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Succumbing to fatigue at The UN:
*EDSG rises in defence*
Critics of the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, last week, cashed in on snapshots, which have since gone viral online, showing the incumbent governor sleeping, even as the Nigerian leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, read his address at the UN General Assembly in New York, United States of America on Tuesday 25 September, 2018, to chastise the Executive Governor for choosing such a high profile conference, attended by world leaders, to doze off, arguing that the development was a spite and stigma on Edo State, in particular, and a sordid reflection of his attitude to governance in the state.
However, countering the position canvassed by the critics, the Edo State Government, EDSG, in an official statement, signed by the Special Adviser to Governor Godwin Obaseki on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie, late last week, while tacitly agreeing to theSleepGate, admitted that the State Governor may have succumbed to fatigue because, as an active State Chief Executive, who runs an extremely tight official schedules, especially in the last few days preceding the meeting in New York, he runs short on relaxation and quality comfortable sleep.
The EDSG statement, which contained illustrative pictures of some other leaders of countries, states and institutions across the world, who had fallen asleep at meetings and conferences, further stressed that it was not unusual for even world political and religious leaders to fall preys to sleep in the middle of convoluted meetings and state functions, noting that afterall they were humans who could buckle in the knees to natural phenomenon like sleep.
Speaking with The Navigator, shortly after the photographs of the Sleeping Governor hit the cyberspace last week, Comrade Kennedy Isiowu, a public affairs commentator, maintained that it was “inappropriate for a crucial personality like the Governor of a state who had gone for such an exclusive meeting to fall asleep while discussions were going on. If he cannot fall asleep while holding his own state executive council meetings, why must he succumb to this nature’s call, like they now call it, in far away America, in the full glare of the world press?”
Comrade Isiowu remarked that “maybe he had nothing to do there in the first place. If the governor was an enthusiastic participant at the conference, maybe he may not have fallen asleep. I guess he found himself in a strange zone, with a blank mind, and nothing else to concentrate on, not even the speech being delivered by President Buhari, then sleep comfortably sneaked in and stole his consciousness.”
He, however, stressed the importance and appropriateness of delegating state functions to subordinates who are ever willing to carry out assignments. In his words, “everything wrong with this development boils down to the unwillingness of some of these state executives and persons in high official positions to delegate official functions and responsibilities to assigned protégés. Must the governor be present in every meeting, function, commissioning exercise or occasion? Like they are now saying that he was probably exhausted with state functions before he even travelled to New York for the UN General Assembly, what stopped the governor from delegating some of those assignments to his Deputy, Commissioners, or even Special Advisers?
“He knew, long before hand, that he was going to accompany the President to New York. Then, he should have rearranged his schedules; nobody should tell him that; he knows; maybe his doctors and other handlers should have cautioned him against exhaustion and fatigue; even automation usually gets backups, to prolong its lifespan. Some of these people do not delegate functions, you may ask why; Is it a lack of trust? Is it as a result of fear that the person might not deliver appropriately, which boils down to incompetence? Either way, he is the governor. If all of the subordinates did not come from him, but he approved their appointments and he had others who came directly from him; so, he should trust a few of them enough to hold brief for him anytime, anywhere and any day. If subordinates cannot be assigned to accompany the President, surely, any of them could have gone to Irrua, Fugar, Wareke, or the other places the Media Adviser said the governor went for activities.”
Speaking specifically on the appearance of such deriding photographs on the internet, Comrade Isiowu remarked that “there could be funny persons out there who simply wanted to embarrass our governor. Why do I hold that opinion? You see, who took those pictures? What was his intention? Was the photographer sponsored by the opposition PDP? Whoever the person is, who took those photographs, he sure wanted to bring public odium against the governor and portray him in bad light. But, having said that, there isn’t so much big deal about sleeping! But at such a super exclusive function, to take the snapshot of a sleeping august participant is pure, excellent, highwire wickedness!”
While taking its expected shot against the ugly development and seizing the opportunity to deride the APC-led government in the state, the main opposition party in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, last week, chastised the State Governor to “wake up from his slumber” and face the business of governing the state.
Speaking at the Party Secretariat in Benin City, last week, while receiving some former members of the APC led by Chief David Olukoga, former chairman of Edo State War Against Indiscipline in the Oshiomhole-led administration, into the PDP, State party chairman, Chief Dan Osi Orbih, cautioned Governor Obaseki to sit down in Edo State to tackle the myriad problems besieging the people and stop travelling around the world signing Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) which would never see the light of day. He remarked that instead of Governor Obaseki to travel to the UN General Assembly in New York to sleep, he should wake up from his slumber and deliver on his promise of job creation to curtail the growing army of unemployed Edo youths.
In his words: “It is very embarrassing that Obaseki travelled to the UN Assembly in New York to sleep. Obaseki should wake up and address the issues affecting the state. He promised to create 200,000 jobs for Edo youths but has not created more than 200 jobs. There are bad roads. Instead of tackling the problems of Edo state, he is sleeping. This is no time to sleep. Obaseki, wake up!”
However, the Edo State government, through Crusoe Osagie, has insisted that idlers, disparagers and mischievous persons were indeed behind and responsible for the generation and spread of the photograph, with the singular intention of smearing the good reputation of Governor Obaseki, and called on Edo people not to take the misguided critics seriously.
