Opinion

Two top cops, one happy couple

Published

3 years ago

December 30, 2021

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By Tunde Olusunle

Perhaps the highlight of the recent elevation of senior police officers into higher ranks, was the simultaneous promotion of a married couple of the force, to the rank of substantive police commissioner. Kehinde Patrick Longe, and his wife Yetunde, who were both deputy commissioners of police, moved up to the next rank, as contained in a press release from Police Service Commission, (PSC), Monday December 20, 2021.

Instructively, husband and wife were enlisted into the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), same day, March 3, 1990, as Cadet Assistant Superintendents of Police (ASP). This was upon the successful completion of training at the Police Academy, (POLAC), Wudil, Kano State. The Longes met at the police academy therefore and developed a relationship which has bloomed into a long-subsisting marriage.

Lifted up the ladder of seniority in the police in that same exercise, was the “better half” of another couple, who also met at the same police institution, at the same time as the Longes, and also became husband and wife! In this second instance, the husband was promoted this same time in December 2020. The wife, however, was recognised in the more recent exercise. Availability of positions or vacancies, in the states of origin of officers under consideration, sometimes becomes an issue when moving them upwards at this level. We therefore have a scenario, which has similarly produced a “police commissioner couple,” from the police academy, whose relationship and marriage has straddled through more than three decades, thus far.

I have a longstanding relationship with the latter couple, which is as intertwined as it is interesting. I first met Tony Adejoh Olofu, August 1985, at the Alvan Ikoku College of Education, (AICE), Owerri, Imo State, which used to be the permanent orientation camp of the National Youth Service Corps, (NYSC), in our time. Olofu from Benue State, studied sociology at the University of Jos, while I came from what is now the old Kwara State, having read English, at the University of Ilorin. Trust young people, there would usually be points of mutual intersections, in the kind of atmosphere provided by the youth corps camp. Our network of friends would broaden to include Dede Mabiaku, a top Afrobeat artist who studied theatre arts at the University of Benin, underwent his NYSC primary assignment in “Charly Boy Studios,” Oguta, Imo State, and Armstrong Idachaba, also a theatre arts graduate from Unijos, until recently, acting Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), among others.

While Olofu was deployed to the same AICE for his primary assignment, I was posted to Imo State Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri. To this extent, we were both in the state capital, and also in the same Community Development (CD) group. CD groups were constituted by the alphabetical arrangement of the names of NYSC members, which meant that Olofu was in the same group as “Olusunle.” To this extent, we rode in the same truck to the “NYSC Farm” located at Emekuku, on the outskirts of Owerri, every week, for our CD. My accommodation at the time was at Ikenegbu Layout, Owerri, a walking distance from the NYSC state office, so we would typically stroll to my place, upon our return from Emekuku, to have a bite and share the “communion of the bottle.” We exchanged weekend visits between each other, even as I “inducted” Olofu into the culture of watching live football. Till date, he tells our mutual friends that I dragged him to the stadium for the first time ever, those days when “Iwuanyanwu Nationale” shared the spotlight of soccer in the South East, with “Rangers International” of Enugu.

We went our different ways upon the completion of the NYSC in 1986. In the absence of the kind of telecommunications technology we have today, we resorted to exchanging letters, sent through the Nigerian Postal Service, (NIPOST), to keep in touch. And somehow, many of those letters came through, even if they took a little while. I received one such letter from him sometime in mid-1993. By this time, I had been appointed Director of Information and Public Affairs in the administration of the late first civilian governor of Kogi State, Prince Abubakar Audu. Olofu was serving in one of the police formations in the country. I’m trying to remember some lines from that correspondence now: “… Should you receive this letter, it serves as your formal invitation to my wedding to your sister from Kogi State and I will appreciate your presence and company, please.”

I got into perhaps the largest *agbada* possible on Saturday July 22, 1993 and drove from my base in Lokoja, to Okene for the event. Olofu sighted my grand costume from the high table where he was seated with other dignitaries, as I made my stately entry into the venue of the programme. He promptly directed one of the ushers to guide me to join special guests on the high table. As I exchanged pleasantries with the big people and the couple, I saw in the bride, a face I could remember very well from my alma mater, Unilorin. The mini campus of the institution was so very close knit in our generation, that you would have encountered a broad spectrum of schoolmates in the cafeteria, library, faculty blocks, lecture room zone, *Africa Hall,* the prime event centre of the school, and so on.

The bride was indeed my sister. Rhoda Adetutu Emmanuel, (her maiden name), was an alumnus of Unilorin where she studied political science. She graduated in 1986, a year after my generation of students. She had earlier attended the School of Basic Studies of the Kwara State College of Technology, (SBS), for her advanced level, and was also a year behind our set. Her erstwhile faculty in Unilorin, “Business and Social Sciences,” abbreviated by students as “BSS,” was the most geographically contiguous to our own faculty of Arts, so it was possible to remember the faces of many people from both faculties. Following the August 27, 1991 creation of nine new states by President Ibrahim Babangida, Kogi Central, Mrs Olofu’s zone, and Kogi West, my senatorial zone, had been extracted from the old Kwara State, and joined with what is now Kogi East, taken out of the old Benue State. She was fittingly therefore, my sister.

