This is election season in Edo State. Chief Lucky Nosa Igbinedion’s legacy in his eight years tenure has come under searchlight and the public is absorbing lies as the truth of his service.
Nigerians are so enamoured with today “yes men”, that they conveniently forget that in narrating history, it is apposite to be contextual; contexts are always different; policy directions are always set in time, space and context; policy thrusts so very different from regime to regime.
It seems so convenient for today’s Edolites to forget that in all of eight years, all that was available to Chief Lucky Igbinedion was N197 billion. Lucky Igbinedion took the saddle immediately after the military years; military years that created institutional structural defects and distortions.
To address these distortions and dislocations, and reverse the ominous trend of poverty and lack of infrastructural development and decay, Chief Lucky Igbinedion first liquidated unpaid salaries of civil servants for the period of a year and eight months, left behind by Adamu Baba Iyam who subjected Ministries and MDAs to a self sustenance policy, a scorched earth policy that was unsustainable and inhuman.
Was that not governance with a human face? Was Lucky Igbinedion to leave addressing hunger and massive poverty and commence refurbishing of schools and building roads which the today “yes men” think are superior acts without realising, where we were all coming from?
The Igbinedion administration embarked on a total restructuring of the Civil Service and the appointment of (19) Permanent Secretaries and (9) Civil Commissioners within four weeks of his Administration’s inception. Human capital development was one of the greatest achievement of Lucky Igbinedion’s administration. He provided enabling environment for new crop of younger politicians who today forms over 80% of Governor Oshiomhole’s cabinet and leaders of his party. Some of them include the APC state chairman, Anselm Ojezua and several civil commissioners. APC state Secretary Osaro Idah, Lucky James, two times council chairman, Osarodion Ogie, first member SUBEB, Lawrence Okar, GM Rapid Response Agency and several others. Therefore, Chief Lucky Igbinedion is the superstructure on which Oshiomhole’s ambition and administration relied on to date.
On June 22nd 1999, he initiated a daily regime of Executive Council Meetings (Mondays through Fridays) at 8:00am in order to ensure that all government policies, programmes and projects were well articulated and implemented. Above all it was an organisational drive to carry everyone along, unlike his accuser’s Emperor like and dictatorial style of megalomania and imposition of will.
Within two months of assumption of office, Chief Igbinedion started scouting for investors and entrepreneurs from Lagos, Abuja and overseas as a way to kick start the rapid industrialisation of the state, one of the major planks why he sought the office of Governor of Edo State.
With the benefit of hindsight, it is notable that the aggressive and radical approach to programme implementation increased the tempo of economic activities in Edo State, which resulted in government being directly involved in diverse economic activities that included manufacturing and socio-related ones like transportation. Have all these gains not be comprehensively reversed for its purely selfish gains and political expediency grounds? Who is the loser? It is the Edolites with a resultant massive unemployment and years of retrenchment.
Contrary to the vile propaganda and outright lies out there, the sectoral layouts of the Igbinedion Administration, testify to having performed creditably. Let us make a count of the sectoral interventions: Refurbishing and renovation of over 300 primary and secondary schools through the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB. Found an enduring solution to the nagging problem of cultism at the premier state tertiary institution – Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma; construction of a 1000 seater Lecture theatre, hostel and classroom blocks at the permanent site of AAU, Ekpoma; increase in monthly subvention to AAU from N4million (1999) to N100million (2007) per month and a corresponding reduction in tuition fees and stoppage of discriminatory fees by payable by non-indigene students; direct government involvement and intervention in the establishment of Edo Fertiliser Blending Plant, Auchi, Chemical Plant, Ikpeshi, Cassavita Plant, Uromi and the Fruit Juice Factory, Ehor and the resuscitation of Bendel Brewery Ltd; and Bendel Cement Company, Okpella through technical partners. (Note, it was Chief Odigie Oyegun who sold Bendel Brewery to Churchgate. Lucky Igbinedion vowed to return the legacy to Edo State.)
The achievements also include: Construction and commissioning of a two-storey 27-classroom block at the state-owned remedial education institution, Institute of Continuing Education (ICE), Benin City. Construction and commissioning of an auditorium/lecture theatre at the College of Agriculture, Iguoriakhi and the College of Education,Ekiadolor; renovation of four hostel blocks and the increase in monthly subvention from N3 million to N10 million for the College of Education, Ekiadolor; upgrading of facilities in 4 model Secondary Schools and the procurement of science equipment for all Secondary Schools in Edo State. Financial welfare package to students of Edo State extraction at the Law Schools in Abuja, Lagos and Enugu; and many more.
Epilogue
In view of the foregoing, Edolites should in the exercise of their franchise in the September 10, 2016 governorship election, not expose themselves to the battering ram of so-called progressives, whose set objectives are not altruistic or masses – oriented but are selfish in mode and autocratic in execution. They should not eat from a staple of self-serving lies and fabrications.
One of the major factors that militated against Chief Igbinedion getting a fair press and by extension the people’s understanding, was the brazen fact that he did not engage in propaganda, courting print and electronic media practitioners to showcase the various programmes, policies and projects his government did on behalf of and for, all Edo people. In short, Igbinedion did not blow his own trumpet and forbade others from doing so on his behalf.
The concocted lies and fables that Chief Lucky Nosakhare Igbinedion did not perform remains what they are: lies and fables.
Chief Igbinedion’s bouquet of achievements and development strides did not go through the crucible of embellishments and strident propaganda in the print and electronic media because he assumed that the “works will speak for themselves”, hence this season of anomie. That Igbinedion did not perform is a page off the Greek Aesop Fables. He did, albeit exceedingly, well!
