POLITICAL GOVERNANCE IN EDO STATE: 1999 - TILL DATE Being a Keynote Address delivered by Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu PART 1 Protocols I thank the promoters and entire members of Edo Political Forum for this leadership conference and achievement award 2013 with the theme “Rewarding excellence, promoting freedom and leveraging opportunities”. Those who are active on the social network would attest to the fact that the Edo Political Forum otherwise known as EPF has become a veritable source of information gathering with lively, intelligent and critical political discourse on the state of affairs in Edo State by Edo people, especially those in the diaspora. I am also grateful and humbled that I have been invited to speak on the topic “Political governance in Edo State from 1999 till date”. I presume that my choice as speaker must have been largely influenced by the leading role I have, by the grace of God, been fortunate to play in the governance of the State from the time under reference till now. I was Chief of Staff to the PDP Governor of Edo State from 1999 to 2003 and Secretary to Government from 2003 to 2007 under the same administration. I have also played an active role in the emergence of the ACN Administration that took over from the PDP government from 2008 till date. It is important to note that in talking about Edo State as it is today as a political entity, credit must be given to our founding fathers, who in 1981 started the movement for the creation of the state; a dream that came into reality on 27th August, 1991, when the then Bendel State was split into Edo and Delta states by the military administration of President Ibrahim Babangida. It is commendable to note that Oba Akenzua II, of blessed memory, spearheaded the creation of Midwest Region from the then Western Region, while his son, Our Royal Majesty, Oba Erediauwa, the Oba of Benin coordinated the creation of Edo State from Bendel State. My late Father, Chief R. O. Ize-Iyamu, the then Esogban of Benin Kingdom, donated his building at number 32 Erie Street, Benin City, as the State Secretariat for the Movement for the creation of Edo State. Edo state is peopled largely by the Benins, Esans, Etsakos, Owans and Akoko-Edos, with all the ethnic groups genealogically tracing their origins to the ancient kingdom of Benin, which shows in the relative homogeneity of the people in the cultural and linguistic affinities. The Benin-speaking people occupy the South senatorial district; the Esans are domiciled in the Central Senatorial district; while Afemai land comprising Etsako, Owan and Akoko-Edo are in the northern segment of the State. I congratulate the awardees who are illustrious sons and daughters of Edo Land and have been selected by the EPF for their outstanding contributions to the growth of Edo State and Nigeria in their different fields and calling. I would specially appreciate Dr S O Ogbemudia who is widely regarded as the architect of Midwest region, Bendel State and now Edo State. His legacies in office are still visible for all to see and appreciate. Professor Ambrose Alli, of blessed memory, must also be applauded for the bold steps he took to make Bendel State the number one State in Nigeria. In addressing the main issue of today, “Political Governance in Edo State: 1999 Till Date”, it is important that we remember that between 1991 when the state was created and 1999, Edo State, like other parts of the country, had a brief stint of democratic rule of less than 23 months with the civilian administration of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun of the SDP, who defeated Chief Lucky Igbinedion of the NRC, at the 1991 gubernatorial polls. The military junta of late General Sani Abacha in November 1993, sacked all democratic institutions and returned the country to dictatorship that spanned another six years. In that period, Edo State had a fair share of military recklessness and poor vision in governance with the periodic postings of Military Officers to hold forte in states. These officers displayed glaring indifference to the development of the States with the attendant lack of commitment to the welfare of the citizenry, industrial development of the states, and refusal to lay foundations for long term sustainable investment in the States. The various Military Governors or Sole Administrators did not make any pretence of being responsible to the people, and rather utilized the advantage of the fear of the gun to suppress the collective desire of the citizenry to a good life and improved welfare. In effect, Edo State was left prostrate by military rule after 1975. The gains of the Ogbemudia years, which made us the envy of all others in the federation, were laid waste. Infrastructure decayed, and other critical structures and institutions of governance shrank to base levels. Thus, Edo State lost its label as the “happening place”. It was during these locust years that the Anini Saga gripped Benin City and its environs. But even after Anini, the crime situation never really abated. Besides the poor performance of the military administrators who presided over the state, there was also the very serious impact of some critical macro-economic policies that created social dislocations in ways Edo people had never previously experienced. There was the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), which