Your party seems divided on the process leading
to the emergence of the new national chairman,
Senator Ali Modu Sheriff. Don’t you see this
adding more troubles to the travails of the party
which lost power at the centre in 2015?
I want to say with emphasis that there is no division
in the emergence of a new national chairman. You
will agree with me that in a democratic process,
there are different levels of approval before the
emergence of a chairman. I think all the processes
were followed to the letter. Of course, that will not
prevent people from airing their personal opinions
about the candidates they were proposing for the
position. Different people had different reasons to
support or oppose. But at the end of the day, we
have a national chairman whose immediate task is
to rally every person together and organize a
credible and acceptable convention that will put the
party on the track to recovering government.
I don’t think there is any noise, apart from the noise
coming from the APC, who are more interested in
what happens within PDP than those who are in
PDP. Let them leave us alone; let us manage our
affairs. We will manage our affairs until we get them
out of government.
You seem to be saying that party members
should give the new chairman a chance. Are you
talking as a member of the party’s National
Executive Committee (NEC) or as chairman of
Edo State chapter of the party?
We have a chairman who, under our constitution, is
to serve out the tenure of the zone where the former
national chairman comes from and if you look at the
period in question, it’s a very short period. I don’t
know why the noise is coming from APC louder than
PDP. They should leave us to manage our internal
affairs. It is not for APC to determine or dictate to us
who should run the affairs of the party at any point
in time. If the National Executive Committee, the
highest organ of the part has approved the
appointment of a new chairman, so should it be. We
are moving on as a party.
We are not even bothered about the noise coming
from APC. They should be more concerned about
the leader of APC, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, who is
talking too much. He is even dabbling into probing
Supreme Court justices, just because the justices
gave what the APC believed were unfavourable
verdicts in cases involving that party. So, they should
be more concerned about the leadership of APC
than that of PDP. The leadership of the APC has not
been able to differentiate the difference between the
leadership of the Executive, the Legislature and
Judiciary.
As far as the leadership of APC is concerned, once
you produce the president of the country, you
should control every other arm of government, even
up to the extent of saying there is internal sabotage
by agencies and parastatals in government; even
accusing INEC of internal sabotage. Is he saying that
all of them should be replaced by APC members?
These are the things that should concern Nigerians
and APC – that they have a leadership which has not
been able to come to terms about what democracy
is all about. Instead, they are talking about the PDP
National Chairman.
But the APC national chairman was only saying
that the President should weed out PDP-
appointed heads of parastatals so as to give
room for appointment of members of APC…
I don’t understand what Chief Oyegun means by
internal sabotage. We are facing very hard times
brought about by lack of knowledge on the part of
the APC government to tackle very critical areas of
our economy and put the country on the right track
towards full economic recovery. Instead, they are
babbling about how to probe judiciary, probe the
Supreme Court because of perceived unfavourable
judgments; they are dabbling about how to replace
personnel in INEC with APC members and
appointees, forgetting that these are institutions.
They should look at the laws setting up these
institutions.
The judiciary derives its powers from the
Constitution of the country, just like the executive
arm of government and the legislature. Some of the
agencies he is talking about, like the INEC, are
independent, and they should respect the law setting
up these institutions. They should not drag some of
these institutions into partisan politics all in a bid to
satisfy their own selfish interest. I should expect
Oyegun at this point in time as the National
Chairman of a ruling party at the federal level to
speak more like a statesman than somebody whose
statements are driven by parochial party interest.
Critics of your party are of the view that it has
enough baggage following the prosecution of
some of its members over corruption
allegations. Don’t you think that the controversy
over the emergence of the National Chairman is
like sounding the death knell of the party?
I must tell you at this point that the party is strong
and alive to its responsibilities. As a political party
that is in opposition, we have a duty to play our role
under the present democratic setting effectively
because, at the end of the day, it is not about
whether we are in government or we are out of
government. The essence of our role as a political
party is to ensure that political institutions of
democracy, as established under the present
separation, survive, not to the dictates of those who
are seeing things from a very partisan angle. As a
party, we have said over times that we are not
against any probe of any kind. But what we keep
emphasizing on is that when you want to wage your
anti-corruption war, it should be open and it should
be all embracing. It should not be selective.
