Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole is already approaching the twilight of his administration. His first tenure began in 2008 while his second began in November 2012. Oshiomhole would be handing over the baton of leadership to a new governor next year.
Last month, the governor organised a retreat for Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries and Special Advisers whose theme was “Finishing Well”.
But doubts persists in the minds of ordinary citizens on whether Oshiomhole would end up like the late Prof. Ambrose Alli who was swept out of Benin City despite numerous achievements he recorded or be praised like Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia whose landmark achievements are still visible? Or is his tenure going to be as unmemorable as that of his predecessor, Chief Lucky Igbinedion?
Governor Oshiomhole assumed power at a time basic infrastructure in the state were either dead or non-existent. Schools were worse than poultry farms that are characterised by leaking roofs, dilapidated buildings and no chairs.
Roads in both rural and urban areas were impassable. Flooding and erosion were a menace to many communities such as the Auchi gully erosion, Queen Ede erosion site, Ekenwan Road erosion and other 108 sites.
Oshiomhole inherited a dirty state capital with Benin-City brimming with garbage heaps at every point. Internally generated revenue (IGR) was leaking with the state getting just about a paltry N300 million per month while individuals and groups rake in more.
In his first budget, Oshiomhole said his administration would focus on roads, flooding, erosion control and education. He promised to build three model secondary schools in each of the three senatorial districts in addition to employing 10,000 youths in public works.
Within three years of his administration, the people felt the wind of change in the state. Bus drivers were barred from driving or picking passengers at the city centre, traders dared not display their wares on the streets or walkways. Citizens felt the presence of government and saw governance in the state.
A N200 million worth of Musical Water Fountain was built at the museum ground at the Oba Ovoranmwen Square, which is popularly called Ring Road. It attracted thousands of visitors every week and raked in revenue as high as N100 million. In pursuit of its policy of urban renewal project, flowers were planted along major streets. Sanity was restored to the busy Ring Road and traffic flowed freely.
Oshiomhole carried out tax reforms and introduced the Progressive Tax system which saw the IGR rise to an average of N1.5 billion monthly.
A visit to the office of Edo Inland Revenue Service revealed several persons waiting to be registered for the Tax Identification Number. Other taxes such as the Consumer Tax and Land Use Charge were introduced.
As at October last year, records showed that 536,463 kilometres of roads, including intra and inter-city roads, have been constructed. All roads leading to Benin-City centre were converted to dual carriage way, except the Ekenwan Road. Several rural communities in the state, especially in Edo North which believed they were under a spell because of the nature of their roads, were opened up.
In the education sector, Oshiomhole built and renovated several primary and secondary schools across the state and also commenced the building of the three model schools as he promised. During the reign of Prof. Ngozi Osarenren as Commissioner of Education, those found guilty of examination malpractices were expelled from the state’s school system and a uniform academic calendar was introduced.
Millions of Naira was pumped into flooding and erosion control. At present, reclamation work on the Auchi, Queen Ede and Ekehuan erosion sites are ongoing with loan provided by the World Bank. A Benin-City Storm Water Master Plan project was designed. Work has either commenced or completed in some areas such as Second West, Airport Road, Okhoro, Five Junction, Lower Siluko and others.
Landlords that fled their residences because of flood in Second West, Lawani Street and some streets around Airport Road have returned home.
The state government, in its efforts to boost agriculture, earmarked over 150,000 hectares of land for farming purposes as well as registered over 300,000 farmers in the state government’s data base.
Last year, four companies namely Ekha Bio-Chemical Nigeria Limited, Industrial Development Group, Obax Worldwide and Wilbahi Investment Limited signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state government. They are expected to invest over $500 million in the agricultural sector.
Critics of Oshiomhole are, however, of the view that the people would eventually not benefit from Oshiomhole’s administration, as the governor becomes a sitting duck governor.
Others feel the governor is distracted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) politics at the federal level and is losing touch with the state. His critics say governance is at the lowest ebb since Oshiomhole began his second term.
A drive round the city showed that the once-beautiful city has turned dirty due to sack of street sweepers engaged under the Edo Youth Empowerment Scheme. Traders now display their wares on walkways without fear of arrest while commercial drivers pick up passengers at the city centre. It is now a nightmare to drive through the Oba Market Road which was turned into dual carriage way by Oshiomhole, due to heavy traffic caused by drivers and traders on the road.
Flowers planted are not maintained and many of the flower pots have been broken. What is worrisome to many APC supporters is the present state of the roads in the GRA, Benin-City and their environs. Checks showed that a total of 56 streets were filled with laterite and graded by the Rapid Response Agency while over 90 roads were rehabilitated by the same agency. All the roads are now impassable.
Several primary and secondary schools renovated and built have been vandalised. The only thing left in some of the schools fitted with floor tiles, aluminium windows, PVC ceilings and modern chairs are the red roofs. Many people have been caught stealing schools’ fittings and chairs.
