September 10, 2016, is epochal in the history of the great Edo State. It is a date when life beckons on the people to embark on a game-changing and life-amending venture; a time when the people are called out by the Benevolent, the God of second chance, to right the wrong they elevated to a position of authority and immense responsibility eight years ago.
That day is the day when Edo people will finally extricate themselves from the shackles of a searing chain fresh from the hissing fires of a renowned blacksmith and etched in the back of the people with a heart that chooses to be deliberately unmindful of the people’s sufferings.
That APC, by the virtue of their worsening abysmal performances everywhere they go, both at the federal and state levels, has since grown into that monstrous party not fitting to replace itself in any election in the name of continuity, is no longer news. What is news is that they still have the temerity to present themselves for election after all they have done to Nigeria just within one year! Nobody, not even the good people of Edo State would want a continuity of suffering, of human degradation, infrastructural decay, ethnic discrimination and general underdevelopment.
These are some of the ‘natural’ traits of the All Progressives Congress which are well known not only to Nigerians but also to the whole world. In other climes, where service to the people is a priority and the elevation of their standard of living is government’s main focus, the party would not be going about insulting the sensibilities of Nigerians by wildly gyrating with so much brazenness as we saw the president’s delegation do in APC’s grand rally in Edo recently.
It is only a government without shame for its widely acknowledged failures and a party without human sympathy for the mega-sufferings it has visited on the people that would embark on such a banal celebration of the destruction of a people and their nation without restraint in so short a time.
Since APC took charge of governance, the people can barely live and hardly survive. The hunger in the land is real and the frustration palpable. Nigeria, right under the nose of President Buhari and his gyrators, has slid into its worst recession in history. Millions have lost their jobs as companies after companies, both local and international, keep closing shops due to the economic hardship. Yet, the price of foodstuff keeps rising while the naira has been adjudged the worst performing currency in the whole wide world after Suriname and Venezuela. What a story!
This is after all the grandiose promises of turning the moon into sunlight for Nigerians and creating a state of Eldorado and Utopia for them. However, the Nigerian state has since become the legendary Hobbesian State where life is not only nasty and short but also brutish under the watch of APC. With the free rein of death in the hands of terrorist Fulani herdsmen all over the country, the extra-judicial murders and endless incarceration of citizens even against court orders by state agents, the descent of Nigeria into the Hobbesian state of anomie is confirmed.
A nation that, just over a year ago, used to be the pride of Africa and the bride of investors competitively courted by the discerning international business community has suddenly become a sorry state of its recent past glory.
Rather than deliver on its campaign promises, the All Progressives Congress has spent its entire life in government delivering excuses to the people to the extent that even the party’s core supporters and followers have since abandoned it to its lonely fate.
Now to get the votes of Edo people, the APC train has revived its old machinery of mendacity, revved its engine of casuistry and embarked on its familiar campaign of sophistry wrapped in oratorical sophistication. Like they did at the federal level, they are promising the people heaven on earth. A party that cannot achieve any of its myriad of promises, not even one, at the federal level despite the vast and enormous resources at its disposal cannot achieve anything in a state known for its peace, industry and rich culture.
The people of Edo must not fall for the antics of the antiques, beautiful outside but full of deceit inside. With the benefit of hindsight, Nigerians have come to conclude, and rightly so, that they made a huge mistake by handing something as weighty as their destiny to Buhari and his battery of APC disciples. The regret is loud and resounding, from Abuja to Katsina, from Imo to Ondo, from Plateau to Enugu, from Kano to Osun, the story is the same.
The days of ignorance will be forgiven, but will Edo people make the same mistake Nigeria made on March 28, 2015, the day they purportedly voted APC into power out of ignorance? Doing so now that the party’s gross incompetence and deceit are well documented would amount to committing an error of unpardonable consequences.
It is the utmost desire of Nigerians to take their destiny back in their own hands, retrace their steps and start correcting the mistake that APC has been. There is no other divinely set opportunity for such rectification other than the Edo governorship election. Whether Nigerians have learnt their lessons or not will be determined by the people of Edo on Saturday.
A “change” that has brought nothing but chains to the people deserves to be changed urgently. Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu is the one on whose shoulders Providence has placed the unenviable but noble task of rescuing the good people of Edo. With his SIMPLE agenda, and the huge support he has enjoyed among all Edolites and Nigerians, he is obviously the people’s saving choice

The Mindboggling Corruption In The Oshionmhole Administration


===================================
Just like Fashola - Adams Oshionmhole would be remembered for presiding over a regime of financial impunity, profligacy, bogus and over-inflated contracts and criminally-bizarre contracts awards.




