IN the past six months since Senator Monday Okpebholo took office as Edo’s helmsman, after the most questionable election in Nigeria’s recent history, Edo State has witnessed the peace of the grave yard.
Although the people say less and less these days, their silence had been mostly the outcome of what I choose to call the Edo 2024 Governorship Election Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The most recent stressor for the Edo people is the imminent danger of being homeless through Okpebholo’s indiscriminate demolition of houses.
The Okpebholo home demolition axe hangs over all Edo people and their hard earned real estate investment like the Sword of Damocles. A whimper about your suffering in the hands of the APC treachery in Edo and your home or business premises comes down.
The pretext for the illegal and irrational demolition exercises has been secret cult activities or allegations of kidnapping but the people have since realised that these are mere excuses for torture and intimidation.
My dear friend and Immaculate Conception College colleague, Hon. Matthew Iduoriyekemen and another leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Francis Inegbeneki were recently jolted by the demolition markings on their hotel and home and though brave, the two titans seem to have embarked on what the military refer to as a tactical retreat.
The extremely vigorous silence of these two men is an adumbration of the attitude of majority of Edo people in the last six months-too traumatised to speak up.
Okpebholo’s assault has been persistent as it has been recurrent. From the unleashing of thugs on transportation operators to the imposition of alien leaders on market women, the barrage of attacks on the people has been relentless.
In these past six months, at least 100 innocent Edo citizens have been brutally and mindlessly killed, including Batemue Philip Ebo, Christopher Bello, and Victor Ogedengbe, whose lives were tragically cut short by militant groups and killer herdsmen who have overrun various communities in the State, from Edo South to Edo Central and Edo North. The number of Edo citizens who have been maimed or incapacited, those who have lost millions in property and rendered homeless and those whose businesses have crippled as a result of the rising insecurity are far too many to count.
Amid this chaos and siege on the Edo people, Okpebholo appears dazed and confused, deflecting blames, with no plan, no strategy, and no clear idea on how to confront the spiraling chaos threatening the lives and livelihoods of the people.
As part of the barrage of attack on the people of Edo State, Okpebholo reversed the Edo e-governance system put in place by the Godwin Obaseki administration, after indiscriminately dismissing the senior civil servants responsible for the smooth running of the digital platform. The State was the first state in West Africa to have gone completely paperless in September 2023, this made Government correspondences (mails and memos) more efficient and effective putting the State in the spotlight all over Nigeria and indeed Africa.
But Okpebholo has now reversed this progress, moving Edo away from this efficient paperless, digital system. MDAs have gone back to using paper to organize government correspondence. The corruption and inefficiencies that the Obaseki government had eliminated with technology is also being relegated.
Local government councils and its workers have suffered the worst onslaught and annihilation since Nigeria’s return to democracy under Okpebholo. He spearheaded the humiliation and illegal sack of duly elected local government chairmen and vice chairmen, who were like common criminals, ridiculed out of office by thugs and other non-state actors, using horse whips and other dangerous weapons.
This was despite the ruling of every court in the land, from the Chief Judge of Edo State to the Supreme Court, and an Edo State High Court, as well as the advisory of the President through the Attorney General of the Federation, against Okpebholo’s failed illegal suspension and removal of the local council executives.
Okpebholo, as though in a banana republic, handpicked passersby from various streets across the State and brought them into the council legislative buildings to stage a kangaroo impeachment of the elected council executives. In other councils where this failed, one or sometimes two councilors were financially induced to orchestrate the lawless impeachments. Reports and video evidence of this charade are replete in the media.
Okpebholo has also rolled back the progress in the Physical Planning and Edo Geographic Information System (EdoGIS). Edo State, under Obaseki was one of the first in Nigeria to undertake a comprehensive geospatial mapping of the State, leading to the development of a Geographic Information System (GIS) and a digital database for land coordinates, which significantly improved land titling and documentation across the State.
But that system has now collapsed because the ICT experts responsible for managing the database and the entire system have pulled out of the service of Edo State due to the refusal of the Okpebholo-led state government to pay them the outstanding debts owed, running to over 3 billion naira.
What this means is that all Certificates of Occupancy (C-of-Os) in the possession of residents across the State have become mere pieces of paper as there is no database against which the coordinates specified in the C-of-O can be verified.
As with other sectors, the education, economy, and health sectors have taken a notorious back seat. While the education sector suffers neglect, the health sector is in shambles and IGR continues to drop as a result of the
rollback of the technological advancements made in revenue collection by the government of Godwin Obaseki, which had implemented modern, transparent methods of revenue collection designed to eliminate corruption, increase efficiency, and protect traders and businesses from exploitation.
If Okpebholo has achieved anything in these six months, it is the mindless way in which he has empowered thugs and non-state actors to intimidate, exploit, harass and maim the Edo people in the name of revenue collection. To his credit, Edo State has, today, become a gangland of sorts.
The past six months have undeniably been devastating and Edo people reputed for their bravery and outspokenness have surprisingly been harrassed into what I have chosen to call a rebellious silence that has left a void for Okpebholo’s daily governance by press releases which nobody reads.
But he must not be deceived. Though the people may seem beaten down, though their voices may appear stilled, it is not submission but a rebellious silence. Edo people have not, and will never, give up.
Okpebholo should remember the popular Nigerian proverb: “No matter how long it takes, a stammerer will eventually pronounce his father’s name.” The silence will not last forever. In due time, the people will reclaim their voice, and when they do, it will be impossible to ignore.
Chris Osa Nehikhare is a former Commissioner for Communication and Orientation
