo State University located at Iyamho. The University environment boasts of sophisticated buildings and facilities that can compete with any other university in the world. Having invested heavily in enhancing the infrastructural status of Ambrose Alli University, he felt it was proper for the state to have another university that would absorb qualified students who often lazy about after failing to secure admission into the existing schools.

    The national statistics with respect to school enrolment are quite alarming. On a yearly basis, about 1.4m Nigerian youths write the JAMB examinations. Out of this figure, available universities can only absorb a little above 300,000 thus allowing 1.1million to roam the streets before the onset of another examination calendar.

    When the PDP raised dust over our investment in Ambrose Alli University, one had thought they were going to present their own statistics to show how much they invested in the university during their 10 years’ regime in Edo State. Rather, the PDP were running from pillar to post to complain about the huge investments we have made in the university. We have not only built and commissioned three lecture theatres; we have also built two world class laboratories for the medical and laboratory sciences students. We have also completed the moot court that was abandoned in 1991, built the agriculture extension services department, the Fine and Applied Arts department, and also the Building department. The dam that was built by the European Union and later abandoned was reticulated and as we speak, the university is now fully serviced with water. There are still several on-going projects aside from increasing the monthly subvention from a paltry N100m to N250m. When we asked the PDP to name what they did in 10 years’ at Ambrose Alli University, they were simply blaming themselves, pointing accusing fingers at themselves. What a pity.

    While it is convenient for the PDP to make all the noises about development in Edo State as not reflecting what accrues to the state, they have not been bold enough to state what they did with all the billions they collected during their time. We have seen companies that were built overnight, we have seen how reptiles and snakes took over as managers and chief executives, and thereafter sold before daybreak. We have seen how Edo State resources were used to feather the nest of PDP chieftains, making overnight millionaires and billionaires. They jump about like musketeers, looting from the center and the corners, leaving Edo State to bleed with perfunctory disdain. Now that they have been uprooted from the inner sanctuary of Aso Rock conclave, they now see Edo State like a fallow land that must be conquered to continue their regime of mindless plunder. This is why the people are saying never again for the PDP to come and rape us politically.

    –Afegbua is the Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Public Affairs, Edo State.

  • APC, Oshiomhole and the worthy successor

    Governance, like most human activities, is governed, itself, by seen and, unseen factors that may combine positively for the Success Indices it may represent, or negatively for the failure it is noted for.

    Governance is a relay race. No government can completely exist in vacuum or be able to accomplish all its set goals within deliberately-contemplated time-brackets. The craze and haste to abandon those long-term policies, programmes and projects by successor-governments, without examining whether they can be adapted, reviewed or adopted wholesale, often leads to the wastage of scarce resources and a new cycle of abandoned policies, programmes and projects at the expiry of such governments’ mandate.

    It has become the norm and established ritual for most successor-governments in Africa to tend to rubbish, abandon or totally obliterate the strides, contributions and achievements of their predecessors through jaundiced commentaries or outright selective amnesia, all in the name and practice of politics.

    In Edo State, the cardinal area which encapsulates the dreams, hopes and aspiration of the average Edolite, is the unprecedented reformation drive in infrastructure and human capital development that has tied the state’s future viability and sustenance with the diligent pursuance and execution of government’s policies, programmes and projects that will set the stage for industrialisation and commercialisation at the expiry of Oshiomhole’s government in November 2016.

    It is conventional wisdom that a good leader, with strong visionary disposition, should pursue that mission to project, plan and engender those programmes, policies and projects that will ensure a seamless and painless transition from heavy dependence on oil revenues to other lucrative alternatives (such as internally-generated revenue) by using the massive earnings from petroleum as a fulcrum for future development in agriculture, commerce and industry etc.

    It is significant to note that Engineer Christopher Aigbovbiosa Ogiemwonyi has keyed in into this novel and visionary concept of a re-engineered and re-focused Edo State, championed by the mercurial Comrade Adams Oshiomhole in the last seven years. In reality, the Comrade Governor has gone beyond rhetoric, grandstanding and self-serving platitudes to give holistic interpretation to sustainable development of the state through the proper utilisation of its present oil revenue earnings.

    As one of the frontrunners in the race for the governorship of Edo State in 2016, Engineer Ogiemwonyi stands out of the crowd of aspirants in his out-of-the-ordinary pre-disposition to adopting and sustaining those programmes, policies and projects of the Oshiomhole predecessor government, if elected for the benefit of all Edolites, post November 12, 2016.