Read the full text of the EDSG statement: “Our attention has been drawn to a mischievous campaign designed to smear the image of the Edo State Governor, Mr. Governor Obaseki. The disparagers have populated the internet with photographs of the governor when he momentarily succumbed to fatigue after a long flight, preceded by a chaotic itinerary in Edo State before heading to New York for the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, in the United States of America.
“The idle hands and mischievous minds behind the smear campaign against governor Obaseki are clearly not people to be taken seriously. Despite Governor Obaseki’s rare work culture, unmatched by his peers, we have never portrayed him as a machine. He can experience fatigue and exhaustion, an indisputable fact of life, to which all humans are susceptible.
“The internet is awash with photographs of outstanding world leaders who have at one time or the other yielded to fatigue at meetings. The list includes the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel; Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe; former United States President, Barack Obama; his Economic Adviser, Larry Summers; Pope Benedict XVI; former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown; former Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi and the former Austrian President, Heinze Fischer, amongst others.
“Those who are familiar with the daily work schedule of Governor Godwin Obaseki have attested to his rare and unique work ethics, devoid of fanfare and trivialities. A cursory look at the governor’s itinerary between September 21 – 23rd, before he entered the UN meetings in New York, shows the following: Friday September 21, 2018, 9:30am, Swearing-in of members of the Edo State Oil and Gas Producing Areas Development Commission (EDSOGPADEC) Board; 10:30am, Swearing-in of new members of the Edo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB); 12noon, Meeting with Amaju Pinnick, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President; 12-5pm, attended to mails and correspondence; 5-7pm, on the road from Benin City to Irrua in Edo Central.
“Between 7-9pm, he held a meeting with Edo Central Community and Political leaders in Irrua; from 9-10pm, he was on the road from Irrua to Fugar, headquarters of Etsako Central Local Government Area. From 10pm to 12am the next day, he held a meeting with community and political leaders in Fugar.
“On that same Saturday between 12-3am, Obaseki met with overseers of the Health Improvement Programme (HIP) along with his Chief of Staff, Chief Taiwo Akerele; the Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie; Executive Assistant, Ethan Uzamere; in Fugar, Etasko Central LGA.
“The team rested between 4-7am on Saturday and proceeded to Warake to inspect the Primary Healthcare Centre there, which is near completion. Between 9-10am, the governor was on the road from Warake to Okpella where he commissioned the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN)’s Power Transformer in Okpella. From 11am, he headed to St. Ambrose Catholic Church, Emaudo in Ekpoma, for the memorial Church Service of the late Professor Ambrose Alli, former governor of old Bendel State. He was at the late Prof. Ambrose Alli’s House for a visit from 4pm and was on the road from Ekpoma to Benin City between 4:30 and 6pm.
“He left Benin City for New York around 6pm and was scheduled to arrive New York between 11-12noon, Sunday (New York time) for the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly. He was to await President Muhammadu Buhari’s arrival between 4-6pm after which he met with the President’s aide over the next day’s proceedings at the United Nations.
“The governor’s activities in the days before his trip to New York give insight into his attitude to work and governance, and followed similar crowded itinerary, in China, where he sealed final investment agreements on the development of the Benin Industrial Park, the Benin River Port and the Modular Refinery project few days before.”
However, in his online thoughts on the governor’s sleeping saga in New York, Edo State Publicity Secretary, Chris Nehikhare, noted that it was a complete waste of time for Gov. Obaseki’s media handlers to be battling to explain why the governor felt asleep at such an international conference, adding that what the state government should have done was to tender an unreserved apology to the people of the state.
Read excerpts from his thoughts: “Governance is not a tea party and it is expected that those in government must push themselves beyond the normal to deliver on their promises to the people. The defense that he is human, that he had long working hours or suffered a jet lag, is not tenable in this circumstance. Gov Obaseki may not have been the most active government official who traveled from outside the US to that meeting.
“That meeting was the General assembly of the United Nations; it was not one that should have anyone at ease especially when the world was watching. In any case, they arrived New York more than 40 hours before the meeting. Our so-called workaholic Governor should have availed himself some rest long before then. I don't think he deserved to be insulted for falling asleep though; I, however, share the view of his critics that the UN General Assembly was a wrong place to be caught falling asleep. It is not a plus for anyone for that matter, let alone a Governor, whose trip was funded by taxpayers’ money.
“If some persons have decided to criticize him sharply, it is unfortunate for him; but if they harshly criticize him, oh why not! He occupies a public office, and his actions are subject to the nice or harsh critique by those who have given him the opportunity to appropriate their resources.
“Reading the Press release from his media aide, on the abject subject matter created the impression in me that the Governor had an incompetent man speaking on his behalf. The Release was riddled with insults and innuendoes which made merchandise of the Governor. Is governor expected to work long hours? Yes! Is he expected to be tired after traveling long hours? By all means, Yes! But is he expected to fall asleep on an international stage where the world is watching especially as his President delivered his address? Certainly, No sir! The Edo state government should have apologized to the people of the state and the delegation he accompanied for the embarrassment, and not giving us needless defense on why the Governor would be so carelessly at ease representing his country at the General Assembly of the United Nations.”
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