From Henry Uche, Kaduna
Barr. Nosa Adams is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) and a member of Senator Monday Okpebholo Campaign Council for the for the forthcoming Edo State gubernatorial election.
The former chairman of Egor Local Government Area of Edo State in this interview speaks on the September 21 governorship election, why the APC candidate is better positioned to win among others.
So how has the election been? What are the chances of your party?
Very bright to the extent of the government’s misdemeanor against the people. Very bright to the extent of the governor turning against all those who voted for him, turning against the people that gave him their mandate and turning against all the political gladiators. All the principal stakeholders in the Edo politics have resolved to give the next governorship election to APC. Obaseki and his PDP for eight years have failed woefully. So, the voters, the political leaders, the traditional institutions, the Christian community, the civil service want a change. There’s a general consensus to change the government of Edo. The governor has performed so poorly and so disappointing that he cannot be allowed to bring his successor. More so, when the person he’s parading as a PDP candidate, was part of the kitchen cabinet of the outgoing government. APC will win the election. More so, when the governor and his kitchen cabinet, including Asue Ighodalo have declared war against the traditional Institution in Edo State. It is clear that the government doesn’t take advice from anybody. So, if you ask me, I would say, very comfortably, Saturday’s election is a victory for APC. Monday Okpebholo and Idahosa his deputy will be coasting to victory very comfortably.
To what extent is that narrative that the candidate is not well educated, affect his chances?
I don’t see it. They just don’t know his pedigree. We have a requirement that qualifies him to contest election today. Otherwise, if he’s not educated or he’s not qualified, he wouldn’t have been cleared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). As far as he has met that requirement, to the effect that he has been duly screened and he’s qualified to contest, I want to tell you, he holds the first degree and the Master’s degree. I’m sure you are aware that he is an ICT expert. And I’m sure you’re also aware that he’s an entrepreneur who has employed over 100 workers before he became a Senator. And you also know that he contested as a Senator and he won. Currently, he is a serving senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So, it’s just part of their political propaganda and gimmicks to say he’s not educated. He’s just a simple, easy-going fellow who had a very humble beginning, like most of us. He’s very reserved, coordinated, calculative and straight to the point. All he wants is to remove us from this shackle we find ourselves, from this very abysmal government, very down-performing government as a whole. Remove us from this precipice and take us to a greater height. That is his desire. So, he’s duly educated and qualified.
You said your candidate is the very best for Edo people, so, why the federal ‘might’ that the APC is being alleged to have deployed heavily into this election, including using the police. People are alleging that even INEC may not provide a level playing field for the contestants…
Those allegations are baseless.
I must tell you, INEC is a neutral arbiter as far as elections are concerned. The police are doing their work as a professionals as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution. The PDP wants the police to just close their eyes and allow them to start intimidating and harassing and terrorizing the residents of Edo State. No responsible law enforcement agency will allow that to happen. All they’re asking the police to do is to just close their eyes, fold their hands, so that they can be terrorizing everybody. He set up the Edo State security network, or the security corps; we were all happy, jubilant with high expectations, at least, the issue of security in Edo State would be tackled headlong. But it turned out that he was using the personnel of the security network to be terrorizing political opponents. As we speak, not less than 30 persons are hospitalized as a result of the attack by the so-called security corps. He recruited known thugs and known cultists as members of the security network. He was using that network to terrorize every perceived opponent and the police will not allow that to continue. You’re aware how the personal police escort, one of the personnel, was shot and killed in cold blood at the Benin airport, when the APC candidate was coming out of the airport. You and I know also that very many people have been seriously beaten, maimed, and they’re all taking treatment at the Benin hospital. So, the police now go after those that carried out that very act, those that did all those attack. And they are crying wolf. Because in the last House of Assembly and the local government elections, Obaseki ordered his boys to move from unit to unit, from polling booth to polling booth, beating people and collecting the ballot boxes, chased them