    A consummate technocrat, he has through his people-focused Call To Service identified the critical areas of intervention in the affairs of Edo State to include infrastructure development; human capital development; agriculture development with emphasis on the provision of agro-based raw materials for production purposes; provision of clean, affordable and reliable energy and water supply; housing development; youth and women empowerment; increased resource allocation to education and social services; reduction in child mortality rates and improved maternal health; containment of HIV and AIDS, malaria and other endemic diseases and proactive actions and preparations for pandemic ones like Ebola Virus Disease, Dengue Fever, Haemorrhoidal Fever, Lassa Fever etc; environment protection; rural based micro industries; the establishment and construction of specialised macro-economic free-trade zones, industrial parks, clusters and co-operatives, preferably in mutually-beneficial partnerships with the Organised Private Sector – local or foreign; solid minerals; eco-tourism, etc.

    Engineer Ogiemwonyi shares Comrade Oshiomhole’s long-term vision that the concept of Edo State’s future micro and macro-economic development should be pursued form two angles: (a) By prudently utilising revenue from the petroleum sector to develop other core and key sectors of the state’s economy and (b) By diversifying the internally-generated revenue base of the state with probable earning from agriculture; tourism; free trade zones, industrial parks etc; small and medium-scale enterprises etc.

    This will only be possible if there is no break in the chain either through a deliberate jettisoning of the concept by a new administration or a feeble or marginal implementation process that will not benefit the people of Edo State.

    The relativity of a flawless and fluid changeover during any relay race define the human factor in the core area of synergy between time, space and movement that is not borne out of a chance-happening or the uncoordinated interplay of efforts of those who are just “fulfilling all righteousness” in running their various legs!

    Good governance and bad governance are like most relay races. They are either sequentially-planned to succeed and thrive or visionless and rudderless in concept and administration.

    Good governance that elicits success and attainment is like a good relay race where one plays a key role attaining giant strides, achieving successes or leaving legacies behind for future generations to savour.

    Eight years on, there is no gainsaying the fact that Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole is primed to leave behind a catalogue of lasting legacies that can only be sustained by a worthy successor on November 12, 2016.

     

    • Casmir Osolase a Public Affairs Analyst based in Abuja
  • Buhari on the right path, say Osinbajo, Oshiomhole

    Buhari on the right path, say Osinbajo, Oshiomhole

    Vice President Yemi Osibanjo and Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole, said on Thursday that Nigeria’s journey towards industrialization required an enabling environment that can only be forged through partnership between the public and private sectors.

    The duo, however, said President Muhammadu Buhari has started the journey for economic rebound on the right path with the fight against corruption.

    They spoke at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, during the opening ceremony of a two-day summit organized by Leadership Newspaper with the theme:  “Industrialization in the States: A Leadership Summit.”

    Osibanjo, who delivered a key note address, said Nigeria is facing an exciting times given the present economic challenge as all eyes are on the leaders at all levels to fix the economic within the shortest period.

    He said time has come for the federal and states governments as well as those in the private sector to move the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) from planning to implementation stage.

    The vice president, who was represented by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Okechukwu Enelamah, said the Buhari administration is poised to take away the motivation that comes from corruption in other to sanitize the system, restore investors’ confidence and build institutions for sustaining growth and development of the country.

    Oshiomhole on his part said, “Now with the method adopted by our President to fight corruption, the National Security Adviser to the President will not allow anything to happen to money meant for security, let alone to share it to politicians who have no business with it.”

    Also the governors of Kano and Bauchi States, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and Mohammed Abubakar, said there is need for consistency in policy formulation and implementation in the country to drive the nation towards genuine industrialization.

     

  • Oshiomhole retires Perm Sec

    Oshiomhole retires Perm Sec

    •Sacks agency boss

    Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole has approved the retirement of Mr. Augustine Akhuamhekhun, permanent secretary, Ministry of Environment and Public Utilities.

    This is contained in a February 19 letter by Secretary to the State Government Prof Julius Ihonvbere.

    The governor also terminated the appointment of  Austin Evbakhavbokun (rtd) as managing director/chief executive officer of Edo State Traffic Management Agency (EDSTMA).

    The government directed the former permanent secretary to hand over government property in his possession to the most senior director, while the former managing director is to hand over to the most senior official not later than yesterday.