What we have now is that even those who are
indicted over corrupt practices while they were in
one position or the other, overnight they become
saints. Once they proclaim membership of APC,
everything they’ve done in the past is consigned to
the dustbin of history. All that is important is that
they are members of APC. So, anybody who served
in government as a PDP man and is still a PDP
member should be open to this probe and labelled
as corrupt people. There should be no selective
treatment of past political office holders because of
their political affiliation. We want to see a
government that is genuinely interested in
prosecuting the anti-corruption war, irrespective of
those who are involved, even if they are members of
the same party. Then all of us will join hands and
ensure that others will learn a lesson from what is
going on, that the fact you are in office does not give
you the right to just take money from the public
purse without knowing that one day, you will be
called to account for your actions while in office.
That is the position of our party.
In trying to describe the Nigerian political scene,
a commentator said recently that it appears that
the APC was not prepared for governance and
that the PDP was not prepared for opposition. So,
the two parties find themselves is a confused
state. Do you agree with that analysis?
I agree with the fact that APC was not prepared for
governance. It is very clear now. We have seen over
eight months of APC in government and they’ve not
taken one positive step forward. Instead, they are
taking us ten steps backwards and this is of great
concern to many Nigerians.
To say PDP was not prepared for opposition, I don’t
think there is any party in government anywhere in
the world that will be preparing for an election and
instead of preparing to win an election, preparing on
how to play opposition in government. So, to that
extent, you can say that there appears to be some
common sense analysis that can give rise to such a
position. But, more importantly, I must appreciate
the type of opposition that the PDP has provided for
the number of months they’ve been in opposition.
They’ve done it so well that principal officers, indeed
the mouthpiece of the party, who has been giving
the public our informed position on issues, has been
selected as one of those who must face the anti-
corruption crusade, so that he can be silenced.
To that extent, I don’t think it is really right to say
the PDP was not prepared for opposition. But I don’t
think there is any government in power who will set
out to conduct an election and say the outcome of
this election is going to throw us out of government;
so, let us start preparing on how to play opposition.
Your state will be holding the governorship
election very soon. How prepared is the PDP for
that election?
I must start by commending the very loyal,
committed members of PDP in Edo State. In the past
seven years and some months, they’ve been able to
show what it is to remain loyal to a cause you
believe in; to remain committed to the party you
believe in.
At the commencement of Adams Oshiomhole’s
administration, he virtually promised Edo people
heaven and earth and we saw even those who were
elected to offices on the platform of the PDP moving
over to him, thinking that what he was promising
Edo people, he was going to do for them. But you
have seen it all; even those who left us at that time,
believing that Oshiomhole was telling them truth,
have since found out that the man is not what they
were told. They’ve all found their way back to PDP
and we have accommodated them under my
leadership because the PDP umbrella is big enough
to accommodate all.
We have learnt very deep lessons from the teachings
of the Bible. The prodigal son who went away with
the father’s wealth squandered them, he came back
and the father held a feast for him. I think the lesson
of the prodigal son has guided our actions in
welcoming back those who left the party at one
point, thinking that Oshiomhole was going to bring
about solutions to the problems of our people in
Edo State. They have seen it all and they have come
back to us. We have welcomed them back and
together, we are now fighting the cause of
enthroning the next Governor for the State that will
be responsive to the needs of our people.
But people have said that the governor has a lot
of developmental projects in place, which they
claimed endeared him to the people and also
won him the second term?
I don’t think I will want us to discuss how he won his
election to serve out a second term. But if he is
sincere enough, he will tell you; I recall the
statement of Olisa Metuh about how he crawled on
his knees to the Villa to be supported to come back
with a very firm promise that as soon as the
elections are over, he was going to come to PDP. All
that is now history. I think we should talk more of
critical issues and how he has negatively impacted
on the average man in the streets of Edo State.
Let us look at the various sectors. You don’t assess
him by the amount of noise he is making in the
pages of newspaper. Of course, I sympathize with
him; I also sympathize with the situation he has
found himself. From the situation in 2012 where he
claimed to have 18 over 18, he is now in the twilight
of his administration; we have suddenly found out
that, today, PDP is in control of two senators out of
the three in the State. We are controlling majority of
the members in the House of Representatives and
even recently, I’m proud to say that even in
Oshiomhole’s own constituency, the member
representing him in the State House of Assembly is a
PDP member. I think that speaks volumes about
how the people now see him; why the people have
decided to embrace PDP, support PDP and ensure
that PDP wins the next governorship election. So, I
cannot thank Edo people and members of the party
enough. They have joined us in the forefront of the
battle to bring about a people-oriented
developmental government in Edo State.