the military regime introduced in 1986. It caused brain drain not only among the elite class, but among other classes as well, such that the young and not-so-young lost faith in the country, and voted with their feet, in search of greener pastures abroad. Crimes such as “419” grew during the period. Young persons stole, or fraudulently sold other people’s property, just to raise funds with which to travel outside the country. Many persons of Edo origin died in the course of the sojourn, wiped out in the harsh conditions of the Sahara Desert, or drowned in the seas in small boats filled with desperate illegal immigrants packed like sardines. But, perhaps, the most unsalutary consequence of the terrible state of the socio-economic profile of Edo State at the time was the rise of international prostitution as the identity of the Edo woman. Our girls, and women, were lured from the towns and villages; they were made to undergo various kinds of rituals, and then flown to Italy, where they endured the hazards of trading their bare bodies even in the coldest winter season. Ignorant family members at home, who received remittances, were happy that, at last, they were leaving the poverty trap. Marriages broke up as wives deserted their husbands, and then went to Italy. Government, in the eyes of the military junta ruling Edo State, was simply to sit over the affairs of the state, design ways and means of relating with the civil servants, and make new friends among the elite using the state resources to leverage such relationships. The state deteriorated, stagnated and was almost ruined, as parastatals and government–owned companies were ordered, overnight, to commence self-sustenance policy without any form of short-term planning and trial periods to test-run the efficacy of such policies, thus forcing the immediate downturn of commercially-oriented parastatals and industries which had thrived few years before then, and leading to forced closures. The immediate implications were that the economy of the state took a sharp nose-dive; workers were sacked as a routine, while those retained in service were owed several months of unpaid salaries and allowances. The elderly in our society, the pensioners, were in financial agony over unpaid monthly stipend. The citizens watched helplessly as public infrastructures such as roads, public primary, secondary and tertiary schools, hospitals, transportation facilities, and rural electricity projects were abandoned and those in use slid into a state of decay due to complete absence of Government maintenance. Contractual obligations were not met and even the elites felt the pain of a system of government that was not responsible and accountable to the people. The level of disenchantment in the people was very high and by the time the last military administrator was leaving Government House in Edo State, he had left a huge debt burden of N500 million and the irrevocable cheques issued for urgent payment was N300 million, while the actual cash balance was just N105 million. It was in the throes of this economic quagmire, bastardization of the citizens’ morale and decay in public infrastructures that the democratic administration came on board in 1999. The structure of governance since 1999 has been benchmarked by the constitutional demand of public elections and majority rule. The candidate that scores the highest number of votes and with the appropriate spread in votes cast across the local governments becomes the elected Governor of the State. Politics therefore, took centre stage in the quest for public political offices. This was the legal and constitutional foundation that led to the emergence of Chief Lucky Igbinedion, the PDP candidate as the Executive Governor of Edo State in 1999. Chief Lucky Igbinedion, was voted as Governor primarily on the basis of his highly successful tenure as the youthful Chairman of the old Oredo Local Government Area of the State (which today comprises Oredo, Egor and Ikpoba-Okha council areas), and was expected to perform and bring about a complete turn-around in the fortunes of the State. This huge expectation was hampered by serious challenges. The rot in the State inflicted by long years of military rule or conquest had left the State postrate with huge deficits and liabilities. The first four years of the administration were therefore used in the payment of salary arrears, pensions and debt servicing. The revenue profile of the State did not permit the execution of any serious capital project; hence the approved budgets were mainly devoted to recurrent expenditure. Internally generated revenue, for example, which today thanks to Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s government is over a billion naira a month, was then around 27 million naira a month. During this period under review, I functioned as Chief of Staff to the Governor; what was my contribution you might ask? To appreciate my role, you must understand my function. I was not in charge of any ministry or parastatal, neither did I have any financial authority. As Chief of Staff, I was the political clearing house, ensuring equitable sharing of political appointments to party faithfuls, interacting and interfacing with the ruling political party to avoid conflicts between it and Government I however, expanded my scope by dialoguing with labour unions on the recurrent issue of wage arrears and stagnated promotions; constantly liaised with the House of Assembly to ensure a harmonious relationship between it and the executive arm of Government and opened up my office as a place for public complaints and redress. Another serious challenge to the administration was the ruling party itself. The Peoples Democratic Party that produced the Governor of the State between 1999 and 2007 had no manifesto, blueprint or plan for governance and in Edo State was actually personified by one lead character that was literally worshipped as the owner and giver of political power. The pressure and subtle threat from the godfather and his supporters were excessive and distractive in the process of project planning and execution, as well as management of the resources of the State. When the Governor resisted the trend, especially during his second tenure, and altered the power relations in government, he was harassed by the Abuja henchmen of the political party and even deregistered from the party, along with his rebellious aides who sought to keep the Edo resources as a common wealth for all. Edo people did not know the magnitude of the internal political battle that raged between the Governor and the greedy godfathers. Definitely, the Governor did not have the combative and no nonsense posture of the incumbent Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who with his progressive mentality as an activist, also had to contend with the godfatherism syndrome and ruthlessly dismantled their structure. There were, as you may recall, a few open quarrels within the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which resulted in the formation of parallel executives, and the operation of parallel secretariats, one of which was declared open with the force of arms, as though Benin City were under siege of an occupation force. Attempts at reconciling the differences were either rebuffed, or failed altogether. There were threats of political castration, such that one faction boasted about rendering the other impotent. One step in this dreaded direction was the wholesale deregistration of members of the other faction. After that, the die was cast, and the factions returned to their trenches, and got ready to face each other in the general elections of 2007. Nevertheless, I think I should underscore one important fact, which relates to the impact of acrimonious factional partisan politics on governance. No political group deliberately seeks extinction; members of a political group, therefore, seek to survive and to be relevant. And because those who are in government, in particular, elected officials and some of their aides, belong to a political party, tension and crisis within the party generate their own heat and distraction. In some cases, the acrimony degenerates to political warfare. And in war, fair is foul, and foul is fair. The factions deploy various means and resources to outdo each other. Those who have access to higher authority in the context of our federalism do not hesitate to invoke those powers that have sometimes be derided as “Abuja Might,” which includes the misuse of security forces and the launch of a relentless witch-hunt by certain government agencies, particularly those that are capable of embarrassing and harming the reputation of members of the opposing faction. A man with his roof on fire can barely be expected to have the presence of mind to confront the daily challenges of governance. All this, to a large extent, can explain why governance was hamstrung in Edo State, especially from the second half of 2004 until May 2007 when the issue of who succeeds the Governor, became the main agenda. The third major challenge that seriously affected the performance of the Government was the finances available to it at that time. We had earlier mentioned that the internally generated revenue when the administration came on board was 27million naira a month. The revenue accruing from then Federation account was barely enough to pay salaries. It would interest you to know that the total funds received during Prof Osunbor’s administration that commenced 29th May 2007, and ended 9th November 2008, a period of just eighteen months was a lot more than what Chief Lucky Igbinedions administration received totalling his last four years; 2003-2007. The prevailing public verdict, however, especially in the media, is that the administration failed to meet the developmental expectations of the citizens, who yearned seriously for a new lease of life in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of public infrastructures in the state. The current massive infrastructural transformation of the state by the incumbent Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who has brought in a lot of courage, vision and drive into political governance, has further put the past administrations in a dimmer perspective. It would be unfair, however, to say that the Chief Lucky Igbinedion administration achieved nothing. The IGR moved from twenty seven million naira to 300 million. Salaries arrears were cleared and salaries paid as and when due. Stagnated promotions were reviewed and some civil servants got three to four step promotions.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:28:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015