SIMON EBEGBULEM,Benin City
Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state received the Champion Man of the Year Award at Sheraton Hotels and Towers Lagos in Lagos, last Tuesday May 16, 2012. Incidentally, the award came barely 24 hours after the Governor led a protest to the Edo state secretariat of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Benin City, where ACN members protested what they described as the alleged illegal registration of voters ahead the July 14 governorship election in the state.
Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state received the Champion Man of the Year Award at Sheraton Hotels and Towers Lagos in Lagos, last Tuesday May 16, 2012. Incidentally, the award came barely 24 hours after the Governor led a protest to the Edo state secretariat of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Benin City, where ACN members protested what they described as the alleged illegal registration of voters ahead the July 14 governorship election in the state.
ACN is pointing accusing fingers at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in collaboration with some INEC officials at the ICT unit as masterminds.
However, the colourful award ceremony which was chaired by the former Secretary General of the Common Wealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, attracted dignitaries such as the Governor of Lagos State, Raji Fashola, former Governor of Ogun State, Aremu Olusegun Osoba, National and state Assembly members from Edo state, captains of industries and representatives of the revered Oba of Benin.
Shortly after the award which he dedicated to his late Principal Private Secretary, Comrade Olaitan Oyinrinde, who was brutally murdered penultimate week, Saturday Vanguard cornered the Governor for this interview to know why as a Governor he is still leading protests and other issues.
You led a protest to the INEC office in Benin City last Monday, where a fake INEC official was caught with a DDC machine, what actually happened?
You can’t say he is fake in the sense that he is an INEC man. The issue is that he carried the machine, our people saw him coming in the morning before 8am.
Governor Oshiomhole
He brought the machine and he was apprehended. We asked what the machine is for, he said it is being used for training in Igueben, but he was asked to take it to Uromi and that it was taken to Uromi and since Sunday, they have been doing registration.
Having done the registration in Uromi, they are now taking the machine back. Clearly, the official registration is supposed to start on Tuesday (May 15) but they started registration in Uromi on Sunday. We confirmed the information we had that they have perfected arrangement to deploy machines to secret locations.
Whereas in other states, they did registration at local government levels, in Edo, they wanted to do it at every ward, as if it is a general registration exercise. And of course in addition, they have 472 machines whereas they need only 192 if they were to do it in the wards.
If they were to do in local governments, they need only 18. So clearly, they have about 214 more machines which they were going to use secretly to register people from neighboring states, including thugs that they will use on election day. Jega is not aware of what they did.
It is like as I am governor here, I am talking of transparency here, whereas the clerk in the Ministry of Works has decided that before you get your cheque, money must exchange hands. Jega is not aware of some of these things. This is purely an arrangement between some people in ICT in INEC in Edo and some official in Abuja .
Obviously, they have a deal with PDP to use the voters registration exercise to doctor votes in advance. What they want to do is even much more than this. They planned to mix up the name, remove a name from polling unit A, ward 1 and take it to ward 4 so that on that day when you come, you can’t find your name. There will be all kinds of confusion. There are some couple of things they planned that is based around the voters register but as luck would have it today, we got one of the boys and he has confessed.
You have persistently spoken about an alleged meeting which held at the house of a leader of the PDP, what happened at the meeting?
The PDP leaders met in Abuja at the residence of a god father and they concluded that they just have to rig the election if they must win. They said they will use the voters registration exercise, that they will bring thugs and ex-militants; that they will recruit them and register them in a particular ward so that on election day, they will say we are registered here but they are actually there for thuggery. And of course, they also said there that they have settled a lot of people in INEC, particularly those in ICT. And when you see what they have done today, it shows clearly that they have a deal with the ICT department. It is basically on how to rig the election.
But some people felt you should not be leading a protest now as Governor of the state?
Is the opposition in a position to define what should be my role? Who are they do define my role? So if it is coming from opposition, that is not an issue.
If you say that members of the public said that, I might pause for a second. But the difference between me and opposition is that their candidate cannot walk the streets of Benin where he claimed to come from. Nobody will follow him.
Dan Orbih cannot walk the streets of Benin, Chief Anenih cannot walk the streets of Benin or even the streets of Uromi outside their bullet proof vehicles. They cannot. So I will not conduct my office according to their dictates. I will conduct my office according to my own style.
And I have the back
ground of the masses. Those qualities that brought me into this office include mass protest. If as a governor, I feel that an institution of state is being misused or being mismanaged, I have a right to lead a protest. If it is some thing that I can sit in my office and clean out, I will do it. But INEC is not under my control. Even much more than that, I am the candidate whose election is being manipulated.
ground of the masses. Those qualities that brought me into this office include mass protest. If as a governor, I feel that an institution of state is being misused or being mismanaged, I have a right to lead a protest. If it is some thing that I can sit in my office and clean out, I will do it. But INEC is not under my control. Even much more than that, I am the candidate whose election is being manipulated.
And I am not one of those leaders who ask people to go and die whereas they remain in the comfort of their homes. I want to lead by example. If I ask my people to go and protest, I will lead the protest; share the burden and the stress of protesting under the sun. Like the other day, we went out and it started raining, people said I should get into my car. For a minute, I said no why should I ride inside my car when these people are following me. I am the candidate, so I asked the driver to stop and I walked with them.
