Godwin Obaseki, God’s classic gift to Edo State – Hon Bello-Osagie

EDO 2016: 

 

Godwin Obaseki, God’s classic gift to Edo State – Hon Bello-Osagie

 

Hon Bello-Osagie

 

Do you think that your party, the APC has done enough for the people of Edo state to merit another mandate?

Edo State is very lucky. Let us look at where we are coming from, where we are now and of course, where we want to be in the unfolding dispensation. What readily comes to mind is that Edo state has been quite fortunate. It has witnessed a long regime of underdevelopment. Yes, we saw some shades of development in the past occasioned by the likes of our father, Brig Osaigbovo Ogbemudia, as governor of Bendel State. After that, some people tried within the limit of their capacities.

 

Edo state citizens were hungry to see visible development, something unusual. We were lucky to have a man that has this capacity to manage the meagre resources. A man of very striking intelligence, a labour leader per excellence who came into the political process and in seven and half years we have seen unprecedented developmental stride occasioned by various policies that brought about what you now see as visible developments in all sectors of our national life and we are still counting.

 

That is not to say that we have gotten to where we want ought to be, but there is hope. To avoid a contamination of the process we would need a continuation of the stride and this progress that we have made. Therefore our political space is yearning for a leader, a manager, very unusual manager because the times have changed. The days of going to Abuja to collect handouts are over, in my opinion. At $110 per barrel we did not manage the economy very well neither did you make savings for the rainy day. What we see now is a plethora of problems hitting us in the face. What we need now is an intervention. We need a man that has uncommon exposure in the public and private sectors.

Amid the Plethora of candidates in the APC, how do you manage the diverse interests without rocking the boat?

The primaries, which is an internal process of the party shouldn’t ordinary bring any rancour at all. What I have seen are some desperate politicians. Politicians normally take advantage of periods like this because there are gains that are axillary to the process. They see it as a period of harvest and they are the ones who suggest and heat up the polity. 

 

My recommendation is, please go out there and market your credentials and talk about your pedigree to the voters. We derive our powers as representatives from the people and therefore the circus that I see and this culture of lighting up our political space and create the impression that there is crisis is usually the work of some fifth columnists because they can be talking to two, three candidates at the same time. They know where they are going to but they want some pecuniary gains from this and that. 

I want to see it as one of the problems that are usually associated with evolution and all we need to do as players and stakeholders is to remove the imaginary boundaries of partisanship and build a coalition of change army that will take us to our destination.

I have seen a plethora of aspirants who are desirous of leading us and taking us to the next stage – wherever we are now is a journey and we definitely need uncommon and exemplary army of leaders to take us through this turbulence so that Edo state citizens can at least continue to enjoy what in my opinion are some of the gains that we have recorded under Comrade Oshiomhole’s administration.  In most of the sectors, if not all, some enviable leaps have been recorded and I want to believe that all those aspiring as gubernatorial aspirants are eminently qualified, but we need to take helicopter view to find out who is best suited for the job. Very clearly, it is only one person that must be chosen. 

 

For me, my compass and radar is hungry to pick a man that has the pedigree that will take us to where we want to be. I have looked at it and at the risk of any contradiction, what comes to me very clearly is that we are looking for a man that can creatively manage the resources of the state; a man who understands the policies of government and governance and who has been in the policy cockpit of this government. 

 

My radar has picked Godwin Obaseki, who is somebody that has an intimidating track record in investment banking, asset management and securities in the public sector, both locally and internationally. He has been part of a team, as project manager, that led to the establishment of two new generation banks. He possesses very intimidating educational pedigree; University of Ibadan, Columbia University and Prince University, New York. A man that has been a member of the Presidential Council on Pensions Reforms, Chairman of Edo State Economic Team for seven and half years. He is chairman of Afrinvest. He is a man who believes that service is about the people and therefore his actions have been predicated on vision, purpose, integrity leadership and full service. Pro bono, he has worked for this administration for seven and half years or more without earning any income. How selfless can a man be? I am not under any illusion neither do I have a problem in pitching my tent with him. I have endorsed him and several others have. 

