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Lucky Igbinedion Bombs Gov. Oshiomhole

Gov. Oshiomhole & Chief Lucky IgbinedionAnniversaries by Presidents and Governors are occasions for stock-taking. They are moments when those saddled with the responsibilities of leadership present their score-cards to the people.

That is exactly what Edo people are demanding from the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole at the 7th Anniversary of his coming to power.

They want him to account for the over One Trillion Naira (N1,000,000,000,000.00) that has accrued to the state in the past seven years. Their demand is not only legitimate but very germane, given the level of poverty, hardship and anguish ravaging the citizenry in contrast to the current affluent status of their governor.

This is not the time to play to the gallery, neither does the moment call for rhetoric. The people’s demand is simple. Show your score-card.

But for Oshiomhole to deviate from the issue at hand and begin to resort to cheap blackmail, buck passing, and pointing of accusing finger at the Igbinedion family is a clear indication that his government has nothing to show for the past 7 years. When a Governor abandons the serious business of governance and condescends to the level of a stand-up comedian, then the state under his watch is in for big trouble.

Let me re-echo the question in the mouth of every Edo man. Is the Igbinedion family the custodian of Oshiomhole’s score-card? How come this family is causing Oshiomhole so much belly-ache?

Ordinarily, one would not have bothered to reply Oshiomhole on his vituperations having been known nationwide for his notoriety for reckless talk, but for the purpose of setting the records straight once again, let us look at his allegations.

On Wednesday, 11th of November, 2015, Oshiomhole, in an address which appeared to be his pre-anniversary speech, told a bunch of hired, jobless youths in a failed, stage-managed protest aimed at countering the mass demonstration by students, civil society organizations, market women, owners of businesses and landlords against his government’s increase in school fees and obnoxious land use tax, that his problem with the Igbinedions started when he revoked the over 2,000 hectares of land the former governor allegedly gave to his father in Okada and the termination of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the former governor signed with his father which according to him, “allowed medical students in Igbinedion University to use our state-owned hospital at the expense of Edo state government while Chief Igbinedion collected N1 Million from each medical student”.

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In these allegations, Oshiomhole is either exhibiting mischief or ignorance. First, he claimed ignorantly that the former Governor, His Excellency, Chief Lucky Igbinedion, allocated the lands to his father. For his information, some of the lands he is referring to are the inheritance of Chief Igbinedion who single-handedly developed and brought fame to his ancestral Okada community.

Even at that, the law empowers a sitting governor to allocate lands to people, so, what is wrong if the former governor allocated land to people including his father? Is Oshiomhole himself not allocating lands to people as a sitting governor?

Again Oshiomhole has access to documents in the Ministry of Lands and Survey. If he can read, he will discover that greater part of the lands in question were acquired by Chief Igbinedion during the Military administrations of Late Col. John Mark Iniengar and Col. Asuquo several years before His Excellency, Chief Lucky Igbinedion, became a governor.

On the Igbinedion University, Okada, Oshiomhole once again shot himself in the foot. In an attempt to stoke up sentiments, he alleged in one breath that Chief Igbinedion was collecting N1million from each medical student undergoing clinical training at the state-owned hospital and in another breath he claimed that the former Governor signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the university.

If Oshiomhole does not know, he should be educated that His Excellency, Chief Lucky Igbinedion as a former governor of Edo state, never entered into any agreement with his father concerning the training of medical students of Igbinedion University. Rather, the Igbinedion University, Okada, and fortunately the nation’s premier private university was established in 1998 before Chief Lucky Igbinedion became governor in 1999, and had a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on training programme with the Edo state government. The University has details of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and would make its comments at the opportune time.

But if not for mischief, how can Oshiomhole allege that Chief Igbinedion was collecting N1 million from each student for the clinical training. What is the total tuition fee for medical students in the university?

Again, while playing to the gallery as usual, the Vanguard Newspaper of 12th November 2015, quotes Oshiomhole on page 12 as saying, “…vowing to prosecute the former governor and his father, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, and send them to jail if convicted, Oshiomhole alleged that both the former governor and his father converted property and funds meant for the people of the state to their private use.”

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It has been asserted that nothing dements a man like poverty. For Oshiomhole to allege that Chief Igbinedion, the Esama of Benin kingdom, converted property and funds of the state to his private use, to say the least, is subjecting himself to ridicule. Let Oshiomhole be told at least for once that as far back as 1952, the very year he is adopting as his date of birth, the Esama had already acquired choice properties and built a befitting house for himself at Artillary road, Oliha quarters in Benin city.

For Oshiomhole’s information, back in 1963 when the Mid-Western region was created, Chief Igbinedion donated two personal buildings that housed the Ministries of Health and Education. Where was Oshiomhole then?

In the seventies and eighties, the Esama had businesses scattered all over the globe in addition to being the first black man to have 30 fleets of aircraft including a Boeing 747 in the famous Okada Airline.

All of Chief Igbinedion’s businesses including his bottling plants, bakeries, Igbinedion University, ITV/Radio, Igbinedion Teaching Hospital, to mention but a few, were floated many years before his son, Chief Lucky Igbinedion, became a governor. At this time, Oshiomhole was just a mere labourer at the Arewa Textile, Kaduna.

I challenge Oshiomhole to make public any business he has ever tried his hands on before becoming Governor.

Gone were the days people believed his up-turned logic of collecting from the rich to cater for the poor. Instead, he is collecting from the rich to settle scores and alleviate his family from generational poverty. His hatred for the rich especially those living in the G.R.A. part of Benin city is innate.

Wait a minute! Let Oshiomhole tell Edo people if the multi-million dollar hospital he bought for his daughter who is a medical doctor in San Francisco, USA, is one of the new formulas of collecting from the rich to cater for the poor. Or is the Guinness Guest house at the Reservation road he acquired with tax payers’ N150 Million, meant for the poor?

What about the N10 billion edifice he built at his country home Iyamoh? How many of his poor kinsmen are dwelling in it? What of the multi-million dollar mansion he bought in Cape Town, South Africa? Probably the poor, hapless Edo people in South Africa are taking refuge in it. What about the mansion under construction at Okoro-Otun Avenue which he acquired under very controversial circumstances? Is he constructing it for the poor in Edo? It is high time Oshiomhole stopped taking the poor for granted.

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A lot of people have begun to ask if Oshiomhole ever listens to himself talk. How on earth can the so-called former labour leader tell the world that he never promised Edo people industries, which goes to say that he had no plan for job creation in the first place. No wonder after emasculating the youths and draining the pockets of their parents through heavy taxation, he turns around to recruit the same youths once annually at the rate of N5000 for rallies, in a crude politics reminiscent of the Abacha One Million Man march. But did he tell Edo people that he would impose land charge tax on them? What then did he promise the people?

On the issue of conveying the files of the former governor to President Muhammadu Buhari, let Oshiomhole be informed that the former governor welcomes the move and would encourage him to expedite action on it.

Oshiomhole’s boasting in Edo state that he is the closest confidant to President Buhari is no longer news.

Let it be known to Oshiomhole that the Igbinedions are not in the least scared by his decision to forward files to Abuja as this move will help set the records straight, and provide a precedent which he too would be subject to when he leaves power.

The desperation of trying to impose a successor on Edo people will certainly not stop the “movement of files” to Abuja come next year.

One that pays gratitude with ingratitude, will surely reap ingratitude at the appropriate time… when you burn the ladder you use in climbing, you are bound for a hard fall… stop playing the ostrich, with your head in the sand… time is ticking to your exit.

SIGNED

MARK NKWORJI

MEDIA AIDE