Obaseki may need miracle to win reelection if . . .Oshiomhole opens up on his quarrel with his successor vanguardngr.com vanguardnews
…Narrates how Obaseki shunned interventions by Dangote, El-rufai, Bagudu, othersNational Chairman of the All Progressives Congress , Comrade Adams Oshiomhole in this interview with Saturday Vanguard, broke his silence on the crisis between him and Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State.He affirmed that he had no personal quarrel with the governor, rather the governor failed to heed his advice to carry party members along in governance which according to him had factionalized the APC in Edo state.
When I see Nigerians taking side on it, I just pity people who can’t make a difference between your personal affection or love for someone and dealing with issues of principles and law.
Then somebody said that because I am the National chairman of the party, I ought to turn the other way. If it is wrong in Bauchi to have secret inauguration, how can it be accommodated in Edo state. For me, these are the issues. And it is shameful that in this case, all the 24 are APC members. First of all, Okiye is not the Speaker, he is a member elect. I watched the governor say those things but the truth of the matter is that he knows better than that. The question is, is it within the discretion of the state governor to decide who becomes the Speaker?
All the President could do which he did was to deploy his influence both through the party and other channels to persuade people to ensure that this time around APC has a national leadership that we believe can work in harmony with the President. When I was governor, I went through the same process, we persuaded the members, we called all of them, we first explained to them the need to ensure geo-political balance.
Let me say that one day, we may have a President who may decide to order the military to make sure that they secure the National Assembly and allow, say about one quarter of members to go in at 12 midnight to elect a Senate President and Speaker and then thereafter whoever wishes to be inaugurated can go one by one. That will be a sad day for democracy.
I said to him these people you refer as old politicians that you said you want to retire, I met them in the game, they are not my creation and I had to learn to work with them. Then, he told me that the people were liars, they abused people, all sorts of things. But I said to him that I am the last to say that politicians are angels but what matters to me is how to manage them so that when I need them they will be there for me. The Edo APC, whenever I needed them, they were there for me.
But even if in the process you suffer snake bite, within that same forest there are herbs that you use to treat it and you come back home and get ready for the following day. This is the reality of politics. But it is beyond any one, myself inclusive, and even the President of Nigeria to say he wants to retire politicians. I remember when IBB said he wanted new breed, he had to reverse himself even with all his military powers, when it turned out that there were really no new breeds.
Motor parks will always be motor parks whether it is in Lagos, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt, they have their code. The responsibility of government is to engage them and manage them in a way that they can do their lawful business because the Road Transport Workers Union and Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, are registered trade unions in Nigeria, they have a right to operate.
We replaced the black board with white board. Now what is interesting is who did we use to build these schools? We found that to build a school was within the competence of an average local contractor. These local contractors were 90 or 85 per cent of people of Edo origin. They are not saying come and share money to us. I think legitimate profit done arising from jobs properly executed for the people and government of Edo state ensured that the enrolment in public schools increased by almost one hundred per cent and if I were to go back to that state again, I will do it the same way.
We placed orders for them to supply equipment which they did even though at the time they were given the contract the exchange rate was 195 per dollar. By the time they finished their processes the naira had been devalued. But thanks to the governor of Central Bank, he assisted to ensure that we had access to forex at the old rate and they got their dollars at N308 to a dollar.
Aliko Dangote, God will bless him. He told Godwin that if you build a factory and lock it up for two years, what will happen is that the grease will dry up, the oil will dry up and you will invest a lot of money to service the machines before they can be operated. Not to talk about sensitive hospital equipment. He then asked the governor to go and open the hospital. And I get bashed every day because people believe there is nothing inside the hospital.
At the end of the day the Commissioner said he forwarded letters asking them to get people for training to the governor but he had not received any reply from him more than one year after the letter was written. Now, the members many of whom lost nomination, who were looking for fault went to the hospital to see for themselves and after that, they wrote a report that the state government had no reason to keep the hospital closed.
Where I left it, they did not continue with it and if they don’t continue with it, flood will return to Benin. These are not personal issues. As National chairman of APC I want the progress of our governors so I must be interested about what they do. The governor had agreed at the beginning that since he is not a politician he will want help. Now when you start fighting politicians that is not governance.
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