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Our plans to develop Edo’s decrepit infrastructure, by Osunbor
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Infrastructure From the period of 1999 to 2007 there was a high level of expectations by the people of Edo State. The administration in place at that time did their best but their best fell far short of the expectations of the people.
I brought with me to the office of Governor of Edo State a track record of achievement, performance and if you like excellence in my previous endeavours, career. This I sold to the electorates, they believed in me and in spite of the reservations that some people had we were victorious in that elections.
Knowing the high level of renewed hope and expectations by the people I wasted no time in getting down to the business of governance knowing fully well the essence of governance is that the people expect to see development, see good leadership because with that people can follow and you can get a lot more done. I am happy that these past seven months or so that there is no questions in the minds of the people of Edo that we mean business and we are ready to bring about the fast rate of development of infrastructure which had unfortunately fallen into a state of decay and disrepair these past few years.
We are beginning to put them right and there is renewed confidence in the democratic process and institutions and I promised the people of Edo State that every opportunity such as this that we will strive to do more so that the confidence they reposed in me in electing me as their governor is not misplaced.
State debt
On whole to total indebtedness that we inherited is N20 billion. We are trying to make do with the little resources made available to us, we are improving on our internally generated revenue, we are targeting about N8 billion this year. Some of the oil wells that should be credited to Edo State in order to beef up our 13 per cent are either still subject of dispute with neighbouring states or are not operating right now because of some activities of criminal elements. We hope to be able to address these issues so that these oil wells can resume production and hopefully will be able to attain the projected revenue of N60 billion plus which we have proposed as our budget for this year. We are matching on in spite of it. We want to keep the past behind us and focus on the future.
Election rigging
Well, the PDP is the dominant party in Edo State as you know. Currently in the House of Assembly despite the problems we encountered during the April 14th 2007 elections the PDP controls a comfortable two third majority in the House of Assembly. The PDP controls the executive office which is the governor. PDP is the party on the ground in the state. Unfortunately, the opposition party in the state which is AC thrive on propaganda and I am sure you know why because there are people in the AC that have lived using propaganda all their working life. They have a great advantage over PDP in the area of propaganda but the reality is that PDP is the party on ground. Since I came on board the party has been waxing stronger and stronger and like I said those who had reservations particularly in the metropolis, Benin City have nearly 100 per cent changed their minds, nearly all of them have returned to the PDP fold.
So we went into the LGA elections with high level of optimism, high level of moral, high level of preparations and this is very important. While the PDP was campaigning as we always do to do to win the hearts of voters and to win their votes, the opposition essentially the AC went to court and tried to prevent us from holding elections. They instituted not less than five cases against us in court and these were reported. They even went to the Court of Appeal and the case was dismissed because it lacked merit. One of the allegations that they had was that the State Independent Electoral Commission was not properly constituted. But I am sure you have read how on three different occasions where the court has dismissed attempts by people to have SIEC as constituted nullified because the courts believed that we acted in accordance with the provision establishing SIEC. So the AC tried by all means to ensure we did not have the elections but when by December 14th the court of appeal dismissed their applications to have the elections stopped they were left with no option than to turn to violence as they had planned as their fallback position.
You will recall that on December 13 my Commissioner for Information and Orientation had a press conference where he alerted the public about the plans by AC to set ablaze all the offices SIEC across the state and to destroy the houses of PDP leaders. So when they failed to stop the elections over night they carried out their plans and burnt down the buildings and they burnt about five in all including some offices, SIEC and some offices of INEC and in one case LG Secretariat. This was done before dawn and not by voters because I was reading that it was irate voters but voting has not even commenced. All the burning took place before 8 a.m. in the morning and you can verify this. So the violence in the State was done by AC and their agents who had vowed to stop the elections at all cost having failed to use the courts to stop the elections. In fact they had wanted to create a state of total breakdown of law and order in the State but we thank God that with the support of the Police and the Army who came out at about 12 noon that day and ensured the peaceful atmosphere in order for the elections to hold. Luckily for the SEIC they heeded the warnings having been alerted about the plans to burn some of these offices they didn’t actually put the ballot papers in those places so that was how the election was able to take place because the ballot papers was very safe custody and the PDP won.
I am not aware that any death was recorded during the LG elections. Yes buildings were burnt but I am not aware anybody died.
Roles in Igbinedion’s plight
None at all. I didn’t put him in his present predicament and I have not played any role.
Assisting EFCC
That is hypothetical. If I am not approached I wouldn’t.
Election tribunal
No not at all. I just told you PDP is the party on ground in Edo State and if out of 24 seats in House of Assembly PDP won 16 and AC won 8 and that elections took place simultaneously with the governorship elections then you can assess for yourself even without being a lawyer about the outcome of the April 14 elections. So there is no shaking.
The world is moving, and Nigeria just has to move along in improving on our way of doing things, in improving the electoral process. The President left no one in doubt as soon as he came in that he is out to promote the rule of law and if everybody adheres to the rule of the game as contained in the laws then this violence and the malpractices that we witnessed would be reduced to its barest minimum.
It is also very thoughtful of him to have invited the governors, the chieftains of the political parties, the chiefs of the security agencies and other stakeholders, I believe that when we sit down as we have since morning to look at the problems, then we will be able to aggregate a wide range of views in order to come to a common position. Everybody is agreed on the fact that we need to improve on our electoral process in Nigeria. We need to improve the knowledge of our people about what elections represent. We need to correct some of the inadequacies in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the electoral laws. We have to revisit the Constitution to see what an amendment needs to be made. People say ‘no’, the Constitution is good enough, but no human document is perfect. If you must modify the way that people do things, the most potent tool that you can use is the law, the Constitution. So that is why the law is fundamental. I don’t agree with people who say, ‘no don’t worry about the law, all you must concentrate on is the attitude of the people.’’
