The Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obasekihas never hidden his commitment to the overall development of Edo State. He has demonstrated this commitment in all sectors of the state. If anything, he has not relented in wooing foreign investors and multilateral agencies to join hands with him to develop the State.
The Governor has made frantic efforts to boost electricity supply in the state by ensuring that the Azura Power Plant, which is an Independent Power Plant being executed with the support of the World Bank, has reached appreciable level of completion.
Still basking in the euphoria of the success of the Edo-Azura Power project and other World Bank-support projects in Edo State, Senior Director, Governance Global Practice, of the bank, Debbie Wentzel, recently led a team of officials of the global financial institution to Benin City to consolidate the existing development-focused relationship between the bank and the APC led administration in the state.

Nigerians are strongly of the opinion that when electricity is tackled and made available to all citizens, it means that Edo would have been placed on the path to economic growth and development as the multiplier effects of available and affordable electric power is unquantifiable. Electricity made available 24/7 would leapfrog economic activities, create jobs and bring down poverty levels.
What is most interesting is the Obaseki’s administration determination to take development to the grassroots, particularly the rural and urban poor.
This perhaps explains why Governor Obaseki while welcoming the World Bank officials expressed his pleasure with the series of visits by senior officials of the Bank to the state and their desire to be part of the on-going transformation of the state. In the words of the Governor: “We have gone through a learning curve with the World Bank, a journey which started over nine years ago and we want to drive this down to the local government councils so that every individual in the state will feel the impact of our government at all levels.”
Driving development in a globalised world order requires the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) .Technology can certainly be used to disrupt current development paradigm that have delivered development to Nigerians.

It was not surprising, therefore that the Governor sometimes last year inaugurated a committee on the Remodelling of Primary Health Care (PHC), to facilitate the proper functioning of PHCs in the state. His target is to build 500 Health Centres across the state with a strong conviction that primary health care need to be given a boost so as to meet the health needs of people at the grassroots to reduce mortality rates. The aim is a healthcare delivery that will be responsive and timely too.
The Governor while inaugurating the committee headed by Prof ObehiOkojie,said that the remodelling of the PHCs would help to reduce the burden on secondary and tertiary health centres, as well as reduce the cost patients spend to access health services.
He informed Edo people that the remodelling initiative was aimed at achieving one standardised PHC in each of the 18 Local Government Areas of the state during its pilot stage. The committee was tasked to conduct an assessment of the current facilities at the PHCs, including cold stores, identify the challenges confronting the centres, as well as evolving implementable plans.

The committee has since completed its assignment and made crucial recommendations to the Governor Obaseki led government. Characteristic of his leadership style, the Governor immediately swung into action by commissioning the construction of 20 high-tech, world-class health centres across the 18 Local Government Areas of the State.
While receiving the receiving the board members of Lily Hospital, Warri and Benin Centres, led by the Acting Chairman, Dr. OvadjeOviemo, on a courtesy visit to the governor at the Government House, in April this year,
The governor said his governmentwould roll out the first 20 Primary Healthcare Centres. The plan is to ensure equitable distribution of healthcare centers across the state in the next 20 to 30 months. “With this, we will be certain that at least one Primary Healthcare Centre is sited in each ward across the state. We intend to construct between 200 to 250 PHCs in the state, ” the governor assured.

The Health Centres are being equipped with basic technologies to facilitate collection of data and also serve as facilities to train community health providers to improve access to quality healthcare services in rural areas

Besides, the Edo stategovernment plans that all Edo citizens would have to go for health insurance. A Bill to this effect is currently before the State House of Assembly for consideration. The Bill seeks to make health insurance compulsory, affordable and accessible for residents. It is currentlyin its final stage of passage into law. The plan here is to ensure that all of this lofty initiative is made sustainable beyond the life of the present administration.

When fully implemented, the initiative would help tackle the problem of medical tourism that is tearing the nation’s health sector apart.

Beyond the health sector, the APC administration has granted what can best be described as autonomy to all local government areas in the state to boost development at the grassroots. Every month, Edo people now witness the Local Government Chairmen openly announcing the monies shared between them and the state in the monthly joint account committee meeting.

This public disclosure is hallmark of democratic norm of transparency and accountability, which the State Government must sustain, and in overall deserves commendation from citizens.

The Edo State Joint Account and Allocation Committee (JAAC), has continued to disclose amount, whichaccrued to the 18 Local Government Councils in the state from the Federation Account. They also go ahead to announce what each local government area gets. This has helped in drastically reducing the crisis around the Sate Local Government joint account. What remains now is for the Local councils to boost their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) across the 18 local government councils so as to embark on meaningful projects that would complement the magic wand of the “wake and see” Governor Obaseki in the state.

______________________________________________________________________________________________
Mr. Dan Owegie is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Edo State.