By Kassim Afegbua
I was going through a piece of one of ex-Governor Obaseki’s rottweilers, barking aloud about what he perceived as the legacies of his paymaster in his eight years of abysmal leadership, and I came to the irrevocable conclusion that the culture of shame has since departed from him.
Crusoe Osagie’s diatribes were a combination of superb artefacts of shame, such kind of bold-faced admission of guilt, with a justification of Obaseki’s rotten legacies. It is no longer fashionable for me to engage Obaseki and his vuvuzelas, especially a Crusoe Osagie, planted in the rustic settings of Idumota, Lagos with miserable monthly allowance to spill bile against the benefactor of September 21st Edo referendum, Senator Okpebholo, but it is instructive to bring Crusoe to speed about the new Edo of today, steeped in positive governance of “eye-mark”. What Governor Okpebholo has achieved in 100 days for me, far outweighs whatever “achievements” of Obaseki in two solid years of his acquisitive and profligate government. I will come to this shortly.
Having served in the Transition Committee pre-inauguration, and also served as member of the Assets Verification Committee including the Administrative Panel to Investigate the Local Governments, I have more than enough arsenal at my disposal to shoot down Obaseki’s publicist’s equivocation. But for the type of system we run in this part of the world, the likes of Obaseki and his linchpin vuvuzela, should be cooling off in Oko prison. The point must be made without doubt that Obaseki ran Edo state like a private limited company, with dubious and cooked up balance sheets to confuse and bamboozle shareholders each time he’s called upon to render account of his stewardship. Edo was run like a Mafia gang, deeply orchestrated in duplicitous financial malfeasance, through consultants whose ideas were largely unreasonable. All the touted achievements of Godwin Obaseki in critical sectors of the economy deserve some scrutiny.
At Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, it is true that he converted a Governing Council to a Special Intervention Team-SIT, to oversee the affairs of that University. By the time the SIT finished its so-called intervention, the subvention paid to the University stood at N41m annually. That was a deliberate attempt to crumble that University, as intakes dropped from 15,000 students population to about 3,800 yearly. Today, Governor Okpebholo has taken the subvention to N500m annually, and set up a proper Governing Council, headed by Chief Dan Orbih, a member of Obaseki’s PDP. In the area of security, Obaseki simply promoted serious issues to comic height. Throughout his eight years as Governor, he NEVER bought a single, brand new vehicle to assist the security agencies in their operations, instead, he refurbished 15-number Toyota hiluxes which he inherited from his predecessor, and donated them to the security agencies. Today, Governor Okpebholo has bought and distributed 40-number brand new Toyota hiluxes, to security agencies to ease their operational mobility.
It is not just about being lousy as an empty drum, it is about being lofty with ideas if you are ready to judiciously spend public money. There has to be value for money. At resumption, Governor Okpebholo met a rotten and completely grounded Edo Line Transport Service which used to be the unique selling point of the state. In Obaseki’s eight years, he could not revive that cherished transportation platform instead, he set up an agency called MoveMonkey that was more of MoveMoney, out of Edo state. When we visited the premises of MoveMonkey at the heart of Benin, as members of Assets Verification Committee, it was an eyesore of monumental proportion. We counted 52 grounded vehicles of different makes, all constituting waste and nuisance in that premises. Talk of a profligate government, you will be right on point. Beside the MoveMonkey Office is the premises of the moribund Edo Line Transport Service, with several vehicles wasting away by a government that talks about achievements. In fact, nothing more appropriate to underscore the rotten underbelly of Obaseki’s government than that particular site. It is awful. As at today, Governor Okpebholo has declared total emergency in that transport sector, and has acquired over 40 ultra-modern buses to commence Edo Line once again.
Obaseki’s vuvuzela shamelessly praised EdoBesst project as the icing on the cake in their interventionistic initiative to revive education in the state. We went round the state, and at some point, I broke down in tears. If only Obaseki had continued Oshiomhole’s Red Roof Revolution, educational infrastructure in Edo state today would have attained an eldorado level. His EdoBesst initiative was Edo Worst reality. Aside from being a deliberate drain pipe, the whole idea is akin to building on quicksand. Majority of the Schools’ infrastructure across the state are shameful, a clear indication of Obaseki’s shamelessness. How do you develop a unified curriculum system without infrastructure to drive the process. You lumped students into classrooms because of leaking roofs and lack of chairs, you brought in your consultants with tablets to teach students under such inclement condition. You ended up clapping for yourself that you have scored excellence in education, how wicked could you possibly be? Obaseki’s EdoBesst Consultant gross home N160m every month for literarily doing nothing. And this has been the practice since 2018. When we asked questions to justify such humongous expenditure with minimal impact, the Consultant was looking like a lost sheep. Now, Governor Okpebholo has declared another emergency in that sector, to fix the schools before talking about anything else.
