Opinion

“G-5 Governors” 2023 and Ortom’s “bottom to top” mantra

Published

2 years ago

November 18, 2022

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By Tunde Olusunle

Two incidents in the not too distant past, mitigated my physical participation in open-field, free-to-air political events, notably rallies and conventions, in recent times. At a rally of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP), in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital years ago, I left the venue of the event, relatively lighter than I went. My prized mobile phone had been pinched from the pocket of my national dress I donned to the event. It was an experience I had never had. With most of us almost wholly dependent on our electronic gadgets for day-to-day functionality, I felt like an orphan having been so criminally dispossessed of my device, for 24 subsequent hours. This was the time span between the pilferage of the equipment, and its eventual replacement. The second experience occurred as I queued to access Eagle Square, Abuja for the convention of the same party in 2017. I least imagined that the wad of currency notes I supposedly secured in one of the less visible pockets of my smart dress, could be so neatly, albeit criminally accessed!

On the recent invitation of the much-misunderstood governor of Benue State, Samuel Ioraer Ortom, however, I broke my subsisting self-censorship. I honoured the flag-off of the Benue State PDP campaigns, held in Makurdi the state capital, on Monday November 7, 2022. Candidates of the PDP contesting for various positions, at all levels in the February and March 2023 polls, were to be formally presented to the PDP family in the state. My longstanding friend and brother, Tivlumun Nyitse, Chief of Staff to Ortom, was the ideal host, on behalf of his Principal.

The pre-event sensitisation was massive. Ortom’s colleagues, who have come to be known as the G-5, or the Integrity Group as they are interchangeably referred to, in contemporary political discourse, were to headline the event. Nyesom Wike, Seyi Makinde, Okezie Ikpeazu and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Rivers, Oyo, Abia and Enugu respectively, would be storming the food basket of the nation, the legend of Benue State, for the programme. They were coming to stir the Benue river, calmer now than weeks ago when its flooded banks chased the people from their homes and farmlands. The quintet have been vocal and unanimous in speaking up against issues they consider unjust and unfair, in the current structure and operations of their party, vowing never to back-down until their demands are addressed. The issues are public knowledge, and need no rehashing.

The airport at the typically sleepy Nigerian Airforce Base, Makurdi, came alive in the evening of Sunday November 6, 2022. Four private jets, each conveying Ortom’s guests, lit up the concreted face of the typically snoozing tarmac. Chief host Ortom would settle his guests in at the recently rehabilitated Aper Aku Lodge in Government House, christened after the Second Republic governor of the state. Aku is credited with several multisectoral innovations, during his shortlived four year term in office. Aper Aku Lodge is an innocuous, yet voluptuous complex with about 25 rooms, backing the Presidential Lodge within the Government House. After dinner with his guests in his own section of the Government House behemoth, Ortom led his guests on a short walk to the Banquet Hall for a reception.

Benue State’s well-known affluent culture was on display. Dances and performances from the major ethnicities in the state, the Tiv, Idoma, Igede and Agatu, featured at the event. Ortom’s August guests responded by nodding their heads to the rhythms of music and the footwork of performances, intermittently applauding the performers. Ortom proclaimed the adoption of his guests as honorary citizens of Benue State, requesting that the proclamation be recorded in relevant instruments of the government. Wike, Ikpeazu, Makinde and Ugwuanyi were subsequently robed in traditional Tiv attires, complete with ceremonial spears. They took to the dais themselves, and shuffled to the rhythms and songs.

Ortom’s guests woke up the next morning, to a tour and simultaneous commissioning of projects in the state capital and its environs. It was an opportunity for Ortom to beam to the world, some of the infrastructures he had developed for his people. “Dr,” he called me as we chatted, “I find it amusing when people accuse me of not building even a simple bathroom in all my years as governor. I think it’s because I’m media shy. My upbringing and religious inclination, also forbid my blowing my own trumpet.” Ortom continued: “Again, I’m by nature a frugal person. If I reckon that the cost of commissioning a particular project can help us build a culvert somewhere, or a borehole elsewhere, that is more important to me than the fanfare of showcasing things we’ve already put in place.” And Ortom does have a commendable collage of infrastructures to flaunt before the eyes of his August guests and constituents, variously.

They include: The 9.4 kilometre Tse Poor- Mbakya-Apir road and electricity project, named after first ever Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly Ayua Num, which was commissioned by Wike. The 7.7 kilometre Tse Poor-Mbanima-Yaikyo road and electricity facility named after Sule Abenga, the late Ter Makurdi, was commissioned by Ugwanyi, while the 3.2 kilometre NKST- Yina- George Akume road named after the charismatic Joseph Waku, a prominent Tiv leader, was commissioned by Makinde.

A two-kilometre
Kaange Akaya- Lucy Aluor- Otukpo road, christened after Wike, was commissioned by Ortom’s predecessor, Gabriel Suswam, who is now a Senator. The two kilometre road runs behind the Commissioners’ Quarters in Makurdi, the state capital. Instructively, the road leads to the residence of Iyorchia Ayu, Chairman of the PDP, with whom the G-5 have been in the trenches for six months now. This is not overlooking the one and half kilometre Low Cost Housing Estate-Banban road, named after Chief JC Obande, a revered Idoma leader, which was also commissioned on the same day.