The other day, we were trying to rate Oshiomhole’s
performance in government and I said in terms of
insulting elders, you can give him distinction. If you
want to rate him, you can give him A1 on insulting
elders and showing ingratitude to all those who
helped him at one time or the other. In terms of
noisemaking, you will also give him A1. But for every
other area, he has scored F9. So, I don’t know as a
lecturer, what your verdict will be. Do you think he
has passed? In the health sector, the only thing he
has done since he came into power is to build a new
emergency ward in an existing hospital in Benin City,
that is the Central Hospital. So far, he has committed
over N12 billion to building a ward.
When I tried to do a comparative analysis between
what Bauchi did; Bauchi State built a 300-bed
hospital. He is building a 200-bed emergency ward.
But in Bauchi State, they built a 300-bed hospital at
the cost of N2.5 billion with doctor’s quarters, state
of the art facilities fully equipped. Oshiomhole has
spent over N12 billion in building a ward. So, if you
want to assess him in the health sector, I don’t think
he can earn a pass mark.
I recounted the story of the medical doctor at the
General Hospital in Agenegbode, who said that they
operate with candle light. That story got headlines
review when it was first reported. They don’t even
have a functional generator and the hospitals are
not well staffed.
Now you talk about roads or the so-called water
stem project, he has borrowed over N30 billion.
Recently, his commissioner came out to tell the
public that it will take many years to actually do the
erosion control in Benin City. Of course, if you look
at the cost and you assess what has been done so
far, you will also agree with me that he has failed
woefully here again. Today, residents of Benin are
always praying that God would postpone the evil day
of rainfall. It used to be the prayer of every person
that rains should come so that we will be able to
farm and have a bountiful harvest at the end of the
season. But these days, because of the erosion
problem in Benin, people don’t pray for rain to fall.
You need to visit Benin on a rainy day to appreciate
the deceit in Oshiomhole’s much publicized Benin
Water Stem erosion control project. I’ve seen a man
who has elevated propaganda as an instrument
government to a level never seen before in Nigeria
politics.
Don’t forget Edo Line, the state’s Transport Company
is now history under Oshiomhole’s administration.
Tell me when last you saw Edo Line vehicle in any
road, even in Edo State? What has given rise to
different governments in the federation to set up
transport companies to help the citizens of their
states to have good transport services to travel to
any part of the country at any time was derived from
the Edo State example of Edo Line, which was set up
many years ago, even at the time Oshiomhole was
still in the textile industry at whatever level. At the
time Oshiomhole was in the union, Edo Line was
already in existence, having presence in virtually all
the State capitals in Nigeria. He has since handed
over the affairs of that company to a sole
administrator. He appointed a sole administrator in
somebody who has conflicting interest in the
business and ever since the appointment of the Sole
Administrator; we have not seen the revival of that
company. We’ve not seen one single vehicle on the
road. So, we have seen a governor for the first time
in the history of our state who has come into office
to sit over the liquidation of the state’s assets.
I recall that former Governor Lucky Igbinedion
once said that Edo line was giving the state more
than N10 million, so what happened?
More than that. Let us even look beyond what Edo
Line was bringing to the coffers of government. The
enormous employment opportunities it gave to
young men and women from Edo State – some of
them were offered appointments in far away Kaduna
as their stations. Others had employments in far
away Port Harcourt as their station. Edo line had a
presence in every state capital of the federation they
had their own properties in these various state
capitals where they operate from. But today, the
workers have been retrenched; people are idle. Even
those who remained staff of the organization until
the downturn they are currently experiencing are
owed several years of salaries and allowances
without the government addressing that.
Talk about the Edo Brewery that used to produce
Crystal bear and malt. That place has been closed
down. The government is in litigation with those who
are running the place and the place has been closed
down. So, one is right to assert here that
Oshiomhole in office has brought about the
liquidation of priced assets.
The ambition of every Governor is to produce a
successor. I learnt that the incumbent governor has
his eyes on a candidate. How prepared is the PDP to
counter the Governor’s candidate, especially in view
of the brewing conspiracy theory to the extent that
the government of the day will push the PDP into
picking a weak candidate?
