There is no doubt that the voters in Edo state will need to make a choice as to which party of the many fielding candidates deserves their vote come September 10, 2016 gubernatorial election. To be able to make informed choices, therefore, the parties, through their candidates, must put before them the major planks on which they intend to carry out their campaigns and, if they eventually succeed, the governance of the state.
What, in the main, will the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or All Peoples Grand Alliance (APGA) tell Edo voters when the campaigns officially open soon? The ruling APC of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole intends to showcase its many achievements in the last seven and half years it has governed the state. The campaign will centre on the integrity of his administration in the area of delivery of democracy dividends to the people of the state. Promises made in the 2007 and 2012 governorship election campaigns have largely been delivered.
It is now common knowledge in Edo state that the administration of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has delivered on infrastructural development of the state to the admiration of all, including his critics. His party, the APC, intends to point to the many roads constructed, reconstructed or rehabilitated; urban renewal drive powered through environment beautification; the Benin Water storm project designed to eliminate flooding in more than fifty per cent of the city; the many schools built, rehabilitated or reconstructed; the many water projects spread across the state; the many new electrification projects and transformers procured and distributed to various communities; the transformation of the transport sector with the acquisition of the Comrade Buses and staff complement for the management of traffic; the many new health centres and facilities including the new ultra-modern Central Hospital Complex in Benin City.
The APC will also point to developments in the agricultural sector, particularly the training of manpower and empowerment of farmers to increase food production; industrialisation with the establishment of several employment generating industries by Chinese companies; sports development under which programme the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium has been transformed to international standard; and the administrations complementary effort in the maintenance of peace and security through the setting up of the police-army security taskforce code-named Operation Thunderstorm under which more than 200 patrol vehicles have been commissioned and presently operational.
The APC and Comrade Oshiomhole will be happy to flaunt all the commendations the present administration has received from well-meaning citizens from within and outside the state. For instance, they will mention Zaiki Anslem Ehizojie, Eidenojie of Uromi, who commended Comrade Adams Oshiomhole thus: When you visited me in 2007 for campaign, I passionately appealed to you that when you eventually became governor, you should not forget Uromi and that you should not say Uromi has been in the mainstream of Nigerian politics and for that reason, you will not bother yourself about them. I am very sure that Uromi people all over the world are proud of the projects that you have attracted to Uromiland. With the many commendations and awards for good work in the pocket, the ACN and Comrade Oshiomhole will tell the opposition parties to take their turn in another generation.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate on their part will most certainly canvass Edo peoples support and votes for September 10, 2016 by pointing out what it had done to improve the infrastructural status of the state and the impact it made on the lives of the people between May 29, 1999 and November 11, 2008 when it had the privilege to rule the state.
They will point gleefully to the fruit juice factory at Ehor established by the Lucky Igbinedion government which was never completed. It was to have employed thousands of Edo youths and which products Edo people are not enjoying today. Ehor people will forever be grateful to the PDP for this wonderful white elephant project which has put Ehor on the world map, at least in the world record of non-fruit juice manufacturing towns. The PDP takes credit for it.
They will also point to the fertilizer blending plant at Auchi which, commissioned uncompleted by ex-President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003, was to manufacture and blend fertilizer to meet all the fertilizer needs of Nigeria. The plant was to have significantly improved the living standard of the people of Auchi and its environs. The PDP also takes the credit for the many jobs it failed to create in the abandoned fertilizer plant.
What about the casavita factory at Uromi? The PDP takes credit for establishing this otherwise people-oriented, job creating and living standard enhancing project through which Uromi people would have been economically empowered. They grow the cassava that would have fed the factory, they would also have generated enough income to compare favourably with other income earners anywhere in Edo state.
The PDP will also canvass votes of the elderly by telling them that the Comrade Governor, Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, has no respect for elders (no obligation to name any elder disrespected), and since they form up to 60 per cent of eligible voters in the state, they must show the youthful governors party a red card come September 10, 2016 and allow the candidate of the PDP who is more respectful of roguish elders take his seat.
The candidates of the other parties with no previous record of public or political service will theorise on how Edo state will be industrialised through the establishment of industries across the state to absorb the teaming youths presently unemployed. They will explain that taxes must be reduced to achieve this.
The choice before Edo people on September 10, 2016 will have no ethnic colouration but based purely on issue of performance. Edo people will decide which party or candidate has met their expectations in terms of performance.
They will decide whether the present administration of Adams Oshiomhole has done well enough in the past seven and half years to be rewarded with another term in office to complete the many projects his government is still executing or to sack it for a PDP government which ruled for almost ten years before it was voted out.
Edo people will be called upon on September 10, 2016 to make a choice between progress they can see and a return to the locust years of the past. It will be interesting to see if Edo people, from Anegbette, Okpekpe and Igarra through Usugbenu and Ewohimi to Iguobazuwa, Okada and Benin City, will vote to return to power PDP which in eight years, with Chief Lucky Igbinedion as governor, proved the fabled ALIBABA and his band of thieves literature for kindergarten classes. It will be interesting to see if civil servants in Edo state will fail to vote a party under which the regime of prompt payment of salaries and allowances as well as pensions are guaranteed. Will the residents of Second East Circular; Oko and Ogba; Useh and Uwelu; Upper Mission Extention; Isinorho and Iheya and, indeed, Benin City, fail to vote a party that has done them so much good in terms of provision of roads, light and sanitation projects? Will our youths, transported to and from school free of charge daily, fail to preserve this legacy by returning the APC to power on September 10, 2016?
I am sure Edo people know the difference between the APC of Adams Oshiomhole and the PDP of Lucky Igbinedion and his gang. The difference is as clear as the difference between light and darkness; good and bad; success and failure.
Nasamu, a Public Affairs Analyst, wrote from Benin City.
