Edo LG Polls: Obaseki Lists Those To Be Stopped

The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, on Tuesday reassured that incompetent persons without character and proven integrity would not be elected as chairmen and councillors in the forthcoming local government election in the state.

The governor, who promised not to allow godfatherism to thrive again in the state, stressed that the country’s electoral process strongly affects the system of governance.

Obaseki said this when he declared open a one-day workshop on “Igniting the Economic Development and Viability of Local Government Areas in Edo,” held at the Staff Training Centre, Benin City.

According to the governor, “The process of elections itself affects the nature of governance; the way I have been elected is definitely going to affect the way we are going to govern Edo.”

He continued: “I realized that the reason people voted for us as a government was because of hope; given the track record we had, they felt that if we were allowed to continue, we will do more for them.

“I am not beholden to godfathers but to Edo people. That is the same thing we must do with the local government elections; it has to be the people that are sending you there,” he added.

Obaseki further noted: “When you get there, your first obligation is to serve the people, not any godfather; once they realize that you are serving them, even when you don’t have all the resources, they are more sympathetic; they will trust and believe you and continue to support you.

“The local government doesn’t have enough but with the little available, we have been able to convince them that we are using it for their own good. The local government is the first point of interaction with the government and democracy.

“We have to fix things up, as nobody is going to help us fix it; the good thing is that we can fix it. Godfatherism would not be allowed in the forthcoming local government election in the state, as only people with proven integrity would be elected as chairman and councilors in our local government,” Obaseki added.

On his part, the guest speaker, Mr. Igbinidu Inneh, said that it was important to review the sources of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from the local governments to make it more viable to meet the needs of the people.

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