The Edo state branch of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has blamed Governor Godwin Obaseki over the high debt profile occasioned by his administration.
In a statement released on Wednesday in Benin City, the Assistant Publicity Secretary of the Edo APC, Mr. Victor Osehobo, lamented that the debt has more than doubled on the local debt profile while on the international scene the state has since turned to the most foreign indebted out of the 36 states in the country in the last five and a half years under Governor Obaseki.
Ofure who was reacting to Governor Obaseki’s speech Tuesday at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs, Lagos, in which he praised himself as a successful administrator advised him to concentrate on fulfilling his re-election campaign promises to the people and stop indulging in self-adulation.
In a swift reaction, the Edo State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Adaze Emwanta dismissed the allegation, noting that the baggage of lies of the Col. David lmuse led Edo APC is never empty of mischief.
The ruling party scribe said that instead of telling his audience some bitter home-truths that the major pillars of his administration which include signing of frivolous MoUs and entering into dubious partnerships with allcomers, are not working, the governor embarked on reeling out a long list of failures and even congratulating himself on how well the lot of Edo has improved.
Osehobo said: “Rather than tell himself some bitter home-truths that his policies and programmes are not working, the governor embarked on self-glorification of how well he has managed the Affairs of Edo State.
‘‘As it has become customary for Governor Obaseki to travel to Lagos periodically to whitewash his administration, we owe it to posterity to let the governor know our candid assessment.”
He said that the governor entered his fifth year in office with an unattainable mantra of Make Edo Great Again (MEGA) that will focus on how to use governance to support Edo people, create enabling business environment so that Edo people can do their business without being harassed.
The reverse, he added is the case as official thugs are all over Edo state, harassing innocent citizens, all in the name of collecting taxes.
“As it stands today, the average Edo person is tired of the Mr Obaseki-led PDP government because of its failed promises, multiple taxations including promotion of street trading with daily levies of all actors, inadequate funding of tertiary educational institutions and shutting them down, demolition of private and public properties, kidnapping of citizens and the violent activities of bandits masquerading as herders among others”.
“Public schools have no teachers while many of them lack basic materials like desks and chairs as government bandies its failed hype of an education programme it calls Edobest everywhere,” he said.
Osehobo noted that the audience at NIIA who are familiar with the scenario in Edo State must have been taken aback no doubt, as they listened to the governor who, he insisted, has personalized governance in the state pontificating about a properly functioning democracy.
According to the APC,” rather than this exercise of a dishonest pat on the back, what Mr Obaseki should have given his audience is an honest self-appraisal, a plea for forgiveness from Edo people, for promising more than his capacity, and genuine willingness to retrace its faltering steps.”
In his reaction, the Edo Commissioner for Information, Emwanta it is not true that the state government is at the threshold of sourcing for a N7 billion facility from the capital market to fund an already completed street light project.
The commissioner claimed that such lies can only come from an idle mind that is remotely controlled by the devil.
