Opinion

Between Oshokomole and Onwa: The Public Officer as true exemplar

Published

3 years ago

December 26, 2021

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By Tunde Olusunle

I called up a colleague in one of the national newspapers to make an editorial suggestion to him, August 2017. Ayodele Peter Fayose who was governor of Ekiti State at the time, was attending the convocation ceremony of one of his children, at the Covenant University, Otta, Ogun State. Oluwarogbayimika Fayose, graduated with a Second Class Upper degree, and his delighted father could be seen grinning from ear to ear, in photographs which were hoisted on the internet, realtime. You could feel Oshokomole’s* (that is Fayose’s popular alias), sense of accomplishment, as a parent. The younger Fayose was the third of his siblings to graduate from the same alma mater. A fourth member of the family graduated from another university in Nigeria.

I had mooted the idea to that colleague, that a good editorial commentary can be developed around the matter. If a sitting governor, with all the resources and privileges at his disposal, could willingly despatch his child to a Nigerian university, where assistant directors in some ministries, departments and agencies, (MDAs), were sending their wards to universities in Canada, the United Kingdom, (UK) and the United States of America (USA), there were tangible takeaways from that gesture. Crucially, despite the verified challenges of our educational system, quality instruction is still obtainable in our institutions, afterall.

The nation’s anti-graft agencies, from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), to the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, (ICPC), to the Code of Conduct Bureau, (CCB), are characteristically busiest with reports and case files of civil servants, in the main. This is not excusing thieving public officers across board who are usually assisted by the civil servants, to cook the books, by the way. Such fiscal hauls are invested in physical assets (mainly houses and apartments sprinkled across major Nigerian cities and foreign capitals); raw cash in various foreign denominations, stored in secret vaults and stowed away in all manner of inventive storages; even multimillion dollar trinkets, are routine seizures from greedy civil and public servants.

And what better way to authenticate the reality of subsisting quality in our educational system, than the continued hunt for, and enlistment of homegrown medical professionals, into the medical systems of foreign countries. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Canada, the UK and the US, are in continuing quest for Nigerian medical professionals, to make assurance doubly sure. Medical doctors and pharmacists were priority, once upon a time. Nurses have joined the list of coveted professionals now, even as there has been a corresponding rise in the enrolment figures for the nursing programme in Nigerian universities.

And talking about the accentuating figures of medical personnel being lured away to other lands, didn’t Nigerian intelligence operatives last August, storm the Sheraton Hotel in Abuja, to disrupt recruitment interviews being conducted by a human resource agency, reportedly on behalf of its client, Saudi Arabia? This was at the height of a faceoff between doctors and the federal government, over inadequate working conditions, notably facilities and emoluments. The first phase of that recruitment exercise for medical doctors, by the way, was conducted in Lagos, days before the Abuja segment. This underscored the burning desire of the Saudi government, to speedily take on their projected new employees. And this was happening at a time Chris Ngige, Nigeria’s minister of labour and employment, affirmed on national television, that the country had an overflow of physicians, and would not be hurt, by the depletion of its ranks, by the outward drift of its medics. This, however, contrasted with the Gestapo-style swoop of the secret police, on Sheraton, Abuja, to halt emigration proceedings, of Nigerian doctors.

The colleague I gave that editorial hint by the way, would later plead with me about his incapacition in the circumstances. He said he would have been thoroughly misconstrued, if he had proposed such a topic at the editorial conference of his organisation. “They will think I’ve been paid if I had broached it at our editorial meeting. The chief executive officer is perpetually breathing down my neck and someone will ask: What is our special interest in Fayose? They won’t see the merit and genuineness in the subject. The newsroom today is not what you left behind, over two decades ago.” I was aghast.

Sunday December 19, 2021, Andrew Ngige, second son of the older Ngige, and his third child, graduated from the School of Medicine of the University of Abuja. Before him, his elder brother, Ralph Chunny Ngige, graduated September 2020, from the College of Medicine, Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu University, Amaku, Awka, Anambra State. Last July, Ngige’s daughter Marilyn, graduated from the College of Medicine, University of Lagos. The Ngige family as it stands, is fully and roundly a family of medical doctors, since the labour minister himself, and his wife, Evelyn, a permanent secretary in the federal ministry of industry, trade and investment, are both medics. And as a delighted Ngige noted, his family is one of wholly “Made in Nigeria” medical doctors.