It is on record that the Oshionmhole administration has enjoyed the highest revenue ever in the history of Edo State.




In the last 8 years, the administration has received over N1trillion naira in the form of Federal allocations and IGR. This amount is in sharp contrast with the total sum of N197 billion that the state received in the entire 8 year period of the notorious sticky-finger, Lucky Igbinedion. And tragically, there is absolutely nothing to show for it.




Oshionmhole’s stint as governor has been fraught with most questionable fiscal expenditures and strange contract figures.
Some classic instances.



He set off on his administration by installing a water fountain at King Square, Ring Road in Benin City. The project cost the Edo state tax payers a whopping sum of N386 million!



And here is what makes the episode even more painful: the fountain barely worked.


In the 2015 budget, N150million was voted for the maintenance of this fountain. The fountain still didn’t work.

Curiously, in the 2016 budget, another N100million was also voted for its maintenance.
At the end of his administration, over N636million would have been spent on a meaningless fountain. And to what benefit?




And then, there is the contract for the expansion of Airport road, Benin-city.




Airport road is a 6.7km road in the heart of Benin-city. It is a road that has long existed. It is not a new road. It was expanded at an atrocious cost of N17billion. Mind you – no bridge was constructed along that road.



Now, here is a bit of comparison. The Benin-by-pass is a 46km road. It has four (4) bridges, six (6) flyovers. It was built in a virgin forest. It was built by the PDP administration with just N10 billion.



Some other projects executed at very questionable costs by the Oshionmhole administration include:



N950 million for the beautification of the popular “Five Junction” near TV road in Benin-city. (that is N50 million shy of N1billion).



N600 million for the installation of street light from “Third Junction” on Sapele road to “Country Home” road junction.




N400million for the rehabilitation of Ekenwan road.



N70million to organize a Beauty Pageant - an event that is of no economic value to the State and that its sponsorship should have been outsourced to the private sector.




$225m World Bank loan that was purportedly spent on ICT consultancy and Website design.



N3.5 million and N4.5 million per trip for chartered domestic flights to Iyamho, Abuja, Lagos and Benin even in the face of dwindling revenue from the federation account.




N4 million regular largesse given to his close aides in the guise of medical treatment fees.




N11 million naira as the cost of each room of the hostels in Edo State University in Oshinmhole’s home town of Iyamho.




N3 billion naira on school furniture that were never delivered to schools.




Political appointees from who hail from the home town of Oshionmhole earn twice what their other colleagues receive in what has become known as "Iyamho allowance”.



N3.5 billion in the 2016 budget in the never-ending allocation of monies for the construction of the Accident and Emergency Ward unit at the Benin Central Hospital. Note that there had been previous allocations for this same project in the 2014 and 2015 budget.


And so on.



Now, Afrinvest is a company owned by the APC Governorship candidate, Godwin Obaseki. Obaseki collects 5% for facilitating the N25billion Benin City water storm loan from the capital market.



Note that 5% of N25billion is N1.25 billion. This unhealthy arrangement is similar to the relationship between Alpha Beta Consulting (ABC) and the Lagos state government.

Hundreds of other companies that would have gladly done it for far less amount. Why wasn’t this contract better negotiated on behalf of the tax-paying people of Edo state?



In the 2016 Edo state budget, N10.65 billion was voted for the purpose of the welfare of Oshionmhole and his family.


That is 9.6% of the 2016 Edo State total budget of N111.50 billion.



That amount is what would be lavished on the First family of Edo state in a single year – a family that also enjoys N500million monthly security votes.



What a very high-maintenance family!
Or has Mary Kay become that expensive?



Meanwhile, key sectors like Water resources and agriculture were voted a meager N100 million and N300 million respectively in the same budget.



And painfully, not a single rural electrification project was embarked on in the entire eight ( years of the Oshionhmole administration.




Now, on the forthcoming governorship election in Edo state, here is my personal and unsentimental opinion and prediction.

Oshionmhole’s stooge is most likely to emerge the next governor.. Because someone is going through the most elaborate length to ensure that.
There are already signs to that effect.



The mind-boggling amount of APC campaign materials - billboard banners, posters, jingles, etc - that has inundated every nook and cranny of Edo state is simply unprecedented.



Indeed, someone is desperate.



With the way things are going, and with the postponement of election, the Edo people will have their say, but Oshionmhole will have his way.