     

  • Between Oshiomhole and Ogbemudia

    Between Oshiomhole and Ogbemudia

    Should the rumour that Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State is now open to a ‘friendship’ of some sort with former Governor Samuel Ogbemudia be true, then the age-long maxim that there is nothing permanent in politics, except interests, will be indeed very apt.

    Feelers from the Heart Beat of the nation, as Edo State prides itself, suggest that ahead of the next governorship election in the state, the Comrade Governor is wooing anyone who is anybody in the politics of the state to his side as he plans to ensure that he installs ‘the right’ successor.

    Now, while it is politically savvy for Oshiomhole to want Ogbemudia in his camp, the question on many lips is how the two Excellencies will work together after their popular rift of a few years ago. Pundits are also asking how politically relevant the former governor is today, given that his two children contested and lost elections even in their father’s immediate constituencies.

    Or is it not the same Oshiomhole that was alleged by the camp of Ogbemudia to have sent thugs after the former governor to retrieve a Jeep given to him by ex-Governor Oserheimen Osunbor? Didn’t the two camps engage in war of words back then?

    Well, it is time for politics and politicians are the main players. If the Comrade and Papa Ogbemudia have chosen to let bygone be bygone, we are here waiting to see how things will go.

  • Edo 2016 and Oshiomhole’s friends and enemies

    From 2007 up to the re-election of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole for a second term in 2012, the diminutive former icon of massive mobilisation and labour activist, respected the opinions of the leaders of his political party and the Benin “Leaders of Thought”. To some extent, he was a team player. To a very large extent he was not. To back the claim that he was not a team player, they made allusions to the fact he handpicked local government council chairmen whimsically across the state in 2013 without recourse to the will of the people.

    Sometime ago, a purported conversation between Oshiomhole and the Oracle of Benin Kingdom, Chief David Edebiri, the Esogban of Benin Kingdom, went viral. The frenzy it generated, if it is anything to go by, further mirrors Oshiomhole’s inner antics and banal crave for political control, long after vacating office!

    Chief Edebiri was said to have reported back to Oshiomhole on the assignment to search out the mind of the Benins(The Palace) on the Godwin Obaseki Candidacy. The Esogban allegedly said that he told the governor that the Benins are gravely against the Obaseki project. He told the governor that he would offer his support to whoever the governor wants but added that they both may sink together should they go on with Obaseki as APC candidate in the coming election.

    The governor pointedly told the Esogban that he was eternally sold to the Mr. Godwin Obaseki project and that nothing could change his position. He has since stepped up moves to get delegates who will elect his successor across the three senatorial districts.

    Such outright imposition, should we call it sweeping autocracy from a governor who owns his office to purported ‘One Man One Vote’ perfunctory and judicial democracy, open democratic process and the virtues of universal adult suffrage calls for equal deconstruction. If I may ask, how many times shall we repeat it that democracy, or democratic government, is a system of government in which all the people of a state or polity are involved in making decisions about its affairs, typically by voting to elect representatives? If the simple definition finds no meaning or seen as a mere rabble by those who should know then we are in for backwards movement.

     Oshiomhole’s friends and foes

     Oshiomhole, no doubts, has earned the qualification as the best performing governor in recent times, after Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia and Prof Ambrose Alli, who were both governors of the old Bendel State.

    But he has derailed tremendously with his penchant crave for turning his back at his earliest allies, foot-soldiers and apostles. Now, he is patently sold to treating them more like conquered species; subdued folks and dispensable spent forces at the twilight of his government. He has since replaced them with the very reactionary forces that opposed, and denied him his mandate at every stage of his political life, from the very beginning.

    With Oshiomhole’s new friends, he doesn’t need enemies. It’s a somewhat sense of impounding catastrophe which has to do with recurring patterns but with the inescapability of the unforeseeable. Now, the chicken has come home to roast.

    From Chief Edebiri, who vowed to sink with the governor on his unpopular decision on the candidacy of Mr. Godwin Obaseki to avoid a traitor’s appellation to the Benin Leaders of Thoughts who were former ardent followers of the governor, now stridently disavowing themselves from the governor for allegedly assuming the role of the godfather and the all-powerful family of the Benin monarch who were the buffers and bulwarks through which Oshiomhole anchored and prosecuted his governorship successfully in the last seven years plus are badly disappointed.

    In a rare show of public appearance, support and solidarity, the revered Benin monarch, Oba Erediauwa, on November 14th, 2012, paid a royal visit to Oshiomhole at Government House, Benin City. The Oba, who is rarely seen in public, arrived the Government House in the company of some senior palace chiefs and Enogies and urged the governor to keep up with his good work.

