Governor Obaseki Sympathizes With PDP for Alleged Primitive Reasoning

By Lucky Isibor

Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki has berated the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP for scoring his administration low in its first year in office stating that the state has transited to “Alaghodaro”, which means progress in Edo language.

In a statement by the Special Adviser to Governor Obaseki on Communication and Strategy, Crusoe Osagie said the PDP lacked the capacity to appreciate the direction Governor Obaseki is taking the state.

Explaining, Osagie said “unlike the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that is still stuck in primitive, archaic and medieval governance style, the Obaseki-led APC government has since moved on to Alaghodaro.”

However the PDP described the first year in office of Governor Godwin Obaseki as a colossal waste and abysmal failure.

Speaking with newsmen at the party’s state secretariat in Benin City Tuesday, the state chairman of the PDP, Chief Dan Orbih described the Alaghodaro Economic Summit as a waste of the state’s resources on an event purely held to fete the political associates of the governor who bankrolled his election.

Alaghodaro, an Edo word for progress, was the thrust of the just-concluded investment summit which held from November 10-12, in Benin City and attracted global and local business leaders to the state as part of activities marking the first year in office of Governor Obaseki.

Condemning the PDP assessment of the investment summit which was widely acclaimed as successful, the Governor’s aid said “the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) again demonstrated its lack of capacity to appreciate the new direction the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration is taking the state, with the opposition party’s consistent embarrassing comments on the well thought-out programmes of the All Progressives Congress (APC).”

While noting that the very few people still left in the ragtag drowning PDP have shown that they are stuck with their medieval and archaic approach to governance, by attempting to tarnish the rising profile the state has earned with her lofty programmes, especially the Alaghodaro Investment Summit organised by the APC-led Edo State Government, the statement urged them to wake up and take a cue from their former members who have seen the light and identified with the people oriented governance of Governor Obaseki.
 
“We wish that the PDP remnant will follow their former members who have evolved from stomach-seeking politics, have come to terms with the new people-oriented governance and have found a place in the APC. It is not surprising that to see that the feeble PDP remnants cannot see the benefits of an investment summit that assembled over 5,000 business leaders from across the world in Edo State to discuss the opportunities that abound in our state.”

According to the governor’s spokesman, “these are companies that are investing billions of dollars in Edo State, including the chief executives of BUA Group whose $1billion 3million tonnes cement plant was inaugurated by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo recently in Okpella, Edo State, the President of Dangote Group, that is kicking off a $1 billion cement factory in Okpella, to expand its cement production in Nigeria, Mahindra Group that is collaborating with the Edo State Government to build the N200billion Benin Industrial Park and Tolaram Group to mention a few.”

He added that the PDP is wallowing in ignorance because “You cannot give what you do not have. The PDP clearly lacks the capacity to see the opportunities in the governor’s investment drive because of his profile as an investment banker. His dexterity is currently on display at the Edo Chemical and Fertiliser Company which was a drainpipe for the PDP to siphon state funds, but is now up and running and producing fertiliser to Edo farmers and Nigerians at large.”

He expressed sympathy with the PDP ignorance and said that “our governor is open to sharing his ideas and knowledge and is particularly willing to teach the remnant PDP members, what it takes to deliver measurable, concrete and verifiable investments from business trips, unlike their widely reported globetrotting that pauperized our people when they held sway.”

Osagie stressed that “It is rather unfortunate that the same PDP, which is the cause of all the mess that the APC government has been clearing in the past nine years in the state, is now begging the question by providing shelter for officials of the Edo State Traffic Management Agency (EDSTMA).”

He further said “we have received the shelter without thanks to them because we know that the funds used in procuring those items are a fraction of our common patrimony which they plundered with reckless abandon. A dignifying act would be to bring back the looted billions so that the APC can fast-track the development of the state.

“The PDP has always been known to thrive through the misrepresentation of facts and the telling of outright lies. But Edo people are much more sophisticated than the PDP and know that their claims of the state’s indebtedness are all lies and should be discountenanced.”