Weighed down by the consequences of their nefarious actions, the leaders of the Edo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are attempting a popularity relaunch through one Ogbeide Ifaluyi Isibor, whose mother was demoted for illegally collecting unapproved levies in the secondary school, where she was the principal.
Joining issues with the product of such a lineage will amount to wrestling with pigs.
Edo people who voted en masse for Governor Godwin Obaseki in the last gubernatorial election, know that their governor is taller than all the falsehood peddled by Ifaluyi Isibor.
To set the records straight, the issue of constituency project has no place in law. It is the prerogative of the Governor, who may wish to execute projects through members of the House of Assembly in their constituencies based on collective bargaining.
But when a governor is developing all local government areas with projects, it becomes superfluous to ask the Assembly members to duplicate this function of the executive.
The primary duty of members of the House of Assembly is to make laws and carry out oversight functions on projects executed by the Executive arm of government, to ascertain whether the projects are appropriated for, within the arm bit of the appropriation law.
Members of Edo PDP in the House of Assembly should explore the channels of communication and engagement in the Assembly.
In fact, the ultimate beneficiaries of these projects are the people and not members of House of Assembly, who are not contractors in the first place.
The Obaseki-led administration is too sophisticated to even contemplate denying Edo people development in the name of politics.
On Thursday, Governor Obaseki inaugurated a ward-based development committee in Ehor, headquarters of Uhunmwode Local Government Area of the state.
Similar committees will be replicated in all the wards in the local government areas in the coming days, and members of these committee, interestingly, are drawn from each ward, including civil servants and members of opposition political parties.
The wisdom in enlisting members of political parties that are opposed to the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) in the committee is to allow everyone, irrespective of their ideological leanings and convictions, to contribute to the development of the state.
The ‘wake and see’ roads that Governor Obaseki is constructing across the state are being used by members of all political parties in the state. The 75 new Edo City Mass Transit buses that convey Edo people around the state daily, serve everyone in the state.
People who were well raised by decent parents will not wake up from their slumber and start pacing about for lies to post on social media for some loose change from their paymasters.
Ifaluyi Isibor and his co-travellers must stop seeing themselves in everyone around them.
We all cannot do things the Edo PDP way. We all cannot be political jobbers who are not qualified to work and earn a decent living outside the political space.
Obaseki will not deny Edo people the development they have yearned for, simply because the members representing them in the House of Assembly are in other political parties.
Hon. Paul Ohonbamu,
Commissioner for Communication and Former Deputy Speaker, Edo House of Assembly.
