THE Okpebholo-led administration in the last 100 days, has taken more lawless and illegitimate actions than any government since 1999; the administration has shown a disproportionate lack of vision and direction in all spheres, waking up to another day, with appointment letters flying about and nothing to show.
Any government that fails to capitalize on its first 100 days, heads towards doom and will lack a lifelong capacity to deliver democratic dividends; the initial 100 days, however challenging, is very critical and important, providing a window to develop a first 100-day plan, allowing you to make the most of your initial months as a government with an impression of a promised future.
Under Okpebholo, education in Edo has taken a notorious back seat, coming last amongst the comity of States with top priority and budgetary allocations for that critical sector; with no articulate policy-programme on sustaining existential reforms and building capacity, Edo’s educational system may be heading for the gallows.
The security system in Edo having been factionalized, poses significant danger to residents; with kidnappings, robberies and associated crimes gracing the national dailies, thuggery and hooliganism, leading to relocation of the ongoing Edo election petitions tribunal to Abuja, portends a scary development for potential investors.
The immediate eviction of two very senior officials of government over allegations of administrative and financial infractions, are a clear reflection of the massive irregularities and pilfering going on behind the scene.
Having expended over ₦5billion of the ₦30billion immediate past governor Obaseki left in the State’s coffers, with an exponential drop from ₦8billion naira to ₦2billion, and the billions expended in the groundbreaking of an imaginary fly over, amid other financial recklessness, suggests the Okpebholo-led government lacks the capacity to manage Edo’s scarce financial resources.
Just 100 days in office, this administration is overwhelmed with endless illegalities and several legal suits, addressing one unconstitutional decision or another; one of which is the inappropriate appointment of a local government head as acting Chairman, an illegal decision executed by this administration which has now been reversed following several public bashings.
Whereas local government autonomy has become a national treasure, at the Edo home front however, Okpebholo has declared a full scale war on local government autonomy—a treasured achievement of the Tinubu-led administration, having lobbied the Blessing Agbebaku-led Edo State House of Assembly to suspend duly elected Council Chairmen, the governor went ahead to monetize a handful of Councilors to illegally impeach elected Chairmen, an anti-democratic move that has crippled grassroots development and other essential services at the Council.
In Oredo particularly, non-elected persons were handpicked around the ring road area, taken into the legislative building to launch a kangaroo impeachment on the elected Chairman of the Council; these unknown persons could not even look in the camera.
In other local governments, one Councilor, at times two, are seen purportedly impeaching an elected Chairman; a situation that has brought untold hardship on local government workers, as the illegal acting Chairmen imposed in Councils by Okpebholo lacks administrative capacity and constitutional backing to pay salaries, mandate finances, and legitimately administer the affairs of Council.
They are products of illegality, lawlessly imposed in Councils by a governor failing in all spheres to legitimize his governorship; despite court injunctions to reverse the ugly trend, the governor has paid deaf ears.
While many observers have continue to express shock over the governor’s decision to dismantle President Tinubu’s legacy of local government autonomy in Edo despite the President’s all-out support for his governorship and subsequent counsel to collaborate with elected local government Chairmen, political watchers have said the governor is only a figure head, whose administration is being controlled from remote locations, and lacks the capacity to check the hooliganism and lawlessness roping his government.
Amid the administrative failure and incompetence of the Okpebholo-led administration, Edo people and Nigerians who are first hand witnesses of the electoral heist that occurred in the September 21 Edo guber, are confident that the Edo election petitions tribunal will exercise courage and impartiality to right the wrongs associated with the election from which Okpebholo emerged, despite roping controversies, so that Edo can regain its pride of place in the comity of States.
And as the Okpebholo-led administration clocks its first three months, many have said nothing significant can be said of this administration, it has been a clueless, visionless, uncreative ride, roped in the fabrics of hooliganism, lawlessness and rascality, with 100 days of nothing to celebrate.