 

When this project started and we were at the very embryonic stage and people were saying ‘we don’t know him’. Today, the pages are unfolding now and because a man cannot operate outside the limitations of his ability, we can see deficit in the disposition of some of the candidates. Therefore, this is not pools betting, where you say let me try. I know where we are coming from, where we are and where we want to be. The strategies of taking us where we want to be can only come from a man who understands what it is to diagnose and come up with prescriptions.

People often say managing a public business is different from running a public office, how do you think Godwin Obaseki will stand to this test?

He has been in the private sector for many years and his involvement in governance has also prepared him. I am a politician and politicians believe that the political space should be reserved for only politicians, but I think we have gone beyond that space because the challenges are new now. We have very uncommon challenges. Anybody can go to Abuja, take handouts and come in. if I need N4bn and you give me N3bn, it is very easy to sit in the comfort of your office and give instructions to your commissions and aides to distribute. But we are talking of uncommon times where you need to be very creative and think of the new frontiers you want to break. Do we now begin to sit down on a note of lamentation and say, ‘we can’t go beyond this point?’

 

As I speak with you, I am aware that he has been in the engine room of some of the investments that we have seen in Edo state. Dangote is coming with cement and Azura-Edo IPP is over $1bn in foreign direct investment and it is here. By the time these projects take off, people will be absorbed with employed, which is one of the fundamental problem we are facing in the country at the moment. We may not even be able to utilise the power generation from Azura plants; we may have to sell some of these megawatts to other states. That is where we are. When you sit down to listen to Obaseki, I am not under any contradiction that he is eminently qualified and that he is a classic gift to Edo state.

If Godwin Obaseki wins the APC primary, do you think he can withstand the force of the opposition, particularly the PDP?

I am more concerned about our primaries, because we need the unity since it is a family affair. Beyond primaries, when he wins, not if he wins, that might be easier because if I were a member of PDP, I am sure by now I would have resigned from politics because of the public odium around that party. If people sit down and talk about persecution having stolen so much money as if our national currency and foreign currencies are going out of fashion. A man takes N800m and says I don’t know where it is coming from and another takes N400m? These were spokespersons of this same government of yesterday. Now they asked you to come and explain and you run to the courts and say the court should stop them from investigating you or stop any arrest! What kind of environment are we and what are we doing? The values are now upside down.

 

I do not have any problems with the general election. I want to believe that might be easier because: one, they should talk to the people about what they did in 16 years. APC, we can see what Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has done in 7 1/2 years. They are visible. We can see schools being rebuilt. When we were campaigning with Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, we went into a classroom one day, the children were sitting on the floor and from the roof you could see the skies. Then we saw an aeroplane flying pass by and the children were saying, ‘see aeroplane’, from the classroom. I was embarrassed. That is how abysmal we dropped during the PDP years. It was a wholesale collapse of our system and we are gradually seeing some order coming in; how you manage the people, resources coming and that is what we have seen. So, it is only fair that we do not allow the contamination of the process and that is why an Obaseki is the solution.

 On the issue of power rotation between the three senatorial districts and clamour that governorship position should go to the central

The point is any area has a right to aspire to any position. Barring any zonal arrangement that can be determined by the party’s structure, individuals can agitate but I think the party has a role to play in which area they want. It is not about what we say on the streets. You have to understand that there are some demographics that support successes that you can record. I don’t think this should divide the party. There are various positions apart from that of the governor and deputy governor. There is speaker, SSG, Chief of Staff. You can always sit down to discuss. It is when we refuse to discuss that we allow people to comment on issues like this. 

 

What you see in the newspapers most times are mostly publicity stunts occasioned by politicians and stakeholders.  I do not think this should light up our political space; it is something that can be handled and I have no doubt in my mind that the leadership of the APC has the capacity and it will deal with this in such a way that at the end of the day, only the people should benefit from the effort of leadership.

QUES: There are concerns that the rift  between Gov Oshiomhole and his Deputy, Odubu can hurt the party, what is it festering?