The IBB Square, Makurdi, named after Nigeria’s former military President, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida is the equivalent of Abuja’s Eagle Square and the prime open-air events arena in the state. It was packed full and overflowing into adjoining streets as early as 10am, Monday November 7, even when the city’s ears were yet tingling to the fusion jazz of car honks and sirens, as Ortom and his guests toured various project sites. It was a carnival of PDP colours, a convergence of political greats who headline the politics of the state, and indeed the North Central geopolitical zone. The VIP section of the events place, had a pleasant challenge, contending with the visiting governors, and the Who’s Who in Benue State politics. Except for a very prominent political figure in the state and in Nigeria, former President of the Senate, David Mark who is bereaved, and Ayu, still in the eye of the storm, the roll call was as comprehensive as it was astounding.

The sun was sky-high and blistering, foreheads and faces dripping with grime and perspiration. But these were no deterrents to mammoth assemblage at the Square. Beginning with Ortom’s beautiful and indefatigable wife, Eunice, dignitaries at the event included the deputy governor of the state, the immensely humble and unassuming Benson Abounu. Suswam and his senator colleagues from the state, Emmanuel Orker-Jev and Abba Moro, respectively, were in attendance. Ortom is contesting for the senatorial seat of Benue North West, as he concludes his two terms as governor, May 29, 2023. To this extent, he is a candidate. Serving members and intending candidates of the lower national parliament, notably Richard Gbande, Robert Tyough, Julius Atorough, Benjamin Mzondu, Terkaa Agba, Ukah Emmanuel and John Dyegh, were present. Samson Okwu, Aida Nath Ogwuche, Alex Ogbe and Ojotu Ojema, attended the event.

Member of the PDP Board of Trustees, (BOT), Margaret Icheen, acting Chairman of the party in the state, Isaac Mffo and his colleagues in the State Working Committee, were in full attendance. So were members of the Benue State PDP Campaign Management Committee, led by Cletus Tyokyaa. Gubernatorial flagbearer of the PDP in the 2023 election, Titus Uba and his running mate, John Ngbede, featured at the programme. Elder statesman and former Minister of the Federal Republic, Iyorwuese Hagher, and former presidential aide, Mike Mku, equally found time to grace the rally.

Speaker after speaker restated the imperative for all hands to be on deck for the decisive ouster of the seven and half year old regime of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), which has irreparably traumatised Nigeria. Ortom deployed the opportunity to recast the 2015 electioneering slogan by erstwhile APC flagbearer Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s outgoing President. Buhari had intoned in his now famous backlash of a speech at the time, that the “APC will take Nigeria from top to bottom!” Sadly, Buhari’s underwhelming performance over the years, has given a new meaning to that evergreen utterance. It has been interpreted in contemporary political disputation to imply his prophetic resolve to take Nigeria literally from socioeconomic ascendancy, to the valley of all-round poverty, destitution and ignominy.

Ortom’s new mantra proposes a “bottom to top” political prototype. This anticipates the holistic triumph of the PDP at all levels, beginning from the polling units, through the wards, to the local government areas, onwards to the state, and the federal level. To this extent, the PDP will work towards excelling from the offices of councillors, through local government chairmen, to state assembly members, to federal parliamentarians, to the governorship, and onwards to the presidency. In doing so, Ortom restated that the PDP will not kick away the ropes and ladders with which it sought and received support for ascent to the mountain top. Everyone, every structure from the minutest levels will receive adequate shelter and accommodation under the infinite umbrella of the PDP. Development and dividends of democracy will be fairly apportioned.

Those who expected brickbats and missile-hurling at the event, against the backdrop of the subsisting bad blood between the G-5 and the larger PDP, were most probably disappointed. While expressing his disaffection with the management of rifts and schism within his party, a very realistic Ortom admonished people to vote for their preferred candidates and parties in the coming polls. This must have arisen from his recognition of the dispositions of other party leaders and stakeholders in the state, who have affinity with candidates, different from his preference, especially at the presidential level. A window for possible rapprochement to the subsisting intra-party impasse in the PDP, was opened last Wednesday, when the G-5 visited Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed. Wike spoke on behalf of his colleagues, to the effect that his faction remains open to dialogue and reintegration.

A meeting was reportedly held by Babangida, yesterday which featured Atiku, Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, Okowa, Aminu Tambuwal and former governors Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Bonnie Haruna, Babangida Aliyu, Sule Lamido, Emeka Ihedioha, among others. It may be the eventual olive branch in the mitigation of the subsisting, long-drawn saga. The PDP realises the imperative of confronting the 2023 test as one united family, and will stop at nothing to secure the buy-in of every relevant stakeholder. The APC has adorned itself with ample inflammable oil for comprehensive barbecuing in the 2023 polls. Even at that, the PDP will do better as an undivided, indivisible “combat unit,” to deploy a military terminology.

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

5 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

5 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

6 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.