From that you have said, are you cocksure the All progressives Congress will excel in next year election?

By November 12 next year, Governor Oshiomhole will be bowing out of office. Reflecting on the past seven years, what do you think make this administration thick? First, don’t forget that we inherited a state that was in comatose in terms of decay infrastructure and what have you. When Oshiomhole came in, the education infrastructure was nothing to write home about and that became out first attraction because we believe that there is the need to reposition it and that is why today, we can beat our chest to celebrate to the effect today, the any national examination result, Edo state is either second or third. But before, our position use to gravitate between 28 and 30 out of the 36 states in the federation. Again, school arrangement in terms of pupils have changed that today, school enrollment is about 71,000 in the primary schools, secondary, about the same ratio. That is about 100% increase because this government made the school environment more better that the homesick where some of the pupils come from. Besides, rather that encourage private driven education, emphasis has been public driven education. This is done in order to recover public confidence in the education system. Today, we have renovated over 200 schools. The whole process has not been completed because more are still being done before the expiration of this tenure. But by and large, we can beat our chest to say that the intervention has really saved the education sector that people now have confidence in government.

In the health sector, a 200-bed hospital at the Central hospitals premises. The last time they did such thing was in 1903 when the old structure was built by the colonial government. Today we have reclaim some of the land there where the 200 bed hospital with state of the art equipment. And that we remain a form of health tourism for the state and in the first quarter of 2016, the hospital will be handed over and will be open for use. This is in addition to the 36 General Hospitals in the state that have been renovated though we have not been able stock them relevant equipments but hope to do so before the lifespan of this is admin come to a close. Do not forget also that the Ewohimi Hospital is where government has recruited doctors and nurses to jumpstart activities there. The same thing to some other smaller hospitals owned by the Government of Edo state. I must confess that it is not yes Eldorado but suffice it to say that our physical intervention in terms of these infrastructural development have helped to change the face of Edo state what it use to be seven years before Oshiomhole came in.

So for all these, Edo people are happy and are commending d the Comrade Governor for taking the right step in the right direction to make life much better than he met it.

Taking all these achievements that you have reel out, some people are of the views that these were things done during the governor’s first tenure and so he has not done enough in this second tenure. To them, the governor appears to be sleeping this time around. What is you take on this? I don’t agree with such assertion because there is no way he can finish all that he wanted to do just in four years and that was why he seek for a second mandate to enable him finish his work the second mandate was giving to him based on achievements that he recorded in the first term. And so when people now saw that there was the need for them to renew his mandate for him to continue the good work. In the first tenure, about 120 schools were renovated. But today, that figure has since increased to 200. So it is not correct to say that his achievement are those recorded in the first tenure. What about the New Central Hospital that is under construction that is ear marked for commissioning next year? Even at that, some of roads started in the first term, were completed in this second term. Similar with famous 5-Junction, Siluko road with street lights, the Ugbowo road expansion, Dawnson road. Even at that, Forestry and Upper Mission road extension, 2nd East Circular are all second term projects in terms of intervention. If you to Edo Central and Edo North, like, Auchi, Fuga Anegbete roads were completed in this second term. Some were started and were not completed in the first tenure like Dangbala, Ojirami were being completed in this second term. If you travel to Ihevbe, Uzebba axis as well as Otuo area, those roads were completed in this second term. So it not true that the government is sleeping in this second term. It is just that people wanted new projects when the existing ones have not been completed. That was why this administration has promised that there will be no new projects until the old ones are completed like the Upper Mission extension which is going to be completed in record time. Okpella roads have been slated for completion in this second term. Because of the rains, work was slowed down but as soon as the dry season set in, work will commence on these roads which is about 26 kilometers and some other roads.

Take the Okpeople road which because of it terrain, a marketing company by the name Patmozi had to bring in the International Athletic Federal for the 10 km Okpekpe race which been competed for the third consecutive time and is adding economic value to the people.

Even in the area of electricity, more that 110 communities have been lighted with electricity but you know because of the poor outage some of communities are having their own problems. You know this not caused by the state as power is domicile with the federal government.

In addition, I want you to understand that all these are being done with the attendant dwindling in the federation account which is occasioned by the shortfall in oil revenue. Giving these scenarios, some states have not been able to pay salaries of the workforce but Edo is up to date. We are able to achieve all this because we are able to cut our coat according to the size of our cloth. So it