In trying to justify the demolition of the Benin Central Hospital to give way for his Museum of West Africa Arts-MOWAA, Obaseki opted for expanding the Stella Obaseki Hospital. Good idea you might say, but the place is heavily over-prized. As at today, the Contractor is being owed N4.5b outstanding payments with so much work left to be done. While the contractor was still being owed, Obaseki’s appointed Consultant to oversee the project was paid the sum of N937m. How curious? A job for which you were hired has not been completed, yet you have been fully paid, and the smart consultant resigned abruptly. The Stella Obasanjo Hospital is yet to be completed but Obaseki invited former President Obasanjo to commission the project. Fraud alert!. Meanwhile, MOWAA, which was Obaseki’s response to the returned artefacts, has nothing to do with Edo government, yet Obaseki’s government dumped N3.8b into the project while ceding a C-of-O to MOWAA after payment of a N50,000 naira stipend. That is Crusoe Osagie’s prudent investment. The present land which sits MOWAA, is worth over N7b in present day valuation. We did advise the Governor to review its participation in the NGO called MOWAA, according to its proponents who have received over N50b from donors.
In case Obaseki has forgotten, let me remind him that the Radisson Hotel Project was another fraudulent investment that needs urgent review. The State Government sourced N25b from Stock Market, bought the existing structure and the land for the sum of N2b. Invested altogether N22.5b in the project, took away the project supervision and expenditure from the Commissioner of Finance, and handed it over to his Chief of Staff. Mid-way, he got his friend to register a brand new company, Tilbury House, in May 2024, and got him to invest N10b in the project. He ceded 80% of the Radisson Hotel to a brand new company that had not done business before, and retained 20% for the State Government that had spent N22.5b. This is what Crusoe Osagie rated as achievement. Well, corruption and financial malfeasance is also an “achievement” because I am told it is not simplistic to juggle up figures and bury them within the balance sheets. In this case, we saw the legs of what Obaseki thought he had buried. And it stinks to high heavens. All the major stakeholders of Obaseki’s profligacy have escaped the shores of Nigeria. Radisson Hotel is no doubt, Edo Government’s property. This is part of why they are desperate to upturn Okpebholo’s valid election at the tribunal; to sustain their economic predatory and buccaneer adventures.
What about the Coral City. These guys are ingenuous!. They acquired over 4,000 plots for the Coral City, issued one C-of-O to New Town Agency, for just N50,000 and started selling the plots. No traces of how much has been sold or realised. Ditto for Golf-Mews apartments, the last place of residence of Godwin Obaseki. They used government money to build the apartments, sold the apartments to their friends and cronies, and allocated some to themselves. Till date, information about ownership of Golf-Mews is still kept in secrecy. That is Crusoe Osagie’s world; a world of rots and financial pollution, a world of sharp practices and dubious transactions.
Just before the end of Godwin Obaseki’s tenure, he bought two numbers of Toyota Land cruiser armoured SUV for almost N1.3b at N650m each. When Governor Okpebholo saw the vehicles, he knew they were used vehicles. He’s unable to drive them due to mechanical faults. That is a government that wants to be celebrated for creating a reservoir of profligacy and reckless wastage of Edo people’s tax payers money.
It is not in doubt that ObASUEki and their dithering folks are bitterly wounded by their failure at the September 21st election. They had planned a continuation of the plundering of the state but were cut short by Governor Okpebholo’s humility, emotional intelligence, and calmness. Edo people are already reaping the fruits of positive governance and Obasekists are not comfortable with the generous endorsement which the Governor enjoys across board. They don’t seem to understand why Edo people are in agreement with his sublime disposition to things, promoting peace, tranquility and serenity in his commitment to deepen governance across the state, right the wrongs of the past and restore glory to a state that was once notorious for Obaseki’s combativeness.
They are wagging their tail about Governor Okpebholo’s style, and the man is laughing at their collective follies. They boasted about their IGR profile, of N5.5b monthly accruals, but Okpebholo is already doing N10.8b monthly. They were misappropriating the state’s IGR collections, but Okpebholo is warehousing the collections for a more productive intervention in governance. Their vuvuzelas are helpless at Okpebholo’s rising profile and governance by action, they can’t simply understand how he’s doing the job of governance so easily. Their hidden computer figures have been exposed. The debt overhang on Edo’s collective necks are heavy, yet the Governor is taking one step at a time to confront the left over challenges. Edo people are smiling, praying everyday for the Governor’s good health, while Obasekists are busy holding meetings on how to cut corners and use the backdoor to enter Osadebe Avenue. What they couldn’t achieve on Edo field, they want the Tribunal to give them. Very ridiculous wishful thinking that doesn’t resonate the Edo spirit.
While I wish to congratulate Governor Okpebholo for his determination and commitment to deepen the conversation of governance in a positive way, he must remain focused on the essential projects that will lift Edo to a greater glory. He has started fantastically well, he should remain undistracted by the roadside noise of the PDP’s vuvuzelas. They are all over the place, waiting for any moment to manufacture their peculiar lies. But I love what is happening; that for the first time in eight years, Obasekists are lamenting, crying wolf over the ugly realities of their defeat, now resorting to pull-him-down syndrome to distract a performing Governor. That will not happen. We won’t continue that journey to financial slaughter house. Edo must rise, it is already rising.