I don’t want to react to rumours that the Governor
has his own preferred candidate in APC. I’m not a
member of APC. The only thing of interest to me in
this equation is that the Governor will want to hand
over to his own preferred candidate. But let me state
it here very clearly that if there is one Governor that
will not enjoy the privilege of handing over to his
preferred candidate, that Governor is Adams
Oshiomhole. Edo people are tired of his political
antics and they have already started showing clearly
that they are not going to buy into his satanic
intentions of installing somebody who will continue
his policies in Edo State. At the just concluded
National Assembly elections, PDP won two Senators
out of three. We won majority of members of the
House of Representatives and right at the State
House of Assembly, the people have started showing
him signs of their disapproval. That gives you a clear
direction of what the people are saying and they are
going to express it through the ballot box by bringing
about the election of a PDP Governor in Edo State
come the election of 2016.
The House of Assembly in Edo has also so far
refused to swear in the House of Assembly
member who is supposed to be representing the
Governor’s State Constituency. How are you
handling that?
It is good for people to know exactly the person
Adams Oshiomhole is. The PDP member who won
the election in Oshiomhole’s constituency has come
out to tell us that when he approached the Speaker
on the need to swear him in so that he can
adequately represent the people who voted
overwhelmingly for him to be the elected member
representing Etsako West Constituency II, the
Speaker, according to him, said that the problem is
with the Governor; that Governor has instructed that
they should not swear him in, that his file was
before the Governor. Those were the words of
Gallant Commander Silvanus Eroaka. If you want to
look deeply into the statement credited to Hon.
Eroaka, you will see clearly that in spite of the
diminutive size of the Governor, he has the
character of a typical dictator who will not want
opposition. But, unfortunately, he has forgotten that
this is a democracy. So, the elected lawmaker has
taken legitimate steps to bring about his official
swearing in as an elected member to represent
Oshiomhole’s constituency at the State House of
Assembly because the constitution has provided for
various ways to ensure that his rights are not
trampled upon by the excesses of an executive.
So, you are saying that your party is fully ready
to battle APC, despite the power of incumbency
at the state and federal level?
I can tell you that the people are willing and they are
ready to ensure that their decision is respected at
the end of the election. It’s not enough to say
because you are in control in government at the
federal and at the state, and then the people’s will
will not be respected. If that is so, APC, will not even
be in government today. It has also been shown
clearly in Bayelsa that no matter the level of
intimidation and what have you, the will of the
people will prevail once they are resolved in
ensuring that their verdict is respected.
In Edo State for several years, Oshiomhole kept
crying that why he is not performing is that the past
PDP governments did not do anything for the nine
years they were in office. Unfortunately for him, he
is now spending about the same number of years
the PDP stayed in office. But now, he can no longer
tell anybody that the problems we are facing are the
problems of PDP. The day of reckoning has come. It
was nice to hear him say that in his first tenure in
office. Saying it at this time shows clearly that he just
not prepared for governance.
If after seven years plus, you have not been able to
put right what you felt was wrong that motivated you
to come into office, it shows that you have no clue
about what to do to right the wrong of the past.
Perhaps, the APC at the national level is
borrowing a leave from your governor then.
Some commentators recently called that the
blame Jonathan syndrome. Is that what you are
seeing?
I’m not surprised that at the national level, they have
taken the same line. But let me tell you; at the time
Obama took over government, the economy of the
US was worse than what Buhari took over from
Jonathan. But Obama never one day spent time to
tell the American people that he was inheriting a bad
economy and that is why he’s not been able to find
solutions to that problem. But a few years after, he
has been able to turn around the clock. Rather than
blame the problems on the past, he went headlong
to confront the situation he found himself and all
hands were on deck. He brought in the best hands
anybody can access to help him run the affairs of
the country and to his credit today, people hardly
can remember how bad the economy was at the
time he came into office.
But the good lesson we must learn from this is that
he was not wasting time putting all the blames on
his predecessor. If he felt things were good, he
ought not to have come to challenge for the office.
So, even before coming to office, Buhari must have
convinced himself that he will be a better option for
Nigerians and in his mind, he knew the problems
and he was prepared to proffer solutions to the
problems. So, it is not enough for somebody now to
start blindfolding us as if he is just finding out that
there were challenges in the office he was aspiring
to. So, I think the government must adopt a different
approach. They must know that the promises they
made to Nigerians, they must also appreciate the
depth of trust and expectations Nigerians had from
electing them into office. You cannot dash
expectations on the altar of sudden realization that
the PDP government mismanaged the economy.
Nigerians are interested in seeing the roadmap to
economic recovery. Nigerians are interested in
seeing positive concrete steps that will bring about a
diversification of our economy, not billions of Naira
being budgeted to exploration of oil in a particular
area, when the revenue from oil is dwindling. One
would expect that such money would be better
utilized in exploring new areas that will make the
economy less dependent on oil.
to the emergence of the new national chairman,
Senator Ali Modu Sheriff. Don’t you see this
adding more troubles to the travails of the party
which lost power at the centre in 2015?
