Political parties are pivotal in a multi party democracy as they serve as a vehicle through which the state is governed. Infact, political parties constitute the oil that lubricates the wheels of democracy.
Political parties runs on manifestos on whose strength they gain the votes of the electorates. Once the candidate of the party gets elected into public office, he is expected to implement the content of the manifesto of his political party.
In the past seven and half years as Governor of Edo state, Mr Godwin Obaseki have ran the state without any visible legacy project to his name.
Mr Obaseki who promised to continue with the implementation of the Edo state master plan designed by the late Dr Samuel Ogbemudia and implemented by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, abandoned the master plan and instead began to do cosmetic and substandard road projects many of which have failed and failing.
Mr Obaseki as part of his Manifesto, promised to construct the much talked about Gelegele sea port which obviously have become a scam as an mou amounting to millions of dollars was signed with the Chinese harbour company. The project never saw the light of the day.
Mr Obaseki stood on the sacred grounds of Auchi to declare the immediate commencement of the construction of Edo north airport. That again turned out to be a scam as it was never part of plans rather he used that as a decoy to deceive the people.
Mr Obaseki promised to respect the traditional institution and uphold the sanctity of the culture and traditions of our people but turned out to become the biggest disecrator of cultural norms and values by attempting to balkanize Benin kingdom and his sponsorship of some recalcitrant enigies in Edo south to sue the Oba of Benin to court.
Obaseki became infamous for his stubborn attempt at hijacking the Benin artefacts which were looted during the Benin Massacre of 1897 by the British invaders. Obaseki’s attempt to reloot the artefacts was headlined by the construction of his Emowaa as against the museum of the Oba of Benin.
The Edo innovation hub have refused to innovate anything just as the industrial hub have refused to industrialize the state. One wonders how many bridges have been built in the state following the establishment of the Ministry of roads and bridges.
Indeed the so called technocrat was never one abinitio as his performance in government doesn’t depict him as one.
Now that the Governorship election is at the corner, it behoves on Edo people to interrogate the failed promises of Obaseki with a view to getting him and his godson out of government house.
This is not the time to speaking English but to bring performance to the. Sen Monday Okpepholo is a performance driven personality and will deliver the dividends of democracy to the doorsteps of Edo people.
