Opinion

Ayo Olukotun: A requiem too early this dawn

Published

2 years ago

January 16, 2023

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By Tunde Olusunle

My brother, namesake and senior colleague, Tunde Ipinmisho it was who called me to convey the distressing information about Ayo Olukotun’s medical situation in the last week of December 2022. Olukotun, a professor of international relations at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, had suffered a massive stroke. He had been taken in at the intensive care unit Babcock University Teaching Hospital, Ago-Iwoye. Segun Ayobolu, also my “sibling” and fellow professional, corroborated the information the following day. He bemoaned the levity with which matters of healthcare, wellbeing, human life are treated in our country. For all four of us including Olukotun, the erstwhile Daily Times of Nigeria was a common denominator. We all met as professionals in that organisation. By some coincidence, we all came from the Okun-Yoruba extreme of contemporary Kogi State. Our shared professional careers, and maybe the fact of coming from the same sociocultural homeland, were adhesives and binders.

Wednesday January 4, 2023, just about a week after Ipinmisho passed to me the gravity of Olukotun’s situation, the sad news of his demise was in the air. He passed on in the early hours of the day leaving behind, bewildered biologically related nuclear and extended families. This is not forgetting his equally devastated outer concentric rings of critical affiliates and associates. Metaphorically, a whale had exited the waters of Okunland where he hailed from, where scholarship is the most important vocation only after subsistence farming. The media fraternity where he devoted a substantial quotient of his professional career, parri passu with the academia, had been robbed of one of their best and most diligent. The Nigerian, and indeed global intellectual community had been gruffly dispossessed of one of their most cerebral, most prized, most rigorous, colleagues and compatriots, albeit a very unobtrusive one at that.

The subsequent outpouring of grief from the highest quarters, is evidence of the veneration and esteem Olukotun was held. From Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s President, through Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, the attendant lachrymose has been most palpable. Olukotun’s countrymen as well as colleagues in the media and academia, still wield their tear-soaked handkerchiefs in mournful despair. Eyitayo Lambo, distinguished professor and former health minister; Olu Obafemi, Emeritus professor and recipient of the 2018 Nigerian National Order of Merit, (NNOM), and Gabriel Godini Darah, renowned professor of oral literature, are shattered by the news of Olukotun’s exit. Toyin Falola, renowned historian, professor and soul mate of Olukotun; Yemi Akinwumi, also a reputable professor of history and vice chancellor of the Federal University Lokoja, (FUL), are variously stung by the development. Gbenga Ibileye, a professor of English at FUL; Rafiu Olusola Enikanolaye, retired career ambassador and former student of Olukotun; Ngozi Anyaegbunam and Ndubuisi Ugbede, Olukotun’s former colleagues in the primordial Daily Times conglomerate, are most pained.

I had caught glimpses of Olukotun around and about the University of Ilorin, around the late 1980s. I was a postgraduate student at the institution between 1987 and 1989, and I saw him not on a few occasions. We were to meet subsequently at the erstwhile Daily Times of Nigeria Plc, where I worked between 1990 and 1998. Yemi Ogunbiyi, the revered scholar, author and administrator was leading a major revolution and reorganisation in the organisation and opened up space for academics and media professionals alike. While I made the rounds filing my professional dentition from the features desk of Sunday Times through Daily Times beginning from 1990, Olukotun joined the newspaper behemoth in 1991, as Member of the Editorial Board.

A documented creation of Stanley Macebuh, serial midwife of several newspapers in his time, the concept of the Editorial Board has since been adopted across board in the media. The Editorial Board was something of an exclusive faculty of academics and professionals, indeed some kind of coven or cult of media eggheads. It met on scheduled days of the week to distil and dilate topics of sociopolitical contemporaneity for further espousal. Notable scholars like Chidi Amuta, Darah, Anyaegbunam, Omar Farouk, among others, populated the Daily Times Editorial Board in that era. I was deployed to the Editorial Board in 1993, which brought me closer than ever, to Olukotun. For us his younger colleagues and friends, it was more convenient to call him Boda Ayo or Egbon, as we do in our parts of Nigeria.

His hair and face were already interspersed with grey strands at the time, which in some cultures is physical evidence of wisdom and knowledge. His doctorate was yet on the way, but he was already playing the part of an authentic intellectual. He was already well published in books and journals at that time by the way, so was thoroughly grounded. The quantum quality he breathed, spoke volumes of his deep immersion in scholarship. Olukotun’s contributions to discourse were typically robust, properly processed and distinctly profound. He emitted rooted knowledge, his grasp of English bore the patent of “native language speaker competence.” He had his way with words.

While undertaking a self-imposed appeal for fiscal support for one of our distressed younger colleagues those days, I remember him asking me: “Tunde, what is your resource profile like? I’m leading a broad-spectrum solicitation for a beleaguered younger colleague.” I was momentarily hit by the high falutin words, but had to process it speedily and spontaneously to advance a response. That was the humanist in Olukotun. That was the manner of elevated contributions and interventions he brought into our Editorial Board encounters. He was ideologically aligned towards the left, his perspectives as a radical scholar, added pith to our engagements. He regularly alluded to Bade Onimode, Claude Ake, Adebayo Olukoshi, Toyin Falola, Omafume Onoge, Onigu Otite, in our typically lively editorial contestations.