I want to say with emphasis that there is no division
in the emergence of a new national chairman. You
will agree with me that in a democratic process,
there are different levels of approval before the
emergence of a chairman. I think all the processes
were followed to the letter. Of course, that will not
prevent people from airing their personal opinions
about the candidates they were proposing for the
position. Different people had different reasons to
support or oppose. But at the end of the day, we
have a national chairman whose immediate task is
to rally every person together and organize a
credible and acceptable convention that will put the
party on the track to recovering government.
I don’t think there is any noise, apart from the noise
coming from the APC, who are more interested in
what happens within PDP than those who are in
PDP. Let them leave us alone; let us manage our
affairs. We will manage our affairs until we get them
out of government.
You seem to be saying that party members
should give the new chairman a chance. Are you
talking as a member of the party’s National
Executive Committee (NEC) or as chairman of
Edo State chapter of the party?
We have a chairman who, under our constitution, is
to serve out the tenure of the zone where the former
national chairman comes from and if you look at the
period in question, it’s a very short period. I don’t
know why the noise is coming from APC louder than
PDP. They should leave us to manage our internal
affairs. It is not for APC to determine or dictate to us
who should run the affairs of the party at any point
in time. If the National Executive Committee, the
highest organ of the part has approved the
appointment of a new chairman, so should it be. We
are moving on as a party.
We are not even bothered about the noise coming
from APC. They should be more concerned about
the leader of APC, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, who is
talking too much. He is even dabbling into probing
Supreme Court justices, just because the justices
gave what the APC believed were unfavourable
verdicts in cases involving that party. So, they should
be more concerned about the leadership of APC
than that of PDP. The leadership of the APC has not
been able to differentiate the difference between the
leadership of the Executive, the Legislature and
Judiciary.
As far as the leadership of APC is concerned, once
you produce the president of the country, you
should control every other arm of government, even
up to the extent of saying there is internal sabotage
by agencies and parastatals in government; even
accusing INEC of internal sabotage. Is he saying that
all of them should be replaced by APC members?
These are the things that should concern Nigerians
and APC – that they have a leadership which has not
been able to come to terms about what democracy
is all about. Instead, they are talking about the PDP
National Chairman.
But the APC national chairman was only saying
that the President should weed out PDP-
appointed heads of parastatals so as to give
room for appointment of members of APC…
I don’t understand what Chief Oyegun means by
internal sabotage. We are facing very hard times
brought about by lack of knowledge on the part of
the APC government to tackle very critical areas of
our economy and put the country on the right track
towards full economic recovery. Instead, they are
babbling about how to probe judiciary, probe the
Supreme Court because of perceived unfavourable
judgments; they are dabbling about how to replace
personnel in INEC with APC members and
appointees, forgetting that these are institutions.
They should look at the laws setting up these
institutions.
The judiciary derives its powers from the
Constitution of the country, just like the executive
arm of government and the legislature. Some of the
agencies he is talking about, like the INEC, are
independent, and they should respect the law setting
up these institutions. They should not drag some of
these institutions into partisan politics all in a bid to
satisfy their own selfish interest. I should expect
Oyegun at this point in time as the National
Chairman of a ruling party at the federal level to
speak more like a statesman than somebody whose
statements are driven by parochial party interest.
Critics of your party are of the view that it has
enough baggage following the prosecution of
some of its members over corruption
allegations. Don’t you think that the controversy
over the emergence of the National Chairman is
like sounding the death knell of the party?
I must tell you at this point that the party is strong
and alive to its responsibilities. As a political party
that is in opposition, we have a duty to play our role
under the present democratic setting effectively
because, at the end of the day, it is not about
whether we are in government or we are out of
government. The essence of our role as a political
party is to ensure that political institutions of
democracy, as established under the present
separation, survive, not to the dictates of those who
are seeing things from a very partisan angle. As a
party, we have said over times that we are not
against any probe of any kind. But what we keep
emphasizing on is that when you want to wage your
anti-corruption war, it should be open and it should
be all embracing. It should not be selective.
