Last September, Edo people went to the polls and voted massively for Mr. Godwin Obaseki and Comrade Phillip Shaibu as their Governor and Deputy Governor respectively. The State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) felt aggrieved with their loss and decided to approach the Election Petition Tribunal to challenge their defeat. After weeks and months of legal warfare, Mr. Obaseki again floored the PDP at the tribunal. Unsatisfied with tribunal judgment they have proceeded again to the Appellate court. Good for them.
In the light of the above, expectations from the well meaning people of Edo State was that the PDP and its leadership would retreat to their cocoon to leak their wounds and perhaps use the opportunity to begin to prepare for the 2019 general elections having consistently lost elections in the state. Rather than eating the humble pie, the Edo PDP has relapsed into what has not helped them over the years since they were booted out of power in 2007. That is, continuously maligning any ruling governor in the state instead of constructive criticism as obtained in civilized climes.
Unfortunately for the PDP this time around, they are dabbling into a crocodile- infested political water as they are certainly going to be consumed by the sort of perfidy and deliberate falsehood they have sowed over the years.
Penultimate weekend, Edo people had the opportunity of hosting the sporting world in the state for the annual Okpekpe marathon race which has attracted sports loving tourists with the accompanying economic and social benefits to our state. Edo people were stunned when by the following week, the Edo PDP went on air to allege that the State government spent over N70 million to fund the Okpekpe International 10 kilometer Road Race, and that the governor allegedly wasted the state’s resources on foreign athletes, instead of developing sports at the grassroots level and also pay arrears of pensioners in the state.
These retrogressive words oozed out of the mouth of the talkative State Chairman of the party, Mr. Dan Osi Orbih who from his contrived political posturing in the state leaves no one in doubt that he is a never-do-well fellow and an apostle of doom, whom, as it were, remains a bad omen for his party.
Many Edo people know where we are coming from in the state and where the APC is taking them to. Edo people are full of wisdom and they know the administration that murdered sports in the state. Who left Bendel Insurance Football club and other sports to die in Edo State? It is the PDP governments of course. Only recently, the Obaseki administration took concrete steps to begin to reposition sports in the state. They are in the process of reviving the age-long abandoned Bendel Insurance Football Club which the government are working closely with to ensure their emergence in the premier league in the country. It has even gotten to the extent that the State Government officials now make it a point of duty to be in the state box whenever Bendel Insurance has a match and they have even gone ahead to be mobilizing citizens to be at the stadium to cheer the club to victory. The State Deputy Governor himself was at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium leading other top government functionaries in all the Bendel Insurance matches lately. The PDP fools cannot say they didn’t see that. But they chose not to talk about it.
What about the issue of pensions raised by the garrulous Dan Orbih? Mr. Obaseki has been quietly paying gratuities of pensioners inherited from previous governments and has gone ahead with the enforcement of the contributory pensions scheme for all Civil Servants in the state backed by law with a holistic plan of permanently resolving all issues of pensions and pensioners in the state for both present and future generations. This has been applauded by both the workers themselves and the pensioners. Where is the PDP getting its information from?
One expects that by now, remnants of Edo PDP should have called Dan Orbih to order to stop embarrassing their party in the public, but they seem to have left him to freely destroy their party completely because his appearance on television to attempt to ridicule the performing government of Mr. Godwin Oaseki makes fool of him and those he represent as Edo people has never taken him seriously.. This is because he has chosen to call black white and red blue whenever he speaks to the press. The truth has never been associated with him. His messages are often coated with obvious lies and half truths.
Edo people expect that Mr. Dan Orbih and his associates should be properly tutored on the rudiments of being an opposition party. They need to be told that opposition in a democratic setting should come up with clear alternatives to what the ruling party is providing, particularly with policies. At the sub-national government level, the opposition such as Edo PDP ought to come up with ideas that will help the people of the state having been rejected at the polls.
The Obaseki-led administration since coming on board has pragmatically shown courage and determination to develop sports and other sectors of the state’s economy particularly in those areas that the PDP failed Edo people.
But good enough, Counsel to Okpekpe International 10km road race, Mr. Joseph Nwobike, SAN, while reacting to the publication on the issue cleared the air. In his words: “The Okpekpe International 10km road race is sponsored by a host of well-meaning organisations and corporations including the Edo State government. The Edo State government is neither the owner of the intellectual property known as and called the Okpekpe International 10km road race nor its organizer. The Edo State government is merely a participant.”
The world over, that is what government ought to do, providing the enabling environment for business, in this case sports to thrive. What more does the PDP want? Why these spurious and unfounded allegation against the regime of Godwin Obaseki? Nwobike stated clearly to distractors of the Opkepke 10km race tournament that “the publication tagged, ‘Athletes, officials fault Edo Government on Okpekpe road race,’ was not based on proper investigation.”
It is equally noteworthy that, the race is internationally recognized and enjoys participation from world-class runners. The International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) and the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) have listed Okpekpe 10km Road Race in the January-to-June calendar of road races worldwide and the only race in Nigeria, whose course the accredited officers of IAAF/AIMS have measured by international standards and certified with a Bronze status. This for well meaning people of Edo State is no little achievement by the Oshiomhole and Obaseki APC administrations in the state..
Mr. Dan Orbih and his PDP co-travelers should really look out for what to do with their time in the next eight years as the Obaseki administration will refuse to be distracted from their avowed commitment to serve the good people of the state with modern infrastructure and socio-economic development.
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• Mr. Dan Owegie is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Edo State.
