Opinion
Edo/Delta Will Deliver More Than 1.5 Million Votes For PDP
Edo and Delta states will deliver more than 1.5 million votes to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chris Nehikhare, commissioner for communication, Edo State and a deep player in the politics of the state writes in this piece
One can understand what drives John Mayaki and his recent verbiage against Governor Godwin Obaseki. I don’t want to rehash the episode so as not to trigger another round of anxiety disorder in Mayaki and his co-travellers.
It was as if grey images of their golden lives were flashing before their very eyes, as INEC declared PDP winner in the last governorship election in the state. This, obviously is more than enough to trigger anxiety disorder.
Whatever the remote cause is that has spurred Mayaki’s interest in numbers or figures is yet uncertain, except that, the fear that Governor Godwin Obaseki, being a man of his word, would actually deliver on his electoral promise of both Edo and Delta States delivering 1.5 million votes for the PDP in the forth coming presidential election, would have really shaken him and his associates to the core; giving them midnight sweats. Symptoms of anxiety disorder!
When Obaseki said he would win the last gubernatorial election, similar mudslings were hurled at him, but being a man who says what he means and means what he says, he emerged victorious in an election adjudged by umpires, stakeholders and observers to be the fairest in recent time.
If Governor Obaseki has once again promised the PDP 1.5 million votes from Edo and Delta States, which make up the now defunct Bendel State, in the forth coming presidential polls, that would be because the Governor is confident of his developmental strides as well as those of his colleague in Delta State who happens to be running mate to His Excellency, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
To have been awarded Governor of the year by the NUT, by Vanguard Newspaper and other reputable bodies, bears testament to unique achievements by any Governor in Nigeria.
Starting from the civil service reforms which have seen to the total rehabilitation and refurbishment of the Edo State Civil Service Secretariat complex with state-of-the-art facilities, to being the only Governor in the country who has increased workers salaries and minimum wage without prompting, with workers and pensioners in the state receiving their salaries on or before the 26th day of every month, is enough to make a Governor confident of the legitimacy or support he enjoys from the people.
In case Mayaki is not aware, while many states of the federation are yet to begin their monthly wage computations, Edo workers have received their January pay alert.
Just yesterday, a new set of new recruits were onboarded into the Edo State public service. Over a thousand of such young graduate professionals have been employed strictly on merit into the civil and public service in the state in recent time.
It is not news that the 200,000 jobs promised by the Governor in his first tenure have long been exceeded. The growth and upspring of MSMEs and retail outlets all over the State, which has created countless jobs for the teeming youths bears testament to this.
The tech innovations alone which the Obaseki administration has exposed Edo youths to have created thousands of employment opportunities in the State as well as jobs for the youths. Today, Edo has become both a technological and creative hub.
Edo people are aware of the numerous developmental strides and infrastructural interventions by the PDP and Obaseki-led administration in the state. Recounting it here would only result in a warfare of chronicles, as no amount of mudslings from aggrieved political actors in the State can make the good people of Edo State disbelieve the evidence of their own eyes.
Obaseki’s achievements is visible even to the blind and only this could have warranted the Governor’s confidence in his delivery. He is aware as much as you and I that the people would only vote on the ground of antecedents and progress.
It is therefore an insult to common sense for John Mayaki to have compared the intelligence, intellectual sagacity and mental capacity of Governor Obaseki to that of his APC presidential candidate whose political sound-bites now abound in satirical cartoons and internet memes, and have become objects of ridicule for netizens, as his candidate, strictly speaking, has become a mortal mockery. A caricature of sort, whose time has been had!
The reality that Mayaki and his associates have lost again, has dawned on them, and passion having power over reason in many cases, has made them abandon common sense once again, in order to become critics in their own defense.
Even in defeat we must know when to stop. That is my advise to Mayaki and his political associates.
As a matter of fact, the PDP in Edo and Delta States is certain to deliver over 1.5 million votes in the forth coming presidential election, just like Governor Obaseki has said. The people of ‘Bendel’ are solidly behind the party which today is their hope to escape “The Loop of Bondage” which the APC has plunged the country int
Chris Osa Nehikhare is the Hon Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Edo State
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