I have known *Onwa,* yes, that is the dominant traditional title by which Ngige is known and revered by his people and friends, across the broad spectrum, even before the formal berth of democratic governance in 1999. He was a founding zonal officer of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP), in the South East. In the course of the cross-country tours and legwork of Olusegun Obasanjo in his quest for the presidential ticket of the PDP, Enugu was a regular hub. Ngige was almost ever present, alongside the Arthur Ezes, JSP Nwokolos, Dubem Onyias and other leaders of the blossoming party, on the Anambra-Enugu stretch, at the time. He indeed vied for the PDP ticket to represent Anambra Central, in the 1999 Senate, but lost.

He would later assume national, even global recognition on account of the controversies which attended the early days of his term in office as governor of Anambra State. Inaugurated on May 29, 2003, there was an attempt to remove him from office by his “political godfathers,” Andy and Chris Uba, less than two months after his assumption of duty. The drama which attended the plot was a phenomenal combination of strong arm tactics by both the state legislature, and the nation’s security officials, led by Raphael Ige, an assistant inspector general of police (IGP), at the time. There was indeed a kidnap saga which kept the chief executive of the state incommunicado, for 12 hours, that July 10, 2003. Ngige fought bravely in the law courts, even physically, to resist every attempt to bully and harangue him.

As parents of children who attended the same secondary school in Abuja, many years ago, Ngige and I saw much more frequently, especially during visiting days, open days, meetings of the parents-teachers association (PTA), and so on. James Bawa Magaji (former deputy governor of Kaduna State); Nkechi Nwaorgu, Ita Enang, (both senators at the time), Stephen Ocheni (former minister of state for labour and employment); Orji Ogbonnaya Orji (executive secretary of the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, (NEITI); Tivlumun Nyitse (chief of staff to the Benue State governor) and the late Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo (former media adviser to erstwhile vice president Atiku Abubakar), were also regular callers at the school’s programmes.

In 2011, Ngige finally achieved his longstanding dream of representing his people in Anambra central senatorial zone, in Nigeria’s parliament, on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). The party was the principal component of political parties which coalesced in 2013, to constitute the present day All Progressives Congress (APC), to challenge for the presidency, in 2015. Ngige lost the opportunity to return to the senate, but was compensated following his appointment as minister representing Anambra in the federal executive council, (FEC), constituted by President Muhammadu Buhari, November 2015. He was reappointed August 2019, months after Buhari’s reelection, making history as one of the longest serving ministers in post-democratic Nigerian history.

I remember asking Ngige on a visit to his Asokoro, Abuja home sometime in 2019: “Onwa, where are our people we used to attend their visiting days together those days?” “They are all in school, thanks for checking up, my brother Tunde,” he replied. “They must be out there in the States and in Europe,” I followed up. “No o,” he answered. “They are all here. There is nothing wrong with our educational system. I was trained here, you were trained here and you are one of our topmost journalists. My wife was trained here. So why wouldn’t they school here? They will decide where they will undergo their specialist programmes, but let them get that necessary grounding here. Many countries are envious of the human resource quality we contribute to the world here, but we delight in running down what we have.”

The examples of Fayose and Ngige are most apposite. By Nigerian standards, both men are very privileged individuals, they are”big men,” as we would say in popular parlance. Fayose was two-time governor of Ekiti State, having served between 2003 and 2007, before his return, years later. In the case of Ngige, he has held every notable elective and appointive office in Nigeria, except the presidency. He has been governor, senator and now second term minister. Given the humongous resources available to public officers, where the average civil servants can sustain their children and wards in foreign institutions, and procure pricey apartments in their names, it is unlikely that Fayose and Ngige are resource-constrained.

In many instances indeed, the quest for education in environments with relative stability of the academic calendar for the children of the nouveau riche, is but a veiled device for self-aggrandizement, or bragging rights. Certain individuals cherish that vainglorious announcement across the shopping mall or in the course of a telephone conversation, that “my son is in Harvard, and his sister is in Massachusetts.” It wouldn’t matter if some spoilt brats in this bracket, are more of tourists and holidaymakers in their country of domicile, than serious students. As a dispassionate public engager, my summation is that Fayose and Ngige (who are at opposite extremes of the political gulf), have shown faith in our much-maligned educational system, which nonetheless, has continued to produce internationally competitive graduates. Both men by their preferences, are potential inspirations for politically privileged and affluent Nigerians, to explore and utilise the subsisting quality, inherent in our educational system.