Ayo Olukotun would have been 70, May 2, 2023. He was born in Jege, a community in Yagba East local government area, (LGA) of Kogi State. He was the archetypal eni ti o ti apata dide, one who emerged from the hard ground of the rock, intent on carving a niche for himself, irrespective of life’s challenges. He was educated at the famous Titcombe College, Egbe, Yagba West LGA, between 1965 and 1969. He served early warning of his imminent disposition to the academia, earning five distinctions in the West African School Certificate Examination, (WASCE), which he wrote in his final year. Titcombe college is reputed to have produced several icons on the nation’s national stage, notably: Tunji Arosanyin, (of blessed memory), easily one of the first attorneys from Okunland and Samuel Afolayan, retired vice admiral and former Chief of Naval Staff, (CNS). Olu Obafemi, Emeritus Professor and Samuel Ibiyemi, (departed), professor of engineering and former Vice Chancellor, (VC), Achievers University, Ondo State, were also groomed in the same institution. The much younger Pius Adesanmi, erstwhile Canada-based professor of literature and African Studies at the Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, who died March 10, 2019, in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, attended the same institution.

Olukotun was something of a “career student” of the Obafemi Awolowo University, (OAU), from the primordial years of the institution’s nomenclature of “University of Ife,” (Unife). He obtained all his three degrees, bachelors to doctorate from that citadel in 1976; 1982 and 2006, respectively. He was a unionist who was Secretary and President of the Students’ Union respectively, at various times. As a student leader, he was at the fore of presenting to the public, a counter narrative to the rot and decay perpetuated by successive military governments in Nigeria. He cut his teeth as a socially committed intellectual, beginning from his days as a young student.

He lived his life between the classroom and the newsroom, having lectured in half a dozen universities during his lifetime. He was at the Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU), Zaria, 1977 to 1988, as well as the Lagos State University, (LASU) and the University of Lagos, (Unilag), concurrently between 2002 to 2007. He was appointed professor of p olitical science at Lead University, Ibadan, where he worked between 2007 and 2014, and was visiting professor of international relations at OAU, between 2015 and 2016. He became “Distinguished Governance Professor,” at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, where he occupies the “Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona Professorial Chair of Governance.”

As the true journalist and public scholars he subsequently served on the Editorial Boards of: The Nigerian Compass, Nigerian Tribune, Daily Independent, and Anchor Newspapers respectively. He was also a columnist in many publications, including The Punch where he sustained a much awaited column, beginning from 2013. He received the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence, (DAME), for informed commentary in 2013. He authored, edited and co-edited many reference academic books including: Repressive State and Resurgent Media in Nigeria, (2004), and Political Communication in Africa, (2016, which he co-edited with Sharon Omotoso). He also wrote: Watchdogs or Captured Media? A Study of the Role of the Media in Nigeria’s Emergent Democracy: 1999- 2016. With Femi Sonaike, another eminent mass communications scholar, he wrote Jose: The Ideas Man. Olukotun had well over half a century academic papers published in international monographs, books and journals.

Obafemi is saddened by the demise of Olukotun who had been his friend from their undergraduate days. He describes Olukotun as “a top flying scholar, and a renowned political scientist, and an engaging public and media intellectual, rolled into one.” For Obafemi, Olukotun’s demise deprives Okunland, the academia, the media world and humanity at large. Lambo describes Olukotun’s departure as “very sad indeed.” He prayed God to “minister peace to his family.” Darah laments Olukotun’s demise as a “monumental loss to African intellectual heritage.” Akinwumi exclaims: “Jesus Christ! When did he die? This is a corporate loss to global scholarship. He was a very sound and objective scholar. He was progressively-minded and ever on the side of the downtrodden masses. He was a diehard Nigerian and a lover of humanity. He will be difficult to replace.”

Anyaegbunam is startled and reminisces about a most poignant conversation she had with him sometime last year. “We discussed career fulfilment and the japa trend. We laughed then, but thinking back now… May his kind soul rest in perfect peace.” Ibileye describes Olukotun as “one of the brightest of the Okun nation.” According to him, “he was one of the most deeply insightful and prolific contemporary Nigerian thinkers… I’m pained by the demise of this patriot, thinker, scholar and fine specimen of humanity.” Enikanolaye recalls that Olukotun “taught me world contemporary history as a young “Graduate Assistant” at the School of Basic Studies, (SBS), in ABU, Zaria. His depth of knowledge and analytical capacity was outstanding… He delivered his lectures without written notes, dress in jeans and T-shirts.”

The Wednesday January 4, 2023, departure of Professor Ayo
was not a nice way to welcome the dawn of a new year. But who are we to question the whims of the Almighty? Olukotun is survived by his wife, Stella and two sons, Temitope and Oluwatomisin, both young adults. Members of his extended family include: Bola Ola-Oluwa, an elder and head of the family; Caroline Oriowo; J.S. Olayemi; Kunle Olukotun, (architect and younger brother); Funmi Abasi and Iyadunni Babatimehin.

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.