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By Daniel A. Noah Osa-Ogbegie, Esq.
Publicity Secretary, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Edo State
As Nigeria marks 65 years of independence, I extend warm felicitations to the courageous people of Edo State and Nigerians everywhere. Independence was meant to guarantee dignity, collective progress, and responsible leadership. Yet, what we commemorate today is a nation burdened by a ruling party that has reduced governance to improvisation and patronage.
The APC at the federal level has set the tone for hardship and confusion, but it is here in Edo that the consequences have reached their most embarrassing expression.
Edo had already set sail toward her deserved place of pride. From Lucky Igbinedion to Professor Oserheimen Osunbor, from Adams Oshiomhole to Godwin Obaseki, the state, with all its imperfections, was on a forward trajectory. A relay of leadership, each administration passing the baton with the expectation of continuity. But selfish political actors conspired to foist Monday Okpebholo on the people, a man utterly and embarrassingly unprepared for governance. Obaseki handed him the baton, and in full public glare, he began running backwards. This is not leadership. This is reversal in motion.
Since November 2024, over ₦500 billion has passed through this government — from FAAC, IGR, and inherited balances. Yet not one landmark project has been commissioned. No sectoral reform. No coherent policy direction. Instead, state resources have been deployed as stipends to political godfathers and enforcers.
The state is now drowning under unprecedented insecurity. Kidnapping has become a daily enterprise, carried out sometimes in broad daylight and on major roads. Armed robbery and targeted killings are now routine, and the government has neither the will nor the capacity to respond. Farmers have abandoned their farmlands across Edo South, Central and North because they are hunted like animals by kidnappers and armed herders. Our rural economy is collapsing because those who feed the state now fear for their lives more than hunger.
The Governor publicly announced a ₦2.5 billion “donation” to UBTH, a federal institution, not through any health-sector strategy, but during a courtesy visit to Professor Idia Ize-Iyamu, the new Chief Medical Director. That money was not appropriated. It was dispensed as political tribute, using Edo’s treasury as the purse.
Then came the infamous ₦914 million payout to Tony Kabaka Adun, approved by EXCO under the false pretence of “respecting a court judgment.” There is no judgment awarding ₦914 million. The building in question stood on government right of way and was illegally demolished by Philip Shaibu, the then Deputy Governor of the state, while Governor Obaseki was away. Instead of defending Edo’s legal interest, the current Attorney General allegedly instructed the external counsel to abandon the state’s appeal, sabotaging Edo to reward a party strongman.
To thicken the insult, there are strong reports that over ₦1.4 billion — ₦100 million each — has been earmarked to settle the same fourteen former Members-elect who refused to present themselves for inauguration under Obaseki, thereby depriving their constituencies of representation. Let the government deny it if it dares. Until it does, Edo people have every right to treat it as truth.
We have also not forgotten the phantom $250 million Euro-Africa CCI “investment” loudly announced with convoys, cameras and handshakes. No MoU has been made public. No funds have entered Edo. No project exists on ground. No trace of such “investment” beyond headlines, suggesting it was theatre of drama, not governance.
Meanwhile, allegations abound of the procurement of over 400 vehicles, some reportedly costing hundreds of millions each, and the so-called Glasgow trip said to have consumed nearly ₦500 million, with zero benefit to Edo people. This is not budgeting; it is bazaar economics.
What is even more disgraceful is the abandonment of strategic legacy projects simply because they did not originate from Okpebholo. The vindictiveness is shocking and costly.
The Stella Obasanjo Hospital, fully completed and equipped with state-of-the-art medical technology, has been locked up and left idle, not for lack of need, but for lack of grace and vision.
The Edo State School of Health Technology, completed to upgrade facilities and improve health manpower training, has also been shut down, depriving students and denying communities trained personnel.
The Iyekogba–Ekenhuan Road, a major arterial road designed to open up over thirty-five communities and enhance economic inclusion, has been abandoned mid-progress, leaving residents trapped in neglect.
Alongside these, the ultramodern Teacher Development and Education Technology Hub at Iyaro, a cornerstone of the EdoBEST reform, designed to train teachers, digitise curriculum delivery and coordinate learning outcomes across the 18 LGAs, now lies abandoned, not for lack of relevance, but for lack of statesmanship.
The same petty abandonment is visible in the halted expansion of the Government Science and Technical College, the silence over the Benin Cultural District and heritage assets, and the refusal to scale the Ossiomo power integration for public infrastructure. A real governor is impersonal — he builds on what works, even if he didn’t initiate it. Okpebholo has chosen ego over Edo.
To compound lawlessness with tyranny, this administration has unleashed a wave of illegal demolitions across the state. Homes and hotels are now being bulldozed based on mere allegations that a “cultist” once lodged there or that a meeting was held on the premises. No investigation. No charge. No court order. No conviction. Property rights, due process and the presumption of innocence — the pillars of any civilised society — have been trampled under the boots of ignorance and impunity. Edo has become a place where accusation is now equivalent to judgment.
Today, the roads across Benin City, the melting pot and face of the state, have collapsed into gullies and ponds — GRA, Uselu, Ekosodin, Siluko, Ekenwan, Upper Sakponba, New Benin, Sapele Road — all turned into nightmares. Uromi, Agenebode, Igarra, Sabongida-Ora and other urban centres are in similar ruin. The billions being sprayed on political godfathers, hush payoffs and settlements could have reconstructed major arteries and restored dignity to commuters and businesses.
As if the treasury were a feeding trough, the Governor has nominated nearly thirty commissioners, not out of any coherent policy vision, but to create stipends for political jobbers and cronies. While hospitals gasp, roads die, and teachers lack tools, Edo is being forced to fund the allowances of an over-bloated cabinet designed to pacify party hawks.
And then there is what many citizens are now whispering in corners and corridors: that the Governor’s knee-jerk pronouncements reflect a troubling absence of emotional and cognitive engagement with the duties of leadership. His actions, many argue, border on behavioural rigidity and social unresponsiveness that suggest a detachment from consequence, raising serious questions about judgment and cognitive fitness.
Here in Edo, the APC has empowered a man auditioning for power, not exercising it. Governance has become compensation. Policy has become theatre. The people have become spectators in their own state.
I must sound it clearly: Edo is not a conquered territory. The treasury is not an ATM for political patrons. Governance is not an auction. The PDP, being the Grand Old Party of this Republic, remains the custodian of the founding values of equity, federalism, stability and development. We are positioned, prepared and duty-bound to offer Edo people, and Nigerians, an escape from this APC-induced regression.
As we mark this Independence Day, I felicitate with the resilient people of our state and nation. May this anniversary reawaken the courage to reject misrule and demand accountability. May it remind us that no mandate is a blank cheque and no leader is above scrutiny.
Edo deserves better, and Edo will rise again.
Daniel A. Noah Osa-Ogbegie, Esq.
Publicity Secretary
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Edo State.
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