What we have now is that even those who are
indicted over corrupt practices while they were in
one position or the other, overnight they become
saints. Once they proclaim membership of APC,
everything they’ve done in the past is consigned to
the dustbin of history. All that is important is that
they are members of APC. So, anybody who served
in government as a PDP man and is still a PDP
member should be open to this probe and labelled
as corrupt people. There should be no selective
treatment of past political office holders because of
their political affiliation. We want to see a
government that is genuinely interested in
prosecuting the anti-corruption war, irrespective of
those who are involved, even if they are members of
the same party. Then all of us will join hands and
ensure that others will learn a lesson from what is
going on, that the fact you are in office does not give
you the right to just take money from the public
purse without knowing that one day, you will be
called to account for your actions while in office.
That is the position of our party.
In trying to describe the Nigerian political scene,
a commentator said recently that it appears that
the APC was not prepared for governance and
that the PDP was not prepared for opposition. So,
the two parties find themselves is a confused
state. Do you agree with that analysis?
I agree with the fact that APC was not prepared for
governance. It is very clear now. We have seen over
eight months of APC in government and they’ve not
taken one positive step forward. Instead, they are
taking us ten steps backwards and this is of great
concern to many Nigerians.
To say PDP was not prepared for opposition, I don’t
think there is any party in government anywhere in
the world that will be preparing for an election and
instead of preparing to win an election, preparing on
how to play opposition in government. So, to that
extent, you can say that there appears to be some
common sense analysis that can give rise to such a
position. But, more importantly, I must appreciate
the type of opposition that the PDP has provided for
the number of months they’ve been in opposition.
They’ve done it so well that principal officers, indeed
the mouthpiece of the party, who has been giving
the public our informed position on issues, has been
selected as one of those who must face the anti-
corruption crusade, so that he can be silenced.
To that extent, I don’t think it is really right to say
the PDP was not prepared for opposition. But I don’t
think there is any government in power who will set
out to conduct an election and say the outcome of
this election is going to throw us out of government;
so, let us start preparing on how to play opposition.
Your state will be holding the governorship
election very soon. How prepared is the PDP for
that election?
I must start by commending the very loyal,
committed members of PDP in Edo State. In the past
seven years and some months, they’ve been able to
show what it is to remain loyal to a cause you
believe in; to remain committed to the party you
believe in.
At the commencement of Adams Oshiomhole’s
administration, he virtually promised Edo people
heaven and earth and we saw even those who were
elected to offices on the platform of the PDP moving
over to him, thinking that what he was promising
Edo people, he was going to do for them. But you
have seen it all; even those who left us at that time,
believing that Oshiomhole was telling them truth,
have since found out that the man is not what they
were told. They’ve all found their way back to PDP
and we have accommodated them under my
leadership because the PDP umbrella is big enough
to accommodate all.
We have learnt very deep lessons from the teachings
of the Bible. The prodigal son who went away with
the father’s wealth squandered them, he came back
and the father held a feast for him. I think the lesson
of the prodigal son has guided our actions in
welcoming back those who left the party at one
point, thinking that Oshiomhole was going to bring
about solutions to the problems of our people in
Edo State. They have seen it all and they have come
back to us. We have welcomed them back and
together, we are now fighting the cause of
enthroning the next Governor for the State that will
be responsive to the needs of our people.
But people have said that the governor has a lot
of developmental projects in place, which they
claimed endeared him to the people and also
won him the second term?
I don’t think I will want us to discuss how he won his
election to serve out a second term. But if he is
sincere enough, he will tell you; I recall the
statement of Olisa Metuh about how he crawled on
his knees to the Villa to be supported to come back
with a very firm promise that as soon as the
elections are over, he was going to come to PDP. All
that is now history. I think we should talk more of
critical issues and how he has negatively impacted
on the average man in the streets of Edo State.
Let us look at the various sectors. You don’t assess
him by the amount of noise he is making in the
pages of newspaper. Of course, I sympathize with
him; I also sympathize with the situation he has
found himself. From the situation in 2012 where he
claimed to have 18 over 18, he is now in the twilight
of his administration; we have suddenly found out
that, today, PDP is in control of two senators out of
the three in the State. We are controlling majority of
the members in the House of Representatives and
even recently, I’m proud to say that even in
Oshiomhole’s own constituency, the member
representing him in the State House of Assembly is a
PDP member. I think that speaks volumes about
how the people now see him; why the people have
decided to embrace PDP, support PDP and ensure
that PDP wins the next governorship election. So, I
cannot thank Edo people and members of the party
enough. They have joined us in the forefront of the
battle to bring about a people-oriented
developmental government in Edo State.