to Government house, chased all the people, declared a council election inside his office. After filling all the forms and declaring the result, he called the Edo State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) to come and announce the result. And that is what he wants to do. No police will allow that. He can’t do that again. The last House of Assembly election, you and I know how he overran all the voters in the Edo State, took all the ballot boxes, beat all the polling agents, and all that kind of things. So, Obaseki and his candidate are known to be lawless, and a very big threat to the survival of our democracy as far as Edo State is concerned. When the policeman said, no, you cannot continue like this, he said the police are biased. He is talking of federal might. Where is the federal might? Is it the federal might that is asking him to be using school fees for rallies? Is it the federal might that is asking him to stop opponents from erecting billboards across Edo State? Is it the federal might that is asking him to stop opponents from using the Edo State broadcasting casting service? Is it the federal might that sends him to order his boys to be beating and maiming people across the state? INEC called for stakeholders and they said that police arrested their people. Police only arrested those that killed the police inspector. And police didn’t just go to arrest them. Police went after them based on court warrant. There is a warrant from the court of competent jurisdiction that the people who carried out the killings should be arrested. Are you saying because there is an election in Edo State, people will commit offence and go scot-free? So, because he is the governor of the state and he enjoys immunity, all his supporters and his killers’ squad should also enjoy immunity? He’s talking of INEC being biased. His cousin is working in INEC, his Attorney General just left INEC as federal commissioner. When he contested, that person was in INEC as a federal commissioner. He didn’t accuse anybody of using INEC. The state chairman of PDP, his wife is a very senior staff of INEC. Nobody is saying because his wife is a senior staff of INEC that they’re using INEC. So where is the federal power? Let the law take its course. If you commit crime, as long as you don’t enjoy immunity under the constitution you will account for it. Obaseki is only crying wolf because everybody in Edo State that really have a stake is not happy because of the state policy. Starting from the Oba of Benin, to the Catholic bishop and the Catholic reverend fathers, to the pensioners, the civil servants, students are not happy with him. Is it the Catholic reverend father from the government house chapel that he drove away and closed down the chapel, and they want to go back and win? Is it that they destroyed the Oba of Benin and dragged it out with Oba of Benin and they want to go back and win? Is it the federal might that asked him to go and drag it out too fast with the Oba of Benin? Is it the federal might that said he should stop the Oba of Benin’s allowances and entitlements? Knowing full well that in Benin kingdom, I’m a full-fledged Benin man both by ancestry and by birth. A typical Benin man which he claims to be should know that there are norms in Benin that we don’t play with. I’m sure you must have heard that in Benin kingdom, you don’t drag with the Oba, you don’t equate yourself with the Oba. You don’t make enmity with the Oba, you don’t boast with the Oba. Above all, Oba owns the Benin. These things are as good as basic law. When you’re growing up in Benin, you’re taught all these things, no matter how educated you are. Those days when you commit infractions against these norms, it is your family that will hand you over to the palace for execution but we are in the modern world; if you do these things these days, nobody will kill you but you will pay daily for it. That is what will happen to him on Saturday. Those who did it paid dearly for it. Ali did it he paid dearly for it.
Do you feel the elections will be peaceful considering the PDP refusing to sign the peace accord?
Signing the peace accord is not a statutory command. So, you have the moral obligation to sign and if you choose not to sign, it shows that you don’t want to commit yourself to a peaceful and orderly conduct of the election
What should Edo now be expecting?
He is planning to unleash mayhem on the opposition and we’re waiting for him but the police will not fold their hands. We’re waiting for him because for the past two weeks, the governor and his cohorts have been busy recruiting people from different states and there is intelligence report to that effect that is why they’re afraid to commit themselves to the peace accord. Like I said, nobody is going to commit infraction against the laws of the land and go scot-free. One thing you must know, immunity is not forever.
What is your message to Edo people?
They should come out on Saturday and vote for Monday Okpebholo, vote for APC.
You seem to be optimistic about your candidate but apart from Asue Ighodalo of the PDP, you also have Akpata of the Labour Party who is also pulling weight, are you not concerned?