    “I came to congratulate you on your swearing-in. I watched it on television and it was very impressive. You have done well. Keep the flag flying”. Aligning himself with prayers offered, His Royal Majesty noted: “My chief broke kola and said, may God continue to enrich the treasury with the wherewithal to do what you are doing. Please finish the projects. Thank you very much. My brother traditional rulers are waiting for you to continue work in their domains”, the Royal Father said.

    On that occasion Governor Oshiomhole expressed deep gratitude to the Oba for his support and prayers. “I am deeply indebted to your Majesty. Your Majesty has been a father to me and to all of us in Edo State. “My own biological father would not have done better for me than what you have done.” Outlining his vision for the second term, the governor noted: “I am determined to do more than what I did in the first term. We have overcome our learning curve,” he said.

    Oshiomhole listed the next phase of work to include aggressively reclaiming the moat and sustaining the work on the Benin Masterplan. He added that over the next two years, it would be completed: “Let me assure Your Majesty that the great Bini kingdom will receive accelerated development. I will devote huge resources to continue to address our urban renewal programme to restore the glory of this great kingdom, reclaim the moat, which I know is dear to your heart as one of the legacies, and, indeed, one of the unique features that distinguish Benin City from the rest of the cities in Nigeria; we will complete our agenda at Ovonramnwen Square as well as the Ramat Park. The Benins  take me as their son and a brother. By their votes they spoke very loud and clear that without them I wouldn’t have been governor of Edo State,” Oshiomhole said.

    Till date, Ramat Park and other historical sites which housed some of the falling heroes of Oshiomhole’s electoral victory remain dark spots.

     Oshiomhole’s legacy

     Oshiomhole by now should accept the price of his administration in solitude; that of abandoning the Benin Palace; the Benin Leaders of Thoughts, Chief Esogban’s wise counsel and his earliest minders who bore him across the threshold and hoisted him to power.

    As an addict of vision, he is also a casualty of power. In the last seven years, he has been trying to surpass the Angels. When the Angels didn’t have the vanity to speak of themselves as the only wise, Oshiomhole did.

    Despair/ecstasy- Legacy!

    It’s not easy to lose power when you have earned false horizon. It isn’t easy to go back into your box, into a narrow island, an entity of anticlimax, when you have tested undiluted power, such as Oshiomhole’s. A feeble successor is needed to keep the illusion of power. The succession power politics is here, and it’s Oshiomhole’s own to lose.

     

    • Okojie writes from Ikeja, Lagos.
  • Edo 2016 and Oshiomhole’s friends

    Edo 2016 and Oshiomhole’s friends

    From 2007 up to the re-election of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole for a second term in 2012, the diminutive former icon of massive mobilisation and labour activist, respected the opinions of the leaders of his political party and the Benin “Leaders of Thought”. To some extent, he was a team player. To a very large extent he was not. To back the claim that he was not a team player, they made allusions to the fact he handpicked local government council chairmen whimsically across the state in 2013 without recourse to the will of the people.

    Sometime ago, a purported conversation between Oshiomhole and the Oracle of Benin Kingdom, Chief David Edebiri, the Esogban of Benin Kingdom, went viral. The frenzy it generated, if it is anything to go by, further mirrors Oshiomhole’s inner antics and banal crave for political control, long after vacating office!

    Chief Edebiri was said to have reported back to Oshiomhole on the assignment to search out the mind of the Benins(The Palace) on the Godwin Obaseki Candidacy. The Esogban allegedly said that he told the governor that the Benins are gravely against the Obaseki project. He told the governor that he would offer his support to whoever the governor wants but added that they both may sink together should they go on with Obaseki as APC candidate in the coming election.

    The governor pointedly told the Esogban that he was eternally sold to the Mr. Godwin Obaseki project and that nothing could change his position. He has since stepped up moves to get delegates who will elect his successor across the three senatorial districts.

    Such outright imposition, should we call it sweeping autocracy from a governor who owns his office to purported ‘One Man One Vote’ perfunctory and judicial democracy, open democratic process and the virtues of universal adult suffrage calls for equal deconstruction. If I may ask, how many times shall we repeat it that democracy, or democratic government, is a system of government in which all the people of a state or polity are involved in making decisions about its affairs, typically by voting to elect representatives? If the simple definition finds no meaning or seen as a mere rabble by those who should know then we are in for backwards movement.