The other day, we were trying to rate Oshiomhole’s
performance in government and I said in terms of
insulting elders, you can give him distinction. If you
want to rate him, you can give him A1 on insulting
elders and showing ingratitude to all those who
helped him at one time or the other. In terms of
noisemaking, you will also give him A1. But for every
other area, he has scored F9. So, I don’t know as a
lecturer, what your verdict will be. Do you think he
has passed? In the health sector, the only thing he
has done since he came into power is to build a new
emergency ward in an existing hospital in Benin City,
that is the Central Hospital. So far, he has committed
over N12 billion to building a ward.
When I tried to do a comparative analysis between
what Bauchi did; Bauchi State built a 300-bed
hospital. He is building a 200-bed emergency ward.
But in Bauchi State, they built a 300-bed hospital at
the cost of N2.5 billion with doctor’s quarters, state
of the art facilities fully equipped. Oshiomhole has
spent over N12 billion in building a ward. So, if you
want to assess him in the health sector, I don’t think
he can earn a pass mark.
I recounted the story of the medical doctor at the
General Hospital in Agenegbode, who said that they
operate with candle light. That story got headlines
review when it was first reported. They don’t even
have a functional generator and the hospitals are
not well staffed.
Now you talk about roads or the so-called water
stem project, he has borrowed over N30 billion.
Recently, his commissioner came out to tell the
public that it will take many years to actually do the
erosion control in Benin City. Of course, if you look
at the cost and you assess what has been done so
far, you will also agree with me that he has failed
woefully here again. Today, residents of Benin are
always praying that God would postpone the evil day
of rainfall. It used to be the prayer of every person
that rains should come so that we will be able to
farm and have a bountiful harvest at the end of the
season. But these days, because of the erosion
problem in Benin, people don’t pray for rain to fall.
You need to visit Benin on a rainy day to appreciate
the deceit in Oshiomhole’s much publicized Benin
Water Stem erosion control project. I’ve seen a man
who has elevated propaganda as an instrument
government to a level never seen before in Nigeria
politics.
Don’t forget Edo Line, the state’s Transport Company
is now history under Oshiomhole’s administration.
Tell me when last you saw Edo Line vehicle in any
road, even in Edo State? What has given rise to
different governments in the federation to set up
transport companies to help the citizens of their
states to have good transport services to travel to
any part of the country at any time was derived from
the Edo State example of Edo Line, which was set up
many years ago, even at the time Oshiomhole was
still in the textile industry at whatever level. At the
time Oshiomhole was in the union, Edo Line was
already in existence, having presence in virtually all
the State capitals in Nigeria. He has since handed
over the affairs of that company to a sole
administrator. He appointed a sole administrator in
somebody who has conflicting interest in the
business and ever since the appointment of the Sole
Administrator; we have not seen the revival of that
company. We’ve not seen one single vehicle on the
road. So, we have seen a governor for the first time
in the history of our state who has come into office
to sit over the liquidation of the state’s assets.
I recall that former Governor Lucky Igbinedion
once said that Edo line was giving the state more
than N10 million, so what happened?
More than that. Let us even look beyond what Edo
Line was bringing to the coffers of government. The
enormous employment opportunities it gave to
young men and women from Edo State – some of
them were offered appointments in far away Kaduna
as their stations. Others had employments in far
away Port Harcourt as their station. Edo line had a
presence in every state capital of the federation they
had their own properties in these various state
capitals where they operate from. But today, the
workers have been retrenched; people are idle. Even
those who remained staff of the organization until
the downturn they are currently experiencing are
owed several years of salaries and allowances
without the government addressing that.
Talk about the Edo Brewery that used to produce
Crystal bear and malt. That place has been closed
down. The government is in litigation with those who
are running the place and the place has been closed
down. So, one is right to assert here that
Oshiomhole in office has brought about the
liquidation of priced assets.
The ambition of every Governor is to produce a
successor. I learnt that the incumbent governor has
his eyes on a candidate. How prepared is the PDP to
counter the Governor’s candidate, especially in view
of the brewing conspiracy theory to the extent that
the government of the day will push the PDP into
picking a weak candidate?
I don’t want to react to rumours that the Governor
has his own preferred candidate in APC. I’m not a
member of APC. The only thing of interest to me in
this equation is that the Governor will want to hand
over to his own preferred candidate. But let me state
it here very clearly that if there is one Governor that
will not enjoy the privilege of handing over to his
preferred candidate, that Governor is Adams
Oshiomhole. Edo people are tired of his political
antics and they have already started showing clearly
that they are not going to buy into his satanic
intentions of installing somebody who will continue
his policies in Edo State. At the just concluded
National Assembly elections, PDP won two Senators
out of three. We won majority of members of the
House of Representatives and right at the State
House of Assembly, the people have started showing
him signs of their disapproval. That gives you a clear
direction of what the people are saying and they are
going to express it through the ballot box by bringing
about the election of a PDP Governor in Edo State
come the election of 2016.
