After reading the interview by former Transport Commissioner in Governor
\nAdams Oshiomhole\u2019s government, Mr Orobosa Omo-Ojo, in Daily Sun of
\nTuesday, September 29, 2015, at pages 26 and 30, my initial reaction was
\nthat he (Omo-Ojo) was simply bellyaching, having only very recently been
\ndropped from the Edo state cabinet by the comrade governor.<\/p>\n
At the end of my quiet rumination, I resolved the issue in favour of both
\nof them; and it is that if Governor Oshiomhole enjoys the absolute
\nprerogative to engage and dispense with his commissioner in the manner he
\nengaged and dispensed with Omo-Ojo, who says that he (Omo-Ojo) does not
\nhave the right to bellyache, especially if he feels that he was unfairly
\ntreated and, consequently, wrongly characterized?<\/p>\n
When things like this happen, the tendency is for the public to assume
\nthat one or all of incompetence, corruption and malfeasances must have
\ncontributed to his removal as commissioner.\u00a0 The onus is therefore on
\nOmo-Ojo to prove his incorruptibility or, at least, to prove that in
\nOshiomhole\u2019s government, he was able to play in accordance with the rules
\nof honesty, transparency and accountability.<\/p>\n
But I harbour some guesses:\u00a0 it is not always that one finds people who
\nlook for opportunities to daringly hurl umbrages at governments in which
\nthey participated once they are shoved out of office.\u00a0 Many of them prefer
\nto remain conformists and possibly go underground to enjoy their loots,
\nthat is if they were able to make some loots, instead of courting and
\nearning the vindictive wrath of the usually merciless incumbent executive
\nheads that would not brook any opposition from former minions.<\/p>\n
Omo-Ojo\u2019s predilection, therefore, to confrontationally expose the
\nunderbelly of his former boss-Oshiomhole- runs against the tide of this
\ncommon sense wisdom of political survival, and perhaps, speaks to the
\ncritical issue of morality and integrity in public service; and which is
\nthat, like Caesar\u2019s wife, he was probably above board while in
\ngovernment.\u00a0 Otherwise, it would have amounted to political hara-kiri for
\nOmo-Ojo to step on the tail of the Tiger in Oshiomhole by pointedly
\nsuggesting that the comrade is not a man of integrity.<\/p>\n
To argue, as he did, in the said interview that Oshiomhole has not kept
\nall his promises to Edo people is to point out the comrade governor\u2019s
\nlimitations (and this is Oshiomhole who believes that he is the best
\ngovernor ever in Edo) and the fact that he probably has not been
\nsuperlative in his performances contrary to contrived reports about his
\nachievements, especially in the development of road infrastructure in the
\nstate .<\/p>\n
Read Omo-Ojo: \u201cSeven years down the line, thank God I had the opportunity
\nto serve first as Special Adviser in charge of Tourism and then I became
\nCommissioner for Oil and Gas, and not too long ago, I was appointed as the
\nCommissioner for Transport.\u00a0 So I want to humbly say in some areas, I am
\nproud that we were able to bring some succor; we were able to effect some
\nchanges.\u00a0 But on a general note, I can\u2019t be bold enough, in all honesty,
\nto say we have delivered on our promises, except we do so in the next 12
\nor 13 months.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is left for Oshiomhole to, directly or through his spokespersons, rebut
\nOmo-Ojo\u2019s claims.\u00a0 This has become imperative against the backdrop of the
\nnarrative that the administration did not have fidelity to its promise to
\nempower the youth of the state.\u00a0 He said the promise to create 10,000 jobs
\nthrough the Edo Youth Empowerment Scheme (Edo YES) was a ruse, as
\naccording to him, the men and women who were engaged under the programme
\nwere on casual basis, which is against the ethics of labour movement.<\/p>\n
If this claim is correct, I wonder how Oshiomhole, who is a labour man,
\nwould be able to rationalise the evident fact of casualisation of workers
\nin his State.\u00a0 I expect Osho Baba to rise up in his own defence by taking
\nup the gauntlet thrown down by Omo-Ojo who, in a bid to further expose the
\nfoibles in the comrade governor\u2019s administration, expressed his
\nunhappiness that the government has not been able to meet the promises
\nmade in terms of job creation, in terms of letting the people to lead, in
\nterms of the failure of his promise seven years ago to abolish illegal
\ntaxation and tickets (levies) on the people.<\/p>\n
Although he conceded that the administration tried in the area of
\neducation, yet he declared that the progress was superficial (perhaps in
\nthe area of building of school structures and classes) while the teaching
\npersonnel and curriculum lack content.\u00a0 According to him, \u201cI am not aware
\nthat our teachers in colleges that 40 percent of them are ICT literate or
\ncompliant.\u00a0 I am not aware that Education has gone global and it is ICT
\ntrending; and except we go back to the drawing board, we may not have
\nenough for us to give of our achievements in terms of quality achievement
\nand what we promised.\u00a0 I believe it is not enough for us to have the red
\nroofs (classrooms) or revolution as we call it now.\u201d<\/p>\n
I agree the time has come for our people to begin to interrogate the
\nOshiomhole years in the governance of our dear State.\u00a0 I commend Omo-Ojo,
\nwho was an insider in his government, for commencing this public
\nconversation on the stewardship of the comrade governor.\u00a0 I believe it is
\nimportant that stakeholders in Edo join issues with Omo-Ojo especially for
\nattempting to do a comparative analysis\u00a0 between the Lucky Igbinedion and
\nOshiomhole years.<\/p>\n
Omo-Ojo argued that former Governor Igbinedion actually performed better
\nthan Oshiomhole but that Igbinedion failed to leverage on the media to
\npublicise his achievements.\u00a0 He actually gave reasons to justify his
\nposition.\u00a0 I will not re-echo his position and the reasons herein lest I
\nturn myself into a megaphone for propagating the supposed achievements of
\nthe Igbinedion administration, which, objectively, are at best arguable.<\/p>\n
This is reason I strongly believe that since Oshiomhole approaches the
\nterminus of his administration in Edo State next year and a burgeoning
\nsuccession battle to contend with, the public space should come alive for
\nEdolites\u00a0 to interrogate and debate the leadership and governance question
\nin the State within the context of probity, accountability and prudent
\npublic finance.\u00a0 The ball is in the court of Oshiomhole and his government
\nto take up the Omo-Ojo gauntlet to debunk the charge of failed promises,
\nif they can.\u00a0 Those who have watched governance in Edo since 1999 are
\nwelcome on board this conversation.<\/p>\n
\u2022Mr Ainofenokhai, public affairs commentator, sent this piece from Benin
\nCity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After reading the interview by former Transport Commissioner in Governor Adams Oshiomhole\u2019s government, Mr Orobosa Omo-Ojo, in Daily Sun of Tuesday, September 29, 2015, at pages 26 and 30, my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n