     

    Oshiomhole’s friends

    and foes

     

    Oshiomhole, no doubts, has earned the qualification as the best performing governor in recent times, after Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia and Prof Ambrose Alli, who were both governors of the old Bendel State.

    But he has derailed tremendously with his penchant crave for turning his back at his earliest allies, foot-soldiers and apostles. Now, he is patently sold to treating them more like conquered species; subdued folks and dispensable spent forces at the twilight of his government. He has since replaced them with the very reactionary forces that opposed, and denied him his mandate at every stage of his political life, from the very beginning.

    With Oshiomhole’s new friends, he doesn’t need enemies. It’s a somewhat sense of impounding catastrophe which has to do with recurring patterns but with the inescapability of the unforeseeable. Now, the chicken has come home to roast.

    From Chief Edebiri, who vowed to sink with the governor on his unpopular decision on the candidacy of Mr. Godwin Obaseki to avoid a traitor’s appellation to the Benin Leaders of Thoughts who were former ardent followers of the governor, now stridently disavowing themselves from the governor for allegedly assuming the role of the godfather and the all-powerful family of the Benin monarch who were the buffers and bulwarks through which Oshiomhole anchored and prosecuted his governorship successfully in the last seven years plus are badly disappointed.

    In a rare show of public appearance, support and solidarity, the revered Benin monarch, Oba Erediauwa, on November 14th, 2012, paid a royal visit to Oshiomhole at Government House, Benin City. The Oba, who is rarely seen in public, arrived the Government House in the company of some senior palace chiefs and Enogies and urged the governor to keep up with his good work.

    “I came to congratulate you on your swearing-in. I watched it on television and it was very impressive. You have done well. Keep the flag flying”. Aligning himself with prayers offered, His Royal Majesty noted: “My chief broke kola and said, may God continue to enrich the treasury with the wherewithal to do what you are doing. Please finish the projects. Thank you very much. My brother traditional rulers are waiting for you to continue work in their domains”, the Royal Father said.

    On that occasion Governor Oshiomhole expressed deep gratitude to the Oba for his support and prayers. “I am deeply indebted to your Majesty. Your Majesty has been a father to me and to all of us in Edo State. “My own biological father would not have done better for me than what you have done.” Outlining his vision for the second term, the governor noted: “I am determined to do more than what I did in the first term. We have overcome our learning curve,” he said.

    Oshiomhole listed the next phase of work to include aggressively reclaiming the moat and sustaining the work on the Benin Masterplan. He added that over the next two years, it would be completed: “Let me assure Your Majesty that the great Bini kingdom will receive accelerated development. I will devote huge resources to continue to address our urban renewal programme to restore the glory of this great kingdom, reclaim the moat, which I know is dear to your heart as one of the legacies, and, indeed, one of the unique features that distinguish Benin City from the rest of the cities in Nigeria; we will complete our agenda at Ovonramnwen Square as well as the Ramat Park. The Benins  take me as their son and a brother. By their votes they spoke very loud and clear that without them I wouldn’t have been governor of Edo State,” Oshiomhole said.

    Till date, Ramat Park and other historical sites which housed some of the falling heroes of Oshiomhole’s electoral victory remain dark spots.

     

    Oshiomhole’s legacy

     

    In spite of his pragmatic delivery in some aspects, Governor Oshiomhole’s willingness to enter the polluted waters of red mud and swim in the direction of current where some awful disaster lurk around the corner is a high way to go. Oshiomhole by now should accept the price of his administration in solitude; that of abandoning the Benin Palace; the Benin Leaders of Thoughts, Chief Esogban’s wise counsel and his earliest minders who bore him across the threshold and hoisted him to power.

    As an addict of vision, he is also a casualty of power. In the last seven years, he has been trying to surpass the Angels. When the Angels didn’t have the vanity to speak of themselves as the only wise, Oshiomhole did.

    Despair/ecstasy- Legacy!

    It’s not easy to lose power when you have earned false horizon. It isn’t easy to go back into your box, into a narrow island, an entity of anticlimax, when you have tested undiluted power, such as Oshiomhole’s. A feeble successor is needed to keep the illusion of power. The succession power politics is here, and it’s Oshiomhole’s own to lose.