Copied from Facebooki)

Kingjay5:
September 10, 2016, is epochal in the history of the great Edo State. It is a date when life beckons on the people to embark on a game-changing and life-amending venture; a time when the people are called out by the Benevolent, the God of second chance, to right the wrong they elevated to a position of authority and immense responsibility eight years ago.
That day is the day when Edo people will finally extricate themselves from the shackles of a searing chain fresh from the hissing fires of a renowned blacksmith and etched in the back of the people with a heart that chooses to be deliberately unmindful of the people’s sufferings.
That APC, by the virtue of their worsening abysmal performances everywhere they go, both at the federal and state levels, has since grown into that monstrous party not fitting to replace itself in any election in the name of continuity, is no longer news. What is news is that they still have the temerity to present themselves for election after all they have done to Nigeria just within one year! Nobody, not even the good people of Edo State would want a continuity of suffering, of human degradation, infrastructural decay, ethnic discrimination and general underdevelopment.
These are some of the ‘natural’ traits of the All Progressives Congress which are well known not only to Nigerians but also to the whole world. In other climes, where service to the people is a priority and the elevation of their standard of living is government’s main focus, the party would not be going about insulting the sensibilities of Nigerians by wildly gyrating with so much brazenness as we saw the president’s delegation do in APC’s grand rally in Edo recently.
It is only a government without shame for its widely acknowledged failures and a party without human sympathy for the mega-sufferings it has visited on the people that would embark on such a banal celebration of the destruction of a people and their nation without restraint in so short a time.
Since APC took charge of governance, the people can barely live and hardly survive. The hunger in the land is real and the frustration palpable. Nigeria, right under the nose of President Buhari and his gyrators, has slid into its worst recession in history. Millions have lost their jobs as companies after companies, both local and international, keep closing shops due to the economic hardship. Yet, the price of foodstuff keeps rising while the naira has been adjudged the worst performing currency in the whole wide world after Suriname and Venezuela. What a story!
This is after all the grandiose promises of turning the moon into sunlight for Nigerians and creating a state of Eldorado and Utopia for them. However, the Nigerian state has since become the legendary Hobbesian State where life is not only nasty and short but also brutish under the watch of APC. With the free rein of death in the hands of terrorist Fulani herdsmen all over the country, the extra-judicial murders and endless incarceration of citizens even against court orders by state agents, the descent of Nigeria into the Hobbesian state of anomie is confirmed.
A nation that, just over a year ago, used to be the pride of Africa and the bride of investors competitively courted by the discerning international business community has suddenly become a sorry state of its recent past glory.
Rather than deliver on its campaign promises, the All Progressives Congress has spent its entire life in government delivering excuses to the people to the extent that even the party’s core supporters and followers have since abandoned it to its lonely fate.
Now to get the votes of Edo people, the APC train has revived its old machinery of mendacity, revved its engine of casuistry and embarked on its familiar campaign of sophistry wrapped in oratorical sophistication. Like they did at the federal level, they are promising the people heaven on earth. A party that cannot achieve any of its myriad of promises, not even one, at the federal level despite the vast and enormous resources at its disposal cannot achieve anything in a state known for its peace, industry and rich culture.
The people of Edo must not fall for the antics of the antiques, beautiful outside but full of deceit inside. With the benefit of hindsight, Nigerians have come to conclude, and rightly so, that they made a huge mistake by handing something as weighty as their destiny to Buhari and his battery of APC disciples. The regret is loud and resounding, from Abuja to Katsina, from Imo to Ondo, from Plateau to Enugu, from Kano to Osun, the story is the same.
The days of ignorance will be forgiven, but will Edo people make the same mistake Nigeria made on March 28, 2015, the day they purportedly voted APC into power out of ignorance? Doing so now that the party’s gross incompetence and deceit are well documented would amount to committing an error of unpardonable consequences.
It is the utmost desire of Nigerians to take their destiny back in their own hands, retrace their steps and start correcting the mistake that APC has been. There is no other divinely set opportunity for such rectification other than the Edo governorship election. Whether Nigerians have learnt their lessons or not will be determined by the people of Edo on Saturday.
A “change” that has brought nothing but chains to the people deserves to be changed urgently. Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu is the one on whose shoulders Providence has placed the unenviable but noble task of rescuing the good people of Edo. With his SIMPLE agenda, and the huge support he has enjoyed among all Edolites and Nigerians, he is obviously the people’s saving choice

Edolites as well as all Nigerians should please read to be wise & act right.

change Adams..

Edo have experienced 8 years of PDP and 8 years of APC. ... so they should naturally go with the better 8 years