By Willy Eya
PASTOR Osagie Ize-Iyamu is contesting the September 10 governorship election in Edo and believes that he is the man to beat in the race. In this interview with a select group of journalists in Benin, he spoke on his ambition among other issues. Excerpts:
You are so optimistic and confident of winning the governorship election on September 10, despite the fact that you are contesting against the ruling party, both at the state and federal level. What could have informed such optimism?
I honestly believe that by the grace of God, if we have free and fair election, PDP will win this state. The reason is obvious: the present APC government in Edo has not done well. They have had the opportunity to prove themselves in eight years, for two terms. Today, people are very disillusioned and very dissatisfied. Just some days ago, our pensioners went on protest to Government House. Even though the governor was in his office, he refused to see them. He refused to grant them access but it is interesting to hear what he said. The pensioners mentioned that many of them have not received their entitlements and that in the past seven months; at least, nine pensioners have died because of the frustrations and sufferings they are going through. The pensioners are a critical number in the state. They have families and dependants and I can bet you that with this situation, majority of the pensioners will not vote for them even if they decide to start paying pensions now, which is not even possible. To make it even more difficult, he (Oshiomhole) has closed the pension office which means they cannot process pension papers and send to him. Of course, these are experienced retired civil servants. They understand the game the governor is playing. Judicial service workers have not been paid their entitlements for over a year now. They went on a strike, asking that government should obey the court ruling which says they should enjoy financial autonomy. Even when they called off their strike, the governor declared that their entitlements should not be paid for the period they were on strike and it runs into months. The judicial workers as at today are complaining. Students who voted for him believing that he will make education more accessible, not only has he reduced the standards of education, he has increased school fees. So, on what basis are students going to vote for him? Okada riders who were at the forefront of the agitation to get him re-elected into government, the moment he came in, he banned them; but worse was the fact that he does not plan for them. There is no attempt to create an alternative for them. The only people he employed throughout his tenure were those youths he took under Edo Youth Empowerment Scheme. The moment the second term election was in the kitty, he sacked them; over 7,000 youths. They are not going to vote for him. The farmers of the state are not going to vote for him. So, who are the people that will vote for him apart from his party members? Even within his party, look at the way he has conducted himself. A man who openly accused his deputy of planning to assassinate him, you can imagine the gravity of such an allegation. His deputy was attacked in his own local government, yet not one word of condemnation or sympathy from Oshiomhole. So, even his party is a divided house. Our confidence is the fact that he has failed woefully and you can see that every campaign he has gone to, rather than show Edo people his scorecard, he has resorted to name-calling; insulting Ize- Iyamu, insulting Chief Tony Anenih and everybody in PDP; but the truth about it is that PDP is no longer in government. So, to continue to talk about the PDP when they were in government many years ago is laughable. The reason why you were elected was to correct what you felt was wrong with the PDP administration and you have eight years to effect that correction. If after eight years, you are still complaining, it means that you have no clue. I can understand you are complaining a year or two years after; but eight years after you are still blaming PDP, then it means that you are not the right person for the job. Edo people sincerely believe that Adams Oshiomhole knows nothing about governance. It was a tragic mistake to have allowed such a person to be the governor of a state.
Are you saying there is nothing you can credit to Oshiomhole as achievements worthy of praise?
It will be difficult. There are two areas that I felt he has tried. One was the internally generated revenue (IGR) which is key to the sustainability of any state. When he came in, it was about N300m and he announced that it has gone up to N2.5bn. That to me, was something to applaud. However, that money has nosedived and the reason is not far-fetched. The government has not been able to put in place any machinery for attracting businesses or to sustain existing ones. The tax policy is arbitrary and punitive. So, Edo people are over-taxed and a lot of the money is going into private pockets. Lots of revenue collectors have resorted to self-help. Money that ought to go into government coffers is going into private pockets. Sometimes ago, a member of the Produce Board resigned his appointment, saying that the Chairman of that board is collecting all the money meant for the state and putting it into his private accounts. Interestingly, the chairman of Produce Board is a nephew of the governor so he never bothered to investigate such a weighty accusation. His nephew is still chairman and nothing has been done about that accusation. So, I find it very difficult now to praise him on the IGR because of the fraud going on. At the same time, in terms of percentage, he has not even done any miracle. When we were in government in 1999, the IGR of the state was N26m, maximum was N30m. Before we left, we moved it to N300m. So, what they have done in terms of percentage is not even extraordinary when compared to what we did; but the reality is that the money has nosedived. What makes it even worse is that they collected $75m in one tranche and they collected the second one for the purpose of growing our IGR. They borrowed money from the World Bank to increase the IGR. After collecting the money, the IGR has gone down. So, something is wrong somewhere. They are going to make us pay for money they collected in growing the IGR, yet the IGR is not growing, instead it is going down.
The second area that I felt he should be praised was the attempt to deal with the flooding problem in Benin. I have often said in the past that the problem of Edo is not really that of bad roads. It has always been that of drainages. In the absence of drains, the roads cannot last. So, when he came up with this concept of a Storm water project, and I must tell you honestly, some of us encouraged him that for the first time, Edo will have a comprehensive master plan that will tackle the flooding problem. By the time, that is done, it means that future governments will find it very easy to do roads. Tarring of roads is not difficult once you can deal with primary and secondary drains. So, when he took N30b, nobody complained; but at the tail-end of his administration, he announced to Edo people through his Commissioner for Environment that job cannot be completed in 30 years. Of course, he does not have a tenure of 30 years.
Are you worried about INEC conducting a free, fair and credible election?
Yes, we are worried about INEC because of the inconclusive nature of all the elections. Whether you believe it or not, elections are very expensive, so to do an election and it is declared inconclusive and you conduct it again and it is declared inconclusive, is not the best. I think that INEC just have to put its acts together.
At least, let Edo election be different from the ones we have seen. Even the Imo senatorial election that was held last Saturday was inconclusive. If you cannot do a state or senatorial election, how are you going to do a general election for an entire country? So, I think that even if these guys are learning, by now they should have learnt. If they need logistics support, they should ask; but the media must help us appeal to them to put their acts together. We don’t want a situation whereby on election
day, materials are in abundance in a particular local government and in some other key or targeted local governments, materials are not forthcoming. We know that these are things that can be done and they might pretend that it is due to logistics difficulties. It is difficult to explain why materials will get to Edo North before they get to Edo Central. They cannot be voting in Edo North and you said materials have not reached Benin. Something is wrong.
How united is the Edo PDP and how can we avert violence in the governorship election?
Our party is very united. I am sure you can also see the quality of our members. In fact, we have never been this united. The leaders of this state are in PDP. If you look at the APC, it is a one-man squad. If you go to their rallies, it is very boring because one man (Oshiomhole) begins the rally and ends. It is like there is no state chairman, no national chairman, and no woman leader. In fact, there is no gubernatorial candidate. The PDP in Edo is very united. The Ali Modu- Sheriff distraction was external. In Edo, there is no distraction at all, we are very focused.
On violence, let me assure you that PDP in all fairness in Edo State does not have a history of violent conduct. We went through primaries, I am sure that you didn’t hear that somebody was slapped; but in APC, even the deputy-governor with all his security cover was attacked. Security details attached to him were shot. That will give you an inkling to where the violence will come from. We can assure you that we will not be violent and we will encourage our people not to be violent; but I can assure you that nobody can intimidate us. Violence is not one of our agenda but there is no level of violence that will make us allow anybody to rig us out. We will be vigilant and prepared. I want to call on the security agents to talk to them. All the known thugs, we know where they are.