The newly wed Mrs. Rhoda Adetutu Olofu, carried herself with requisite dignity and self respect in school. Unmistakably pretty, she was a bit reserved and very selective of her friends and associates. Those of us who were outgoing students, “card-carrying” party freaks as it were, who regularly crisscrossed parties and pubs from “Sawmill,” to “Adewole Estate,” to “GRA,” to “Niger Basin,” on the night time streets of Ilorin, knew ourselves. We also knew our female “accomplices,” who were regularly on the “Groove Train,” with us. Mrs Olofu was not one of them. In fact, we had a nickname for students whose daily itinerary in school, was the regimental route of: hostel, to the classroom and then to the library. We called them “triangular students!” She fitted this profile. The more unserious characters, who lived their lives between the Student Union Building (SUB) a one-stop-shop for liquor and culinary indulgence, and party venues in town, equally had their label. We festooned them with the acronym “NFA,” which translated as No Future Ambition!

With the dawn of democratic governance in 1999, I relocated from my old abode in Lagos, to Abuja, having been appointed a presidential aide by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. I had functioned as his media press secretary all through his campaign and he desired my membership of his team. Tony Olofu and I would be conjoined again. He had just returned from a peacekeeping operation under the auspices of the United Nations in Angola. Uncomfortable about the prospects of his family having to move around with him ever so frequently, in the name of routine postings and redeployments by the police, he desired a stable location for them. From his savings from the one-year UN assignment, he put up a modest bungalow in one of the satellite towns around Abuja and moved his family there.

Just like Olofu had anticipated, he got shuffled around fairly much by the NPF, serving as Commander, Mobile Police Squadron 25 (Mopol 25), Azumini, Abia State; Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Garki Division, Abuja, and Area Commander, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Satellite Towns, with his office in Kubwa, among others. He has also been Commander, *Operation Doo Akpo,* a special security outfit in Bayelsa State; Deputy Commissioner of Police, Operations (DCP-Ops), Ebonyi State and Deputy Commissioner of Police, Criminal Investigations Department (DCP-CID), Bauchi State. Olofu has similarly been Commissioner of Police, Counter Terrorism Unit, (CP-CTU), at the Force Headquarters, Abuja. He was also Police Director of Operations and Intelligence, National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and Commissioner of Police, Anambra State, respectively.

Rhoda Olofu has been much more stable than her husband, which has enabled her to keep the home properly, in the regular absence of her husband. Except for a brief period during which she served in Keffi, Nasarawa State Police Command, she has traversed various departments at the Force Headquarters, notably serving as Assistant Commissioner of Police in-charge of Establishment, (AC Establishment) and Deputy Commissioner of Police, Training, (DCP Training). She has also functioned as Deputy Commissioner, Research and Planning (DCP R and P), before her recent promotion.

In 2004, my family and the Olofus, visited Yankari Game Reserve, Bauchi State, for a weeklong excursion, as guests of the erstwhile governor of the state, Adamu Muazu. Children of both families have taken up the baton of the relationship between their parents, having been joined together in instances, by the educational institutions they attended. They are best of friends, regularly honouring invites to events organised by one another. From Olofu’s Otukpo home, to his village, Opaha, in Apa local government area of Benue State, I have been a serial guest. In the same way, Olofu has been a regular caller to my hometown, Isanlu in Kogi State and to Ilorin, where my parents live. Our families on both sides, have fully been incorporated into one another, such that I can call and relate very well with Olofu’s siblings, notably Dennis, David and Baba, just the way he nicknamed my brother, Toba Olusunle “Oshiomhole,” for feigning modesty, despite being a very senior government official.

We equally share mutual friendships with the same people in many instances, and relate with each other, as though we were playmates from childhood. Olofu doesn’t need my consent to banter with and “harass” my old friends like Gbenga Ayeni (a professor in Connecticut); Tivlumun Nyitse (chief of staff to the Benue governor), or Femi Ajisafe (a retired director from the federal ministry of transportation). In the same way, I can barge into his long time associates like John Ofotu (in England); Egwurube Obande (a businessman) and Garuba Uloko (formerly of the Nigerian Customs). As different from the vainglorious exhibitionism of many people in the uniformed services, you are not going to find police personnel milling around the abode of the Olofus, who are famous for their simplicity and unassuming carriage.

Mrs. Rhoda Olofu, potentially, joins the growing list of women who have risen to distinguished heights in the police force. Abimbola Ojomo, was the first female Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), appointed by the Obasanjo administration, January 22, 2002. Ivy Uche Okoronkwo is reputed as the very first female officer to head a state command, as one time Commissioner of Police in Ekiti State. She also rose to the position of DIG October 5, 2010. Farida Mzamber Waziri, an AIG and attorney, was the first female to be appointed Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), (a serially male dominated position since the inception of the agency under the Obasanjo administration), in 2008. Aishatu Abubakar, a veterinary doctor, recently became the first woman specialist in the police, to make the AIG cut.

As an alumnus of the “Better By Far” University of Ilorin, Mrs Olofu expands the number and quality of alumni of the institution, who have become top police officers and attained the rank of Commissioner, at the very least. They include Gbenga Adeyanju (who retired at the rank of AIG), Ayo Oguntuase (recently retired as police commissioner), Amaechi Elumelu, Abdulkadir Mohammed, Ayoku Yekini, (mni), Kehinde Longe, Adepoju Ilori, and many others. Erstwhile vice chairman of the Unilorin Alumni Association, FCT Chapter, Sa’adat Ismail, was also elevated Deputy Commissioner of Police, earlier this year.

Tony Olofu was born October 24, 1963, and his wife July 22, 1965. Coincidentally therefore, the wedding anniversary of the couple is the birthday of the wife. I have teased him in the past, that he applied police sense in consenting to having his wedding in 1993, on the day of the week which coincided with his wife’s birthday, because he wanted to escape having to entertain friends so many times, in the year! The Olofu union is blessed with lovely, well raised children.

•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.