Edo 2026 budget: Ogbeide the prevaricator in-chief

 

By John Mayaki

Have you heard of halting people? I mean those who prevaricate and halt between two opinions? They are never certain - confused people. They profess to have been serving God but in reality, they prefer Baal. This is the kernel of this piece. Ogbeide Ifaluyi-Isibor: the prevaricator in-chief. Halting people. 

Ogbeide raised an alarm in his Facebook post about the budget. He said Edo state government cannot put the 2026 budget together and that the budget was handicapped without Hon. Jonathan Aigbokhan. Ogbeide said the budget was stalled because the man handling it was in Australia. 

But barely 24 hours later, Ogbeide made another post saying the governor would be presenting the budget this morning. 

He said the budget was ready. He said it has been written and compiled. He added that APC lawmakers have been summoned to government house for briefing and alignment. 

And I asked myself, “If the budget was incomplete, handicapped, stalled, and awaiting someone in Australia, how did it suddenly become ready for presentation the next morning? Is this a face-saving technique by the opposition or what? 

I call Ogbeide the self- appointed Bureau of Night Watchman who knows when a budget could not be prepared and also can tell when one has been dressed, perfumed, and scheduled for presentation this very morning.

That’s not all. The Bible says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Ogbeide is not happy over the springing flyovers in Benin city. At least, we now know. 

Besides, he termed the flyovers illegal, unapproved, untendered, constitutionally offensive flyovers and allegedly so problematic that even unnamed consultants were clutching their briefcases in horror. 

Don’t forget the enemies of a man are members of his family. And the enemies of the Benins are not far off. Ogbeide seems to have been part of the enemies. 

In the morning, there was no budget but by nightfall, the budget had been found, perfected, prayed over, and scheduled for public presentation this morning, the alarmist said. We can all see the malpractice in Ogbeide’s narration. It shows the quality of opposition we have in the state. 

I am happy though. When critics criticise themselves, what else? The fault finder is finding fault in with himself. When critics cannot even keep their own stories alive for 24 hours, when they prevaricate, they halt between mammon or Baal and the church, what do you expect? 

A professional alarmist. A fictional speculator. A serial exaggerator. A conjecturer. A conjurer. An emergency merchant of lies. A cantankerous fellow. A confusionist. And, if you like, a lair. 

Halting people. Ogbeide Ifaluyi-Isibor: The prevaricator in-chief and organising secretary of the PDP who cannot organize himself and his thoughts.