This is no blanket cheque, clean bill of health for our educational system, which is light years away from the impeccable standards of several decades ago. Those were the days when Nigeria was the pilgrimage grounds for the global “Who is Who,” in the academia, arts and culture. The newest Nobel Laureate for literature, Tanzanian born Abdulrasak Gurnah, for instance, was next door to us in Bayero University, Kano (BUK). He taught literature there from 1980 to 1983, at a period when one of the principal benefactors of the career of the Kenyan literary icon, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, David John Cook, was grooming a new generation of writers, at the University of Ilorin. Professors and lecturers in our universities continue to embark on industrial actions, because the provision and standardisation of basic instructional materials like adequate classrooms and lecture theatres; properly stocked and up-to-date laboratories and libraries; appropriate remuneration for staff, and grants for training and research, are either wilfully unavailable or ridiculously minuscule. In some instances, our children have entered universities as youths and graduated as men and women, owing to recurring, indiscriminate closures of the institutions.

The country’s international profile is indeed burnished by the investment of confidence in the various strands of our sociopolitical life, by its own nationals. While Fayose and Ngige and similar Nigerians who have continued to show faith in institutions in our country, we must also see such conviction by our officials, in our healthcare system, for instance. All the years he was president, and despite managing a publicly known diabetic condition, Obasanjo’s medical check ups were conducted either in the State House Clinic, or the National Hospital, Abuja, by indigenous medical professionals. This is contrary to extant practice under Buhari, whose exact medical condition is a mystery, and who has virtually treated every headache or migraine, in Europe, over the past seven years. Yet on an annual basis, robust budgets are approved for the provision of facilities and medicaments, in the State House Clinic. Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, was reported to be expectant a few weeks ago, and desired to have her baby in the US. Nothing can be as much a confidence killer, as when those who should lead by example, fail and falter unashamedly at the starting blocks.

•Tunde Olusunle, PhD, poet, journalist, scholar and author, is a Member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, (NGE).

Opinion

BENUE 2027:The Apa/Agatu Quest for Equity

Published

4 days ago

January 14, 2025

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By Tunde Olusunle

It may be well over two years to the next cycle of general elections in Nigeria. For the people of Apa/Agatu federal constituency in *Benue South, however, the measure of their participation and integration into the governance scheme will be defined in the run-up to the general polls that year. Nine local government areas make up the predominantly Idoma country of Benue State also labelled Zone C in the senatorial tripod of the geo-polity. The zone is also home to the Igede ethnic stock and the Etulo. Local government areas in “Benue Zone C” include: Apa, Agatu, Oju, Obi, Ado, Ogbadibo, Okpokwu, Otukpo and Ohimini. The other zones, Benue North East and Benue North West, are wholly dominated by the Tiv nationality, striding across 14 local government areas. They are christened Zone A and Zone B in the local political scheme of the state. Federal constituencies in Benue South are: Apa/Agatu, Oju/Obi; Ado/Ogbadibo/Opokwu and Otukpo/Ohimini.

