Tempers are said to be rising among supporters and admirers of the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s government that less than one year into his second tenure, his policies and programmes are deviating from the welfarist posture for which he gained popularity as a labour leader, and won the last two governorship elections in Edo State.
The governor, who assumed office on a slogan of ‘no-business-as-usual’, set up a probe panel against his predecessor in office, Chief Lucky Igbinedion tagging it assets verification panel.
However, after the panel held widely publicised public hearings and made recommendations about how to recover looted Edo public funds, the governor has refused to take any action five years later.
The governor also indicated that contracts for projects across the state such as roads, hospitals and schools will be open and in line with the core objectives of the public procurement law such as economic efficiency, competition, providing level playing ground for all strata of bidders, value for money and transparency.
However, observers have pooh-poohed his claims to operating along these lines as the state government has ever since awarded contracts without open tenders, to unidentified contractors and for undisclosed amounts running into billions of naira of Edo taxpayers’ funds.
A case in point is the prolonged reconstruction of most federal roads in Benin City with billions of naira appropriated in the state budgets since 2009 while many state roads are in disrepair has raised concerns about the accountability and transparency posture of the governor.
Among these state roads yearning for attention, but has suffered neglect are: Murtala Muhammad, First and Second East, Ogbelaka, Adesuwa, Siluko, Uwelu, Forestry, Mission, Universal, Federal, Oghobaghase, Ewere, Oza, Asoro, etc.
Yet the governor has expended undisclosed sums running into billions of naira without public tenders for contracts to rehabilitate federal roads such as: Akpakpava, Sapele, Sokponba, Dawson/Uselu/Lagos and New Benin/Uselu/Lagos Roads inside the state capital.
Of the 7 kilometre Airport Road which reconstruction has dragged on for four years, Barrister Osa Director, a publisher says, “it is fast becoming the most expensive road construction in the world.”
He says though the contract was awarded without tender in 2010 it has been revoked twice and over N7 billion of Edo public funds have gone down the drain while work is still going on.
Another point of disagreement between the governor and his supporters is his many undisclosed foreign trips at short notice to unidentified locations. These frequent and unscheduled overseas trips, sources say are not yielding the acclaimed dividends of bringing foreign direct investment into the state.
The foreign direct investment is needed to either reactivate industries which were ailing before Oshiomhole took office like the Okpella Cement Factory, Uromi, Cassavita Plant, Ehor Fruits Factory, Ceramics factory, all of which are now comatose.
The governor is accused of killing the viable state-owned Edo line transport firm after a leader of his party was fingered by workers, of embezzling huge sums of money meant for the repayment of loans taken to buy vehicles on hire purchase from commercial banks and to pay wages and allowances due them. He vowed he will not reopen the highly profitable firm now closed for the third year running.
In the health sector, Edo State has not fared well as the century old Central Hospital, Benin City has lost vital departments and units to a stalled rehabilitation design of the state government. The plan was to redesign and rebuild the accident and emergency unit and make it a three-storey state health facility but midstream its construction was halted due to its collapse.
“Over eight months after the incident, work has completely stopped, because, the building is structurally and architecturally defective,” this submission has been attested to by the Nigerian Society of Engineers which moved in after the disaster and called for the pulling down of the entire complex or the provision of structural reinforcements which will pose a danger in the future.
The governor’s recent attack on primary school teachers alleging that 1, 300 of them possess fake certificates, after they returned from a two months strike to protest his short changing them on payment of the 27.5 per cent teachers’ special allowance, is also a sore point among his critics.
A few weeks ago he accused the teachers of massively falsifying their ages, arguing that 789 teachers out of 1, 379 obtained their Primary School Leaving Certificates before the age of 8 or 9. He also said some, “finished Primary School before they were born…only 1, 287 representing 9 per cent out of 14, 484 teachers have proper and accurate records in our system. 91 per cent have various forms of discrepancies in their records”. The governor who said these certificates will have to be verified added that the exercise commencing soon is not to witch-hunt anybody.
However observers say that the action of the governor is designed to divert attention from ongoing debates about the quality and standards of the many primary schools in the state which are various states of dilapidation despite the fact that the state has exhausted its share of the Universal Basic Education Funds meant for their rehabilitation over the years.
There are even indications that other schools that were rehabilitated fell short of the mark as many of them-over five decades old, merely had their roofs torn down and walls repainted with perimeter fences erected. Majority of the schools do not have water, security and even desks and chairs as children learn on the floor in many parts of the state, including the state capital.
Still on education, the governor also stands accused of deliberately violating extant rules about the appointment of a substantive vice chancellor for the state-owned university by keeping Professor Cordelia Agbebaku in office as acting VC for the third year running.
Agbebaku’s husband, Philip, was the principal witness during the Edo governorship election petition’s tribunal sitting in Benin City last year and testified that the governor was his former school mate.
For elections into public offices in Edo State, the governor has been addressed as the ‘new’ godfather of Edo politics over his penchant for handpicking aspirants to vie for public office in his party instead of providing all aspirants a level-playing filed in party primaries.
Twice in the 2011 general elections and this year’s elections into local government councils, his action in imposing aspirants for election into senators, House of Representatives and House of Assembly seats and the position of chairmen and councillors observers say makes such a label valid.
Whether he will be able to impose a successor on his party ahead of 2016 when he is expected to complete his two terms of eights as governor, is a controversial matter.