Godwin Obaseki’s Live Chat: A Three-Part Response to the Issues. by Bugie Okhuemoi

Part 3: Tourism, Healthcare, Conflicts, and a Call to Return Home

Your entire vision for a tourism economy was fundamentally flawed and had a low chance of success or sustainability. A tourism economy is built on some integral foundations - security, a peaceful and crisis-free environment, supportive infrastructure, community buy-in, and a collaborative relationship with the Federal Government, which controls national entry points and processes. You laid none of these foundations.

Your tenure was marked by heavy insecurity - cultism, urban kidnappings, and armed robberies. 

You did not lay the infrastructural foundation. One of the biggest pressures on Governor Okpebholo today, which he is assiduously working to address, is "bad roads." 

Your Excellency, where are the 'Wake and See' roads? It would seem that the same way we 'woke' and 'saw' them is the same way we 'woke' and didn't 'see' them again.

You did not maintain a peaceful environment. Your eight years were marked by unending conflicts with the APC, PDP, the Palace, communities you grabbed lands from, unjustly disengaged workers, etc. You were always at war, and it showed in the hostile environment. Your ESSN thugs ran riot, oppressing opponents and destroying businesses. You had no healthy working relationship with the Federal Government, which was so bad that you could not engage the center to fix the federal roads that pained your people - something Governor Okpebholo has managed to great advantage.

Edo’s greatest tourist asset is its culture and royalty. The most visible identity Edo has globally is the 'Benin Kingdom'. The Palace possesses the key ingredients needed to market 'Edo Tourism'. The bronze casters and artisans tourists want to see are guilds of the Benin Royal Court. Tourists will not come to Benin without wanting to visit the Palace of the Oba of Benin. So, how realistically can you build a tourism economy for Edo State without the support, participation, and collaboration of the Palace? These are things I believe you know, which makes one wonder why you didn't attend to them. Or could all those presentations have just been for self-profit?

While the MOWAA concept may have been a good idea, a good idea executed wrongly becomes a bad idea. A good idea without the right interests becomes a bad idea. Ultimately, studying all the issues, it cannot be faulted that MOWAA, as executed by you, turned out to be a bad idea.

You took time to talk about the Stella Obasanjo Hospital. The facts are open and bare. From plans seen and engagements with the contractor and civil servants, the project was only 50% completed when you commissioned it. You claim the only part left was the administrative block for the Ministry of Health. You know that is not true, Your Excellency. You left a debt to the contractor amounting to over N7 billion.

Your management agreement with Cedar Crest did not protect the interests of the ordinary citizens who patronized the Central Hospital you brought down. Remember what happened with the Specialist Hospital you gave out to consultants?

While trying to justify why you demolished the Central Hospital for a museum, you degraded it as a _"derelict"_ facility with dead and broken-down structures. This again questions your decision-making. One would expect a governor, over eight years, to improve and upgrade the standard of a historic and vital facility. It wouldn't have taken much: renovate the buildings, purchase equipment, and employ personnel.

Your decision to totally demolish the hospital, give the land to a museum, ask people to go to an uncompleted facility farther from town, commit billions to it, and engage a management consultant that would charge fees beyond the reach of lower and middle-class earners, shows where your true interests lie: corporate profit. The over N1 billion you paid as consultancy fees for Stella Obasanjo could have had a great impact on fixing those "derelict" buildings.

This elitist, rich-targeted project delivery was consistent with your service. Some suggest you were inclined to them because they created avenues to profit your corporate colleagues, securing some kind of future advantage for you.

We have a governor today focused on providing solutions for the most vulnerable, who form the majority. Government's responsibility is to ensure the largest number of the population can access healthcare at the most subsidized cost possible. That is why it was impossible for Governor Okpebholo to jump into the contraption you designed. Having reviewed it, he is restructuring it to favour the majority, settling the debt you left, and ensuring the project serves Edo people, not corporate interests.

It is the same sense of responsibility that has made him embark on expanding the Edo Specialist Hospital he met, built by your predecessor, His Excellency Adams Oshiomhole. Governor Okpebholo is continuing where the Comrade stopped, expanding the hospital with a doctors' quarters, mortuary, and increased capacity. This is what was expected of you, not to give land to a private entity and send citizens to an expensive, uncompleted facility.

You called on more people to react against the government. In your words, _"they should speak up and act…the people who are causing these problems are not more than 5,000. If a hundred thousand people rise up, they will all run away…"_

Your Excellency, you need to come back home. You are not in tune with the reality on the ground. People are not "rising" against the government not out of deliberate inaction or fear, but out of satisfaction. They are happy with the efforts of this government to meet the challenges that bother them.