The subjugation of groups and ethnicities considered demographically smaller, by the larger groups which has dominated Nigeria’s politics over time, has not been any different for the Idoma of Benue State. Until the circumstantial emergence of a Yahaya Bello from the Ebira ethnicity in Kogi State in 2015, the Igala had the relay baton of governorship of Kogi State, in rounds and succession. The Ebiras and the Okun-Yoruba zones in the state could only aspire to be serial deputies or Secretaries to the State Government. This political template was virtually cast in stone. The Ilorin people of Kwara State have similarly wholly warehoused the gubernatorial office, sparingly conceding the position to other sociocultural groups in the state. The only exception was the concession of the seat to a candidate from Kwara South, in the person of Abdulfatah Ahmed, by his predecessor, Bukola Saraki in 2011. Even at that, there were murmurs and dissent from those who believed Ahmed came from a community too close to the Ilorin emirate to be of genuine Igbomina stock, which prides itself as the pure Yoruba species in Kwara State.
Twenty-six years into the Fourth Republic, the maximum proximity of the Idoma to Government House, Makurdi, has been by the customary allocation of the Deputy Governor’s slot to its people. Ogirri Ajene from Oju/Obi, the charismatic blue-blood of blessed memory, was deputy to George Akume, incumbent Secretary to the Government of the Federation, (SGF), from 1999 to 2007. Akume it was reported, genuinely desired to be succeeded by Ajene who exhibited competence and loyalty and could build on their legacies. The Tiv nation we understand, shot down the proposal. Gabriel Suswam succeeded Akume and had the urbane multipreneur, Stephen Lawani from Ogbadibo as deputy. Samuel Ortom, a Minister in the Goodluck Jonathan presidency who took over from Suswam opted for Benson Abounu, an engineer from Otukpo as running mate, while Hyacinth Alia, the Catholic priest who succeeded Ortom, also chose as deputy, Samuel Ode, who was also a Minister in the Jonathan government, from Otukpo. Arising from this precedence, Apa/Agatu has not for once, been considered for a place in Government House, Makurdi.
In similar fashion, the position of Senator representing Benue South, has repeatedly precluded Apa/Agatu federal constituency. David Alechenu Bonaventure Mark a former army General from Otukpo, took the first shot at the office in 1999. He was to remain in the position for five consecutive times, a distinctive record by Nigerian standards. Mark would subsequently become President of the Senate and the third most senior political office holder in the nation’s governance scheme for a string of two terms between 2007 and 2015. He was replaced by Patrick Abba Moro, who hails from Okpokwu and was a former teacher, in 2019. Abba Moro who previously served as Minister of Interior in the Jonathan government from 2011 to 2015, won a second term at the 2023 general elections and remains substantive Senator for “Benue Zone C.” He is indeed incumbent Minority Leader of the Senate, and thus a principal officer in the leadership scheme of the “red chambers.”
While Moro is barely two years into his second term, there are suggestions that he is interested in a third term which should run from 2027 to 2031! This is the core issue which has dominated contemporary political discourse in Benue South, especially from the Apa/Agatu bloc. For Apa/Agatu, it is bad enough that they are repeatedly bypassed in the nomination of deputy governors in the scheme of state politics. It is worse that they are equally subjugated by their own kinsmen within the context of politics in *Idoma and Igede land.* This is particularly worrying when both local government areas constituting the Apa/Agatu federal constituency, Apa and Agatu, are not in anyway deficient in human resources to represent Benue South. Names like John Elaigwu Odogbo, the incumbent *Och’Idoma* and respected clergy; Isa Innocent Ekoja, renowned Professor and Librarian; Sonny Togo Echono, FNIA, OON, Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund, (TETFUND), and John Mgbede, Emeritus State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Benue State, readily come to mind.
Major General R.I. Adoba, (rtd), a former Chief Training and Operations in the Nigerian Army; Professor Emmanuel Adanu, former Director of the Kaduna-based National Water Resources Institute, (NWRI) and the US-based specialist in internal medicine, Dr Raymond Audu, are eminent Apa/Agatu constituents. There are also Ada Egahi, long-serving technocrat who retired from the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, (NPHDA), and Super Eagles forward, Moses Simon, (why not, hasn’t the retired soccer star, George Opong Weah just completed his term as President of Liberia)? The Member Representing Apa/Agatu in the House of Representatives, Godday Samuel Odagboyi, an office previously held by Solomon Agidani, as well as Adamu Ochepo Entonu, is, like his predecessors, a prominent figure from the resourceful Apa/Agatu federal constituency.