When our reporter asked Elder Sam Egboigbe, a director in the agency, why roads rehabilitated by the agency did not last a single rainy season, he retorted, “you are hungry”.
State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Dan Orbih, is expectedly one of the governor’s most vitriolic critics. He said Oshiomhole would not finish well.
Orbih, who spoke while opening the party’s new secretariat said the PDP would learn from what he termed ‘quantum of mistakes of the Oshiomhole’s administration’ in order to provide good leadership when the PDP takes over the affairs of the state in 2016.
“Can Oshiomhole finish well? He went to Abuja to organise a seminar entitled Finishing Well. The failure of Oshiomhole’s government cannot make him to finish well. The government that is talking about property tax, land use tax cannot finish well. When it was obvious that Edo people have rejected the land use tax, he has gone ahead to say there is no going back,” he said.
The immediate past Commissioner of Transport under Oshiomhole, Orobosa Omo Ojo, in an interview said the APC has not fared well in the past seven years.
A Governorship aspirant of the PDP and former Secretary to the Edo State Government, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, in one of his several Facebook page comments said: “Seven years after, a lot of things have happened but poverty has not gone from Edo State, but rather has become worse.”
Pastor Ize-Iyamu noted that cosmetic efforts like the YES programme was not the solution, adding that some industries such as the Uromi Cassavita factory, Urhonigbe Rubber, Bendel Brewery that thrived before the coming of Oshiomhole.
He said the state government has done nothing tangible to promote, encourage or attract private investors let alone creating employment. In another write up, Pastor Ize-Iyamu said it was shocking to learn that the N14.7bn World Bank loan was spent on a non-performing programme.
Some elected local government chairmen under Oshiomhole’s administration did not support the developmental agenda of Oshiomhole in terms of providing needed infrastructure at the grassroots.
At the inception of their administration, all the local councils except Ovia North East got as much as N800 million saved for them by Governor Oshiomhole. Barely six months to the end of the council chairmen’s tenure only Jimoh Ijegbai of Owan East council could boast of boosting IGR from N200, 000 to N16 million monthly. He also inaugurated projects while others could not pay salaries.
Five chairmen were suspended for inability to pay salaries, diversion of IGR and illegal employment of workers.
Nevertheless, the State Treasurer of the APC, Alhaji Salihu Momoh, in a chat with Niger Delta Report said it was time for the people of the state to count the gains of the APC-led administration, especially in the education sector.
Momoh, who presented the score card of Oshiomhole, said one of the realities that confronted the Oshiomhole administration was the complete collapse of the education sector.
Alhaji Momoh noted that steps were taken to invest massively in the sector through a deliberate reconstruction, rehabilitation and re-equipping programme that cost N13.96 billion.
Momoh stated that contracts worth N121.6 billion have been awarded for construction of urban and rural roads amounting to 600kms across the three senatorial districts from 2009 to date.
In the transportation and health sector, Momoh said the APC administration purchased over 100 mass transit buses for the state-owned Edo City Transport Service (ECTS) and embarked on massive construction and reconstruction of general hospitals with major emphasis on maternity wards to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates.
“The face of education has changed considerably. Schools with ‘red roof” is now a phenomenon.
“In the area of water and energy, the APC administration has carried out massive lighting up of many rural communities and provision of water, particularly to areas with difficult terrain in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which underlies the bold step to transform the state,” he said.
Commissioner for Environment and Utilities, Prince Clem Agba, said Oshiomhole has several legacies across all sectors that succeeding administrations must build upon.
Prince Agba was optimistic that Oshiomhole would finish well when the resolutions they reached at the retreat are implemented, part of which was that they should complete projects they started.
Agba debunked critics’ views that governance activities have slowed down, pointing out that despite reduction in revenue from the Federation Account, construction works were still going on.
His words: “For almost 40 years, nothing happened in terms of primary drain construction. Lucky road was built with two secondary drains but what is left of the road today? It is gone and already developing a gully because there is no primary drain to receive the water. Most governments run away from building primary drains because they are expensive; a lot of them are not seen to the eyes and are in the outskirts.”
On the present dirty nature of streets in Benin-City, Agba noted that the street sweepers would soon return to work after the restructuring of the YES programme has been completed.
“In the area of forestry, we have improved our nurseries. The capacity has increased from about 220,000 tree seedlings to 665,000. We have more capacity to regenerate our forest. We have recovered a lot of reserve lands that were de-reserve for the rich and mighty. About 109,000 hectares are back to the forest reserve for regeneration. That is a legacy. This government has been able to generate attention. People now speak more about governance. In the education sector, you remember how our schools looked like. Not all the schools have been built but a legacy has been started. This state will never again be seen as a civil service state,” Agba said.