     

    • Okojie writes from Ikeja, Lagos.
  • Naira devaluation will hurt the poor, says Oshiomhole

    Naira devaluation will hurt the poor, says Oshiomhole

    Debate on whether to devalue or not to devalue the naira became fiercer yesterday with Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole joining the discussion.

    The Governor, who did not hide his disdain for a weaker naira, said a devaluation of the local currency at this time will make the poor poorer.

    Oshiomhole, who spoke at the maiden edition TheCable Colloquium with theme: The Naira on Trail: To Devalue or Not? said the rich, who constitute about five per cent of the population; portfolio investors and collaborative private sector operators canvassing for devaluation will benefit from the decision.

    He said devaluation of the naira at this time when Nigeria’s productive base is very low and the desire for foreign goods keep rising will be a big mistake.

    The Governor said previous devaluations never benefitted the poor and workers, whom he described as the best economists because of their prudent management of the N18, 000 minimum wage in the face of declining naira value against world currencies.

    But Managing Director, Financial Derivatives of Nigeria Limited, Bismark Rewane, said naira devaluation is the answer to Nigeria’s economic woes. The economist said there is a big difference between economic drama and reality adding that people denying the need for devaluation are same people that keep stealing from the people.

    He said those who want the policy to stay, same people want to steal the money. They have vested interest not to devalue, pretending to be protecting the naira adding that it is all about  competitiveness because the naira can also appreciate if we get things right.

    Rewane said that in the last 10 years, Western Union, Thomas Cook and others were bring dollars to the country. “The CBN said it sold $8 billion to bureaux de change (BDCs) in nearly two years but who are the owners of these BDCs? The issue is if you are a manufacturer and you get dollar at N197 from the CBN to import raw materials. There are two decisions to make.   Manufacture the goods and sell as if you bought the at N310 to dollar because of the wide gap between the official and parallel market rates, or open a Letter of Credit and refuse to import. Then roundtrip the money and make 50 per cent outright profit,” he said.

    Rewane said devaluation will solve such problem because it will reduce the widening gap between the official and parallel market rates. He said many of the people asking government not to devalue the naira is because they want to abuse and steal the fund, pretending to be protecting the naira.

    “I can tell you, there are vested interests. They pretend to be protecting and defending the naira, but in reality, they are not. In 1987, the naira depreciated by 76 per cent and by 20 per cent in 2009. But when oil prices rose, did they allow the naira to appreciate?”

    He said that after the drama of not devaluing the naira, the country will come back to reality.

    CBN director, Monetary Policy Department, Moses Tule, urged government to create enabling environment and framework that support Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). He said Nigeria is still not attractive destination for FDI and called for improved investment climate for the country.

    “Nigeria has the labour for industrial take-off. But consumption appetite of Nigerians which is tilted to foreign goods has taken the naira to court. We have elites that are ready to pick up all the foreign reserves to fund their consumption of foreign goods. We need to put our home in order because Nigeria remains a big economy,” he said.

    Tule said that late last year when the combined foreign reserves for the West Africa was $32 billion, Nigeria contributed $29 billion of the figure still the Naira has faced serious volatility because it is the one that supplies forex for the rest of the region.

    “Devaluation is sound economics if the fundamentals are right. Devaluation will come someday, when we have sound industrial growth,” he said.

    Deputy National President, Nigeria Labour Congress, Issa Aremu said the CBN has a mandate to safeguard value of the naira. He said the economy, not the naira that is on trial.

  • Naira devaluation will hurt the poor – Oshiomhole

    Naira devaluation will hurt the poor – Oshiomhole

    Debate on whether or not to devalue the naira continued on Thursday with Edo State Governor,  Adams Oshiomhole, joining the discussion.

    The governor, who did not hide his disdain for a weaker naira, said devaluation of the local currency will hurt the poor.

    Oshiomhole, who spoke at the maiden edition TheCable Colloquium with theme: The Naira on Trail: To Devalue or Not? said the rich, who constitutes about five per cent of the population, portfolio investors and collaborative private sector operators canvassing for devaluation will benefit from the decision.

    He said devaluation of the naira at this time when Nigeria’s productive base is very low and the desire for foreign goods is rising will be a big mistake.

    The governor said previous devaluations never benefitted the poor and workers, whom he described as the best economists because of their prudent management of the N18, 000 minimum wage in the face of declining naira value against world currencies.

    But the Managing Director, Financial Derivatives of Nigeria Limited, Bismark Rewane, said naira devaluation is the solution to Nigeria’s economic woes.