Remember how you boasted to your supporters that if the election process didn’t satisfy you, _"Nigeria will burn."_ It didn’t favour you, and nowhere burned. The people were not, and are not, with you. The noise of a crowd you thought you heard was not real. It was your small band of supporters using megaphones to amplify the sound, giving you a false sense of influence. So, no _"100,000 people"_ will rise. It is an illusion fed to you by your scanty supporters.

You said, _"You keep talking about ‘ownership’... Even if somebody owns it (referring to yourself), does it not bring food for everybody?"_ Ownership matters, Your Excellency. It is why the concept of ‘conflict of interest’ was postulated. You cannot, as governor, be part of the ownership of ventures to which government resources are committed. It is morally, ethically, and legally wrong. The concessions you gave to private entities cheated the Edo people gravely, which is why questions of their ownership have arisen. The simple question is: "If the state is not benefiting anything, then what is the catch in government committing such large resources?"

You stated: _"with the way you are treating investors, others will not come."_ Your Excellency, the opposite is true. Ethical, sincere investors with good intentions are excited to come now because there is a government pushing easier ways of doing business, promoting social benefits, and focused on a win-win for every stakeholder—government, investor, and community. Watch this space.

When your host asked you to advise this government, I was baffled to hear you say, _"...even the Okpebholo, I have never met him, I have never been in a room with him, and unfortunately I don’t even have those links to him to advise.."_

Your Excellency, if you came home, you would have met him. The governor is a humble and welcoming man who has reverence for God. Because of his deep faith, he has no personal issues with you. He just strongly disagrees with how you managed the state and believes you did not act in the best interest of Edo people - a principle he will never compromise on.

If you come home and provide answers to the questions about your stewardship, Governor Okpebholo’s hand of fellowship remains open, as long as you are with him on the same agenda for Edo people. Many leaders of the opposition in the state are accorded the respect they deserve, having shown that they share the Governor’s ethos of *‘Edo First’* . For example, H.E. Chief Mike Oghiadomhe - a member of your party and your ally - was invited to the 1st-anniversary state event as a former deputy governor, which he graciously honoured. Such courtesies may be accorded to you if you come home, provide answers the people need of you, and hopefully play the role of a remorseful, responsible, and respectable leader in the state.

I was surprised to hear you _"have no links"_ to your successor. Your Excellency, you were in and around the APC for 12 years before you joined the PDP. With our very fluid political space where actors switch platforms from time to time, you mean you didn’t build one single relationship healthy enough to use as a back channel to communicate with your successor? Wow…

We always advised against the fights and conflicts you seemed to enjoy. Like an emperor, it always had to be your way or no other way. You acted like the state was one of your companies where you dictated instructions and orders and expected everyone to fall in line with no dissenting reaction. Where anyone shared a contrary opinion, he became your enemy. You didn’t accommodate criticism well. You were known to viciously go after opponents. You destroyed and closed businesses illegally - one of which has now burdened the state with a court-ordered compensation of over N900 million due to your high-handedness and illegality. You denied opponents the use of state facilities, threatened property owners, and sent your own supporters to jail. You lacked a spirit of gratitude and humility, and paid back most of those who helped you in your journey with vicious and brutal onslaughts. This is the history we witnessed, and today you have to live with the fruits of the seeds you sowed.

You closed on a slightly humbler, more philosophical note, which seems to show you have reflected on your mistakes while in office. Own them, and make apologies and amends where you should.

You claimed you _"kept detailed documents of your activities, because you know when you leave office, questions will be asked."_ The truth is, you never expected your party would be voted out. You were certain your friend and associate would succeed you, probably because he was a central character in your transactions and wouldn't expose them. This is why we saw an uncooperative attitude towards the formal transition process.

Through God's intervention, our ancestors, and the will of the people, your plan failed, and the books were laid bare. The several unfavourable arrangements you engaged in, and the hurried manipulations of transaction details between the September election and your November departure, have birthed the difficult questions for which your answers have been evasive.

The questions are still many. We will ask for more details about the Radisson Blu project. We will ask about your dealings on Presco and Saro Farms. We will ask how the less than 1km stretch of road in front of Protea Hotel cost N16 billion. We will ask about the company you gave Oke-Oroma community land to after forcefully taking it from them. Prepare answers.

Lastly, a 'European tour' is not enough. The people at home have answers they need.

Come home, Your Excellency.