I brought with me to the office of Governor of Edo State a track record of achievement, performance and if you like excellence in my previous endeavours, career. This I sold to the electorates, they believed in me and in spite of the reservations that some people had we were victorious in that elections.
Knowing the high level of renewed hope and expectations by the people I wasted no time in getting down to the business of governance knowing fully well the essence of governance is that the people expect to see development, see good leadership because with that people can follow and you can get a lot more done. I am happy that these past seven months or so that there is no questions in the minds of the people of Edo that we mean business and we are ready to bring about the fast rate of development of infrastructure which had unfortunately fallen into a state of decay and disrepair these past few years.
We are beginning to put them right and there is renewed confidence in the democratic process and institutions and I promised the people of Edo State that every opportunity such as this that we will strive to do more so that the confidence they reposed in me in electing me as their governor is not misplaced.
State debt
On whole to total indebtedness that we inherited is N20 billion. We are trying to make do with the little resources made available to us, we are improving on our internally generated revenue, we are targeting about N8 billion this year. Some of the oil wells that should be credited to Edo State in order to beef up our 13 per cent are either still subject of dispute with neighbouring states or are not operating right now because of some activities of criminal elements. We hope to be able to address these issues so that these oil wells can resume production and hopefully will be able to attain the projected revenue of N60 billion plus which we have proposed as our budget for this year. We are matching on in spite of it. We want to keep the past behind us and focus on the future.
Election rigging
Well, the PDP is the dominant party in Edo State as you know. Currently in the House of Assembly despite the problems we encountered during the April 14th 2007 elections the PDP controls a comfortable two third majority in the House of Assembly. The PDP controls the executive office which is the governor. PDP is the party on the ground in the state. Unfortunately, the opposition party in the state which is AC thrive on propaganda and I am sure you know why because there are people in the AC that have lived using propaganda all their working life. They have a great advantage over PDP in the area of propaganda but the reality is that PDP is the party on ground. Since I came on board the party has been waxing stronger and stronger and like I said those who had reservations particularly in the metropolis, Benin City have nearly 100 per cent changed their minds, nearly all of them have returned to the PDP fold.
So we went into the LGA elections with high level of optimism, high level of moral, high level of preparations and this is very important. While the PDP was campaigning as we always do to do to win the hearts of voters and to win their votes, the opposition essentially the AC went to court and tried to prevent us from holding elections. They instituted not less than five cases against us in court and these were reported. They even went to the Court of Appeal and the case was dismissed because it lacked merit. One of the allegations that they had was that the State Independent Electoral Commission was not properly constituted. But I am sure you have read how on three different occasions where the court has dismissed attempts by people to have SIEC as constituted nullified because the courts believed that we acted in accordance with the provision establishing SIEC. So the AC tried by all means to ensure we did not have the elections but when by December 14th the court of appeal dismissed their applications to have the elections stopped they were left with no option than to turn to violence as they had planned as their fallback position.
You will recall that on December 13 my Commissioner for Information and Orientation had a press conference where he alerted the public about the plans by AC to set ablaze all the offices SIEC across the state and to destroy the houses of PDP leaders. So when they failed to stop the elections over night they carried out their plans and burnt down the buildings and they burnt about five in all including some offices, SIEC and some offices of INEC and in one case LG Secretariat. This was done before dawn and not by voters because I was reading that it was irate voters but voting has not even commenced. All the burning took place before 8 a.m. in the morning and you can verify this. So the violence in the State was done by AC and their agents who had vowed to stop the elections at all cost having failed to use the courts to stop the elections. In fact they had wanted to create a state of total breakdown of law and order in the State but we thank God that with the support of the Police and the Army who came out at about 12 noon that day and ensured the peaceful atmosphere in order for the elections to hold. Luckily for the SEIC they heeded the warnings having been alerted about the plans to burn some of these offices they didn’t actually put the ballot papers in those places so that was how the election was able to take place because the ballot papers was very safe custody and the PDP won.
I am not aware that any death was recorded during the LG elections. Yes buildings were burnt but I am not aware anybody died.
Roles in Igbinedion’s plight
None at all. I didn’t put him in his present predicament and I have not played any role.
Assisting EFCC
That is hypothetical. If I am not approached I wouldn’t.
Election tribunal
No not at all. I just told you PDP is the party on ground in Edo State and if out of 24 seats in House of Assembly PDP won 16 and AC won 8 and that elections took place simultaneously with the governorship elections then you can assess for yourself even without being a lawyer about the outcome of the April 14 elections. So there is no shaking.
The world is moving, and Nigeria just has to move along in improving on our way of doing things, in improving the electoral process. The President left no one in doubt as soon as he came in that he is out to promote the rule of law and if everybody adheres to the rule of the game as contained in the laws then this violence and the malpractices that we witnessed would be reduced to its barest minimum.
It is also very thoughtful of him to have invited the governors, the chieftains of the political parties, the chiefs of the security agencies and other stakeholders, I believe that when we sit down as we have since morning to look at the problems, then we will be able to aggregate a wide range of views in order to come to a common position. Everybody is agreed on the fact that we need to improve on our electoral process in Nigeria. We need to improve the knowledge of our people about what elections represent. We need to correct some of the inadequacies in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the electoral laws. We have to revisit the Constitution to see what an amendment needs to be made. People say ‘no’, the Constitution is good enough, but no human document is perfect. If you must modify the way that people do things, the most potent tool that you can use is the law, the Constitution. So that is why the law is fundamental. I don’t agree with people who say, ‘no don’t worry about the law, all you must concentrate on is the attitude of the people.’’
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