The House of Assembly in Edo has also so far
refused to swear in the House of Assembly
member who is supposed to be representing the
Governor’s State Constituency. How are you
handling that?
It is good for people to know exactly the person
Adams Oshiomhole is. The PDP member who won
the election in Oshiomhole’s constituency has come
out to tell us that when he approached the Speaker
on the need to swear him in so that he can
adequately represent the people who voted
overwhelmingly for him to be the elected member
representing Etsako West Constituency II, the
Speaker, according to him, said that the problem is
with the Governor; that Governor has instructed that
they should not swear him in, that his file was
before the Governor. Those were the words of
Gallant Commander Silvanus Eroaka. If you want to
look deeply into the statement credited to Hon.
Eroaka, you will see clearly that in spite of the
diminutive size of the Governor, he has the
character of a typical dictator who will not want
opposition. But, unfortunately, he has forgotten that
this is a democracy. So, the elected lawmaker has
taken legitimate steps to bring about his official
swearing in as an elected member to represent
Oshiomhole’s constituency at the State House of
Assembly because the constitution has provided for
various ways to ensure that his rights are not
trampled upon by the excesses of an executive.
So, you are saying that your party is fully ready
to battle APC, despite the power of incumbency
at the state and federal level?
I can tell you that the people are willing and they are
ready to ensure that their decision is respected at
the end of the election. It’s not enough to say
because you are in control in government at the
federal and at the state, and then the people’s will
will not be respected. If that is so, APC, will not even
be in government today. It has also been shown
clearly in Bayelsa that no matter the level of
intimidation and what have you, the will of the
people will prevail once they are resolved in
ensuring that their verdict is respected.
In Edo State for several years, Oshiomhole kept
crying that why he is not performing is that the past
PDP governments did not do anything for the nine
years they were in office. Unfortunately for him, he
is now spending about the same number of years
the PDP stayed in office. But now, he can no longer
tell anybody that the problems we are facing are the
problems of PDP. The day of reckoning has come. It
was nice to hear him say that in his first tenure in
office. Saying it at this time shows clearly that he just
not prepared for governance.
If after seven years plus, you have not been able to
put right what you felt was wrong that motivated you
to come into office, it shows that you have no clue
about what to do to right the wrong of the past.
Perhaps, the APC at the national level is
borrowing a leave from your governor then.
Some commentators recently called that the
blame Jonathan syndrome. Is that what you are
seeing?
I’m not surprised that at the national level, they have
taken the same line. But let me tell you; at the time
Obama took over government, the economy of the
US was worse than what Buhari took over from
Jonathan. But Obama never one day spent time to
tell the American people that he was inheriting a bad
economy and that is why he’s not been able to find
solutions to that problem. But a few years after, he
has been able to turn around the clock. Rather than
blame the problems on the past, he went headlong
to confront the situation he found himself and all
hands were on deck. He brought in the best hands
anybody can access to help him run the affairs of
the country and to his credit today, people hardly
can remember how bad the economy was at the
time he came into office.
But the good lesson we must learn from this is that
he was not wasting time putting all the blames on
his predecessor. If he felt things were good, he
ought not to have come to challenge for the office.
So, even before coming to office, Buhari must have
convinced himself that he will be a better option for
Nigerians and in his mind, he knew the problems
and he was prepared to proffer solutions to the
problems. So, it is not enough for somebody now to
start blindfolding us as if he is just finding out that
there were challenges in the office he was aspiring
to. So, I think the government must adopt a different
approach. They must know that the promises they
made to Nigerians, they must also appreciate the
depth of trust and expectations Nigerians had from
electing them into office. You cannot dash
expectations on the altar of sudden realization that
the PDP government mismanaged the economy.
Nigerians are interested in seeing the roadmap to
economic recovery. Nigerians are interested in
seeing positive concrete steps that will bring about a
diversification of our economy, not billions of Naira
being budgeted to exploration of oil in a particular
area, when the revenue from oil is dwindling. One
would expect that such money would be better
utilized in exploring new areas that will make the
economy less dependent on oil.
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