So if PDP says they agreed
with what I did, it means it was wrong. If they say what I did is wrong, it means it is right. And I am ready to lead more protests. If there is any attempt to rig this election, if anything is going to happen, I will lead it. I am not going to hide. I will not plan it at night. I walk in the day time.
with what I did, it means it was wrong. If they say what I did is wrong, it means it is right. And I am ready to lead more protests. If there is any attempt to rig this election, if anything is going to happen, I will lead it. I am not going to hide. I will not plan it at night. I walk in the day time.
You see, this country is ours. We cannot allow people to mess up our country. What I am going to do is to put them on notice and that is the party, we don’t do like cowards; like those who will go in the dark to go and kill or use tipper driver to try to kill their enemies. But all those who kill in their 90s, hell fire is their portion.
Fighting god fatherism
Many people out side Edo state who read my comments from time to time wonder why I’m fighting godfatherism. But to start with, I think to even use the word god is even wrong, the actual word should be the devil fathers. There is nothing Godly in their lives. Some people have asked me how can I look at an elder in the face and say some of the things I have had to say. Let me repeat, by my own up bringing, in my community, the basis for respect is actually seniority. And I have no difficulties in respecting elders.
My difficulties are that whereas I respect the age of these people who have detained our state, I have no respect for the age of their ideas. It is the same ideas that explained the paradox of a rich country whose people are increasingly being pauperized. And it is those forces that explain why fewer people are buying jets and more and more people are getting poorer. Unless we reverse it, there are no miracles.
So I was convinced that if we are going to have sustainable development, the starting point was to get rid of those forces who are opposed to progress. Those who said they are Mr Fix It, we have unfixed them. More than 95 per cent of Edo people are very appreciative of what we are doing.
The remaining 5 per cent are those who have been denied access to our common wealth which they have feasted on over the years. But we know that they are not ready to give up in a hurry, they are like snakes and until you cut off the head, it will keep surviving. But if they try to rig the election again, then they should be ready to face the people.
How optimistic are you that INEC will conduct a free and fair election
I know Prof Jega is a good man and an honest perso . So he will not listen to these evil people.If we are going to have free and fair election, we must be vigilant and we must have the courage to come out and deal with these agents of darkness. We have told them they will not be able to change the rules of the game in Edo. What they could not do in Cross River, they cannot do it in Edo.
Someone phoned me from the Presidency that he heard that half a million people have occupied the INEC office in Edo. I said yes, I authorized it.
Now, if half a million people occupy INEC over manipulation of the voters registration exercise, just imagine how many people will pull out if they attempt to rig the election. There is no hiding place for any of them. You know what caused trouble in the Arab world was one truck pusher who was being harassed by a police man.
The man said alright, with all my hardship, you are still coming to harass me, now kill me. If you can’t kill me, I will kill my self. The man set himself ablaze. That fire he put on himself is burning Arab now. So, if Abuja does not understand that they can’t allow an old man in his 90s to create trouble, President Goodluck Jonathan has enough headache managing security in many parts of the country. If he allows a party man in his 90s to create crisis in Edo, it is his luck. But we will fight them. I am putting everything to it. As we are now, they are holding nocturnal meetings on how to cheat. But we will do everything to frustrate any cheating. I think what we showed in that protest was that we have men and women that if the system fails, there is no hiding place for them. We have the capacity and we will deploy the capacity. You know you could have capacity and you may not have the will to deploy it but I have the will to deploy the capacity. And I will be there live. I am not going to hide and say I am not part of it.
What about building infrastructure?
We still have a lot of infrastructural deficiency. In Benin City alone,we have done many roads but the roads that are yet to be done are still more. We still need massive investment in rural and urban infrastructure. We still need to deliver water to more communities.
We still need to deliver rural electricity to many communities. We still need to open up more rural roads and we still need to build more health centers and equip them to function. So we are not done yet with infrastructure. But of course infrastructure is a means to an end.
When you open up a rural area, you provide water, roads, electricity, you will have the appropriate environment to attract investors. So in the second phase, we believe that a number of those who want to locate companies in Edo will have the required environment for them to do so. So we have to continue with the way we have started.
You can see that we are seriously addressing the flooding problem in Benin City. We are also working on power supply. Edo is usually a hub that we can give power to neighboring states. If the Federal Government deregulates their monopoly of the power sector, there are a number of investors in that area that want to come. A number of farmers who are interested in farming in Edo state are coming. All of that will lead to job creation and that is the only way to fight poverty.
Industrialization
Well, the issue of industries, talking reality, which government is setting up industries now across the country? There is none.
What government can do is to create the environment for private people to set up businesses. Government cannot run a business.
That is the unfortunate truth. But we are doing some thing to revive the existing ones. In Okpella, they are working there now when I threatened that I will revoke the privatization. The place was privatized by the PDP government. Bendel Brewery was ran down by PDP.
They had a huge debt of over N1.8 billion guaranteed by the state. We worked out a deal with AMCON; we are going to pay almost a billion naira, we have started paying to take that debt off because with the debt hanging on them, you cannot get a private investor to invest there and there are challenges between Churchgate and Edo state government arising from PDP deals with Churchgate that went sour. Until we resolve all of these issues, there is not much that we can do with Bendel Breweries.
The Juice Factory at Egor, Fertiliser at Auchi, Cassavita at Uromi; all those were fake projects. What we want to do now is to privatise them and the only asset they have is the land because the equipmentab initio were second hand. They never really worked but we are attracting a lot of businesses now to the state that is best for the state and creating an enabling environment for people to come and invest.