The Olofu brothers, Tony Adejoh, a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, (AIG), and David, PhD, a renowned management and financial strategist, who is also an Emeritus Member of the Benue State Executive Council during the Ortom dispensation, are from the same federal constituency. So is Abu Umoru, a serial entrepreneur who represents Apa State Constituency in the Benue State House of Assembly. The continuing intra-zonal alienation of Apa-Agatu from the politics of Benue Zone C, remains a sore thumb which must be clinically diagnosed and intentionally treated in the run-up to 2027.
If previous top level political office holders from Idomaland in general and Apa/Agatu in particular, had diligently applied themselves to tangible, multisectoral development of the zone and constituency, the present clamour for inclusiveness would probably been less vociferous. *River Agatu* which flows from Kogi State, and runs through Agatu before emptying into *River Benue,* is a potential game changer in the socioeconomy of Apa/Agatu, Benue South and Benue State in general. Properly harnessed, it can revolutionise agriculture and aquaculture in the state, beyond subsistence levels which are the primary vocations of the indigenous people. Rice, yam, guinea corn, millet and similar grains, thrive in the fertile soils of the area. These can support “first level” processing of produce and guarantee value addition beneficial to the primary producers, before being shipped to other markets. River Agatu can indeed be dammed to provide hydro-electricity to power the entire gamut of Idomaland.
The infrastructure deficit in Benue South with specific reference to Apa/Agatu is equally very concerning. A notable pattern in Nigerian politics is its self-centeredness, the penchant for political players to prioritise their personal wellbeing and the development of their immediate space. This has accentuated the ever recurring desire of people to ascend the political pedestals of their predecessors if that is the principal window by which they can also privilege their own primary constituents. Motorable roads are non-existent, seamless travel between communities therefore encumbered. Expectedly this has been a major impediment to subsistent trade and social engagements between constituents and their kinsmen. Primary health facilities are almost non-existent, compelling people to flock to Otukpo, headquarters of Benue South, for the minutest of medical advice and treatment.
Apa/Agatu pitiably bleeds from the relentless and condemnable activities of vagrants and bandits who have reduced the constituency into a killing field. Reports suggest that in the past 15 years, no less than 2500 lives were lost to the vicious attacks of marauders and trespassers in the area under reference. This unnerving situation has compelled engagements between concerned Apa/Agatu leaders, and the leadership of the Nigeria Police Force, (NPF). The prayer is for the swift establishment of a mobile police outpost in the troubled sub-zone to contain bloodletting. The proposal, anchored by AIG Tony Olofu, NPOM, (rtd), and Echono, has received the blessings of the police high command. At the last update, a commander for the outfit had been named, while the deployment of personnel had begun in earnest.
It is very clear that in the march towards 2027, Apa/Agatu will refuse, very vehemently, to be sidelined and trampled upon in the political scheme of their senatorial zone. Abba Moro may desire a third term in the Senate, but the people of Apa/Agatu are quick to remind him that his curriculum vitae as a politician is sufficiently sumptuous for him to yield the seat in the “red chambers” and sit back like an elder statesman. They remind you that for a man who began his working life modestly as a lecturer in the Federal Polytechnic, Ugbokolo in 1991, Abba Moro has done extremely well for himself in Nigerian politics. For reminders, Abba Moro was elected Chairman of Okpokwu local government in the state as far back as 1998. Ever since, he has remained a permanent fixture in Nigeria’s national politics.
The people of Apa/Agatu will put up a determined fight for the Benue South senatorial seat in 2027, and no one should begrudge them. They are the proverbial ram which was pushed to the wall, which must of necessity push back with angered horns to liberate itself. They are already engaging with their kith across “Benue Zone C” to ensure that intra-zonal equity, fairness and justice, prevails in communal politics.

Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), teaches Creative Writing at the University of Abuja

Opinion

The Prince Adebayo prescriptions for ease of doing Business: 15 Take-Aways

Published

4 days ago

January 14, 2025

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By Dr. Ag Zaki

On Thursday, 9 January 2025, Prince Adewole Adebayo presented a keynote address at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos. The occasion was the annual conference of a group of professionals, business executives and experts codenamed J9C for January 9 Collective. The theme of the Conference was “Business and Policy Strategy: Examining the Role of Reform in enhancing the ease of doing business in Nigeria.” Prince Adebayo is a versatile cerebral man of many parts, a lawyer, a multimedia practitioner, a real estate investor, a large-scale miner, a philanthropist, a community developer, and the 2023 Presidential Candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The organisers of the J9C conference introduced him as an intercontinental lawyer because he currently practices law in over sixteen countries.

The full speech of Prince Adebayo at the occasion is available online and can be accessed by clicking at this url: https://youtu.be/SsHkcJbVNRg?si=ebvoOVqGh0zVOsnt or by scanning the QR code above. However, we are presenting the salient take-aways from this most incisive keynote address below for the convenience of interested persons and for the public good.

THE TAKE-AWAYS
Preamble
1. Not every change of policy or programme is a reform. A reform is a fundamental change in the activities, programmes, and policies structured to cause improvement. Genuine government reforms are people oriented and so citizens can interject, comment or contribute.
2. Reform may be internally motivated, externally forced or imposed, or technological driven.
3. The government of Nigeria must first reform itself to be able to implement development-oriented reforms to improve the country’s economic performance.

In general terms
4. Fiscal and monetary reforms are critical and are urgently required in Nigeria. While government can freely control its fiscal reforms, it must be bound by market forces for realistic and realisable monetary reforms.
5. Economic reforms must positively affect developmental policies, programmes and projects to engender economic growth, increase in efficiency, and lead to stability. Economic and political reforms must be implemented pari-passu for untainted policies and programmes.
6. Urgent structural reforms are required in areas of legal reforms, laws on banking controls and regulations, lending and borrowing as well as land matters.

In specific terms
7. Reforms which are aimed at targeting ease of doing business must be aligned with the Malam Aminu Kano maxim that “all civil servants should abstain from contracts or business”.
8. Nigeria must break the current odious and unwholesome conspiracies between policy makers, civil servants, and contractors, which can lead to irreversible endemic corruption, long foreseen by the revered Malam Aminu Kano, and which can permanently damage the economy.
9. Structural reforms must ensure that land laws open up maximum benefits and potentials of the land, encourage labour productivity and efficient and transparent entrepreneurship rules including registration, capital and lending matters.
10. Tax reforms should be broad-based, not about sharing of revenue but promoting productivity and competitiveness in all aspects of endeavours and infrastructure reforms should make transportation of people and goods safe and cost effective.
11. Monitoring economic crimes must be thorough and should go beyond arresting of “Yahoo boys” and those spraying Naira notes, but those devaluing the Naira and abusing economic rules and regulations.

Warnings
12. Adebayo left some stern terse warnings for the business sector and for the government of Nigeria.
13. Business executives and professionals should not ask or encourage government for specific reforms but for general broad-based reforms as firm-specific reforms can enhance operations of specific firms or business in the short term but will ultimately kill the industry.
14. Government should not meddle into business or be guided by partisan businessmen; government should meet business only at the junction of regulatory framework.
15. Government should be selfless and honest in carrying out reforms, incorporate measurable performance indices and ensure that reforms are implemented in a way not to inflict pains or punishment on the people.

# DrZaki25, 903 Tafawa Balewa Way, Abuja

Opinion

Governor Monday Okpebholo: A Blessing to Edo State

Published

5 days ago

January 13, 2025

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Monday Okpebholo

By Eigbefo Felix

His Excellency, Senator Monday Okpebholo, the Executive Governor of Edo State, has demonstrated that he is a blessing to the state through his policies, appointments, initiation of road construction across the three senatorial districts, and his deep love for the people of Edo State.

Governor Monday Okpebholo has begun fulfilling the five-point agenda he promised the good people of the state since his inauguration.

In the area of security, he has shown total commitment. He assured the people of Edo State that he would ensure their safety, and true to his word, the state remains peaceful, which has brought joy to its residents. He has provided the necessary support to security personnel.

The governor increased the subvention for Ambrose Alli University (AAU) from ₦40 million to ₦500 million. He also promised to address the issues facing AAU medical students. Additionally, he has started renovating primary and secondary schools across the state, underscoring his understanding of the importance of education.

The agricultural sector has taken a positive turn as Governor Okpebholo has allocated ₦70 billion to the sector. Recognizing agriculture’s importance to both the state and the nation, he is positioning Edo State to become the food basket of the nation with his investments in the sector.

During the electioneering period, Senator Okpebholo promised to create 5,000 jobs within his first 100 days in office. He has already begun the process, and soon, the people of Edo State will benefit from these employment opportunities. Unlike in the past, he will not rely on MOUs before making appointments. Furthermore, he has started appointing Edo State indigenes, rather than outsiders, to various positions.

Governor Okpebholo has commenced road projects across the state, from Edo South to Edo Central and Edo North. He believes that when roads are motorable, the prices of goods in the market will automatically reduce.

He has also begun investing in the health sector, understanding its critical importance to the people of Edo State.

Governor Monday Okpebholo’s initiatives and actions affirm his dedication to transforming Edo State for the better.