 

I think both of them are talking now. I can tell you very clearly that some persons, politicians, stakeholders have taken this as a project and in some cases the matter is blown out of proportion. The governor, in the past, had always said that the deputy had been loyal. If you have a basis for disagreement, I expect them to sit down and genuine leaders to bring them together to discuss this matter. Most times we blow matters out of proportion. It is not as bad as it is being made. 

 

However, if the governor has been loyal to his boss, let him remain loyal, it will be helpful because I am also aware that before he became a running mate during the 2012 election, the governor was very clear that this is my deputy (and) at the risk of all the pressure, he remained. The deputy governor must continue to see himself as the deputy and somebody has to be in charge. That is not to say that they cannot sit down to talk and I think discussion is at various levels.

As an APC chieftain and one who is close to the governor, do you think he has an ‘anointed candidate’ and if so, is it right for him to pitch his tent with one of the many on the field?

Anywhere in the world, let’s make this very clear, the word ‘endorsement’ is not a Bini or Edo language. The word imposition is not an Etsako or Ishan language, it is in the dictionary. If I have worked for seven and half years and I worked with some individuals and I know quality of individuals around me, it is only fair that I protect my legacy. The only way you can do that is to say all these persons angling to be governor are eminently qualified, but by my assessment, I think for consolidation of the gains that we have made, this man having being part of the policy cockpit and having worked selflessly, he can continue from where I am likely to stop so that the people can continue to enjoy the dividends of democracy. 

 

So very clearly without mincing words, the governor is eminently qualified and within his right to identify with someone that he feels can continue from wherever he stops. Somebody that, by his own estimation, should be able to do better because he understands the issues. That is why he has identified with Godwin Obaseki.  

 

This is not a child’s play and the challenges are now hydra-headed. The problems that Oshiomhole inherited was smaller because we still had the resources and he needed somebody to proactively manage our meagre resources and that is what he did to take us to where we are now. With the collapse of price of oil and reduction in our crude oil output, we are having more challenges. I am told that we now produce about 1.1million barrels per day. I was a member of the Appropriations Committee; I represented Edo state in the HoR from 2001 – 2015 and some of the figures I saw at that time there were signals of challenges ahead. After we left the thing exploded. So the situation is different. To answer your question, the governor has a right to endorse a candidate. The right he doesn’t is to impose and vitiate the process.

 

  The primaries will be conducted within the rules of engagement that I can assure you. The leadership of the party came to Benin to talk to stakeholders and they assured that the process will be free, credible and fair to the all the parties.  There is nothing to add. It is not a local government election; there are people who are responsible for conducting these elections and the leadership of the party at the national level will be involved in the process. I don’t see why people are losing sleeps. 

 

Rather than aspirants talking about what they can do to add value to the process, they are dissipating energies. I reminded some of them to please go back to the voters and market yourself. Nobody is going to listen to campaigns of how your father stole meat in the 15^th century; nobody is ready to listen to that. We have challenges of looking for who will take us to where we want to be and that is where we are.

 

 As a stakeholder, we all have a duty to ensure that we remove the imaginary boundaries of those inclination and build a coalition of change agents that will foster unity and bring about development, uplift the quality of life of our people and development our environment, reposition our state to very enviable heights and reinforce the integrity of our national prestige. This is my take for the state, our party faithful and Nigerians.

I advise players that we should all talk to our supporters to work within the rules of engagement. They must know that it is only one individual that will represent our party and after primaries we have a lot of work to do, we still have the general elections. By the time we begin to kill ourselves and throw brickbats at one another because of internal democracy that is supposed to be a family affair, that can throw spanners into our works during the general elections. 

 

We should see the primary as internal affairs and educate our supporters to work within the rules of engagement. We must avoid using our youths to wreak havoc because it is their future we are talking about. We must prepare the ground for them to take over. If we do that and because only one person will be governor, we must support that person to succeed. That is the only time we can honestly say we are members of the party APC that brought about the change. We have embraced the change mantra. People want to see it translate into dividends of democracy. 

 

The circus associated with publicity stunts must be removed from our polity so that campaigns can be issue-based rather than of calumny. Nobody is interested in how your father discovered River Niger or Mungo Park. Tell us what you have, what are you bringing about to add value to the process?