Tony Osauzo and Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu has said the Gov. Godwin Obaseki-led administration deserves a second term to consolidate on the gains of the last four years, which invested massively in institutional development to keep the state moving.
He said the Obaseki administration inherited a state weighed down by dilapidated infrastructure, which resulted in massive exit of investors, but that the situation has been reversed in the last four years. He urged the people to reject the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, to avoid plunging Edo State back into ruin.
According to him, the administration is more interested in building strong institutions that will make individuals’ participation possible, rather than creating strong personalities that dominate the affairs of the state.
He said, “We have returned the State to the path of greatness and built our institutions rather than individuals. Our mission for seeking a second term is to perfect all we have started and lay a developmental benchmark that cannot be reversed or destroyed. We are seeking a second term to establish a common vision for the future of our state.”
Shaibu said these in a statement issued on Tuesday by his Senior Special Assistant on media, Mr. Benjamin Atu.
“We have moved Edo away from strong men to strong and functional institutions. Making Edo great again demanded developing a holistic understanding. Strengthening of institutions and not individuals have been the main objectives of our meaningful efforts. We have built a state where institutions of government supervene and not one individual. We need strong institutions that can make the leap between individual’s participation in governance possible through collective action and tangible improvements in people’s lives. We are determined to achieving a reversal of Edo’s long slide towards degradation. If Ize-Iyamu and his god parents are allowed into power, the state will slide deeper into ruin,” he said.
He added, ”We inherited a state with an unproductive and unmotivated public service. Officers were loitering about due to absence of a comfortable working environment with frustrating and archaic methods of doing government business. Governance was totally analogue, making it difficult for investors to do business with the state. Investors were relocating due to absence of ease of doing business. Public infrastructure was in disrepair, and public utilities were hopelessly unreliable. Civil servants in the state were starved of training and computer knowledge. Orthodox typewriters were still in government offices in a paperless society. That was the level of the structural and economically slumped state that we inherited.
“We can’t continue to have the likes of Oshiomhole, who built a civil service that does not work except to stuff up a good process and frustrate investors through unorthodox ways of governance. The reform of the public service through the ease of doing business with a well trained public work force has created the enabling environment for business to thrive and has attracted more investors, who are building structures. Investors now cash in-on availability of resources and logistics advantage put in place by the current administration. For the first time in our history, Edo State now has an industrial hub where industries can produce steel, ceramics, glass/aluminium roofing sheets and many other building materials that are now being manufactured in Edo State.”