Let me tell you, the Labour Party candidate is my cousin but unfortunately, he cannot win the election because in Edo State, there’s this general consensus that the Beninis have had their eight years; in fact, they have their 16 years. We have three senatorial districts, the Edo south, the Benin speaking area, the Edo central, the Esan speaking area. The Edo North, the Afemai speaking area. The Esans are the only ones that have been left out, so there was this consensus that this time around, we should let the Esans from the Edo central have a shot. That consensus is building up on a daily basis because in Edo State, we’re all one. We’re all under the great Benin kingdom, that is why the Oba is supreme in Edo State. We’re all under the great Benin kingdom so, we all agreed that our brothers should at least have a shot because we cannot afford to be so unfair to them as to deny them the opportunity to serve the state. If you deny them that opportunity, it would not be fair, it would not be just and it would not be equitable. Akpata went ahead and sought the ticket of the labour party, that the law has defeated him. On the other hand, the Obi phenomenon that was rampaging everywhere is not there again. More so, when the Labour Party is already balkanized. As we speak now, the state chairman of the party doesn’t go to campaign with him. They don’t have leadership at the state level, so the Labour Party is out of it. Coming to the PDP that would have been a force to reckon with, Obaseki and his Lagos boys have totally killed the PDP in Edo State.
I can tell you, a governor who wants to have popularity in the state, a governor who wants to be taken seriously when it comes to choosing his successor, must know that eight years is just like eight days. It’ll come and it’ll go. The governor must work and deliver. But then you have a governor who doesn’t know the yearnings, who doesn’t know the aspiration, who doesn’t know the demand, and the basic requirement of his people. Rather, you have a governor that will be waiting with a laptop. Every beautiful project is in his laptop and PowerPoint. But go and check, you won’t see anything on the ground. If he comes here and brings his laptop, he will show you beautiful projects. He’ll tell you Edo best. How Edo children will be using laptop, and how all the teachers will be teaching online. You have schools where there are no roofs, no chairs, and no desks. You can hardly find any government secondary school today in Edo State that has up to four teachers. Come to health sector, the only central hospital that Oshiomhole built for us in the heart of the city.
Obaseki gave it to his friend as a private hospital. He gave it out to a consultant, his family friend. Today, to take card in that hospital, it’s N100,000. In the whole of Edo State, they have less than eight doctors. No government hospital in Edo State is functioning. That’s why every street you go to in Benin, you’ll see a private hospital. Every city you go to in Benin and across the state, you’ll see private hospitals and private schools. Because every school, government hospital and government schools, have been made moribund, completely comatose. Now come to agriculture. I’m sure you hear all the razzmatazz about the cassava farm that they plunged almost N250 billion into. Today, it’s taken over by pests. No single cassava is standing there today. Before Obaseki came, the debt profile in Edo State was less than N60 billion. Today, our debt profile is almost N600 billion.
You have Edo State Civil Service Commission. They will come to Lagos and recruit consultants and pay the consultants billions to come and recruit civil servants. The only people he can employ are his SA, SSA. Even those ones he has appointed for several months now, he has not paid them. On electricity, he has spent billions, but where is the light? Ologbo where they have the power project doesn’t even have light. So, if you look at the whole sector, he has failed. All he knows how to do is to sign memorandum for understanding. Just call the Government house to a place where ceremony of signing a memorandum takes place. Where is the Gele-Gele Seaport that he promised us when he was campaigning? Where is the Auchi Airport that he promised us when he was campaigning? Instead, the schools he met, he closed them down. As we speak, Ekpoma is completely moribund, that is Edo State University, Ekpoma.
We have all resolved that anybody that calls himself a technocrat, will never have anything to do with us again in Edo State. Or any Lagos boy, sorry to say that. We want somebody who is a ‘localite’, who grew up with us, who knows the feelings, who knows the yearnings of the people, that is why senator Okpebholo is so popular in Edo State. Senator Okpebholo is a serving senator. He sleeps in his village as a senator. Before he won the election, after he won the election. His deputy, Idahosa is a serving member of House of Reps. He sleeps in his village. We want a government that lives with us, understands our yearnings and our aspirations.
