oshBENIN CITY — A former member of the House of Representatives and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo state, Mr Ehiogie West-Idahosa, yesterday, declared that despite the criticisms against Governor Adams Oshiomhole from the PDP, the governor has” done very well”.
He therefore urged the governor to ensure that a credible candidate succeeds him in office in 2016, in order not to draw the state backward. The three-term Federal lawmaker who was one of the senatorial aspirants of the PDP in Edo South, in the last primaries of the party, stated this in Benin City.
According to him, “There is no question that the governor has performed well even though you want to deny the governor some credit because he is in the APC while I am in the PDP but conscience will not allow you to completely deny him the credit. When you fly into Benin City for example, and take an aerial look at Benin you will see that things have changed, it is no longer what it used to be.
“When you go out of Benin and go to the Local Governments and you see what you see there, you cannot but in your quiet moment appreciate him. I have been tempted to deny him some credit myself. Each time I see primary schools in the rural areas, each time I see his machines working on infrastructures, I always tell myself that notwithstanding the difference in platform, this man is doing well.
“No man is God, no man is perfect. Many will accuse him of taking some erratic decision, but for a comrade, a mobilizer, somebody who gave all his life and is from the Aluta background, you must allow some excesses to be excused on his part. But in terms of focus on government, I will say that infrastructurally he has done well. Again in terms of cutting areas of waste, he has also done well. Again whether you hate him or not, in terms of improving on our Internally Generated Revenue, he has also done very well.
“He has blocked the leakages and upgraded the intake because we know what we were getting before, we know where we are now. And we hope that if somebody else were to continue in his stead and do exactly these things and even improve on them, in another eight years, you will not say the state has not made progress. I concede it to comrade that he has done well infrastructurally, even though I will say that a few areas have been questioned in his tenure.
“But no one can be perfect in every area, what is significant is whether he has added value to public life and added value to governance. The big answer is yes there is no doubt about that, whether he has been able to communicate with the people that he governs the big answer is yes. Communication is key and he has used that asset very well, some grudge him for that, but in every developed part of the world, that is a key requirement for leadership, so he has done that extremely well.
“He will tell you we have tarred a number of roads, you will make all the noise in the world and the next day you will see them commissioning the roads. So if you ask, I rate him very well. Some people may not like his behaviour, but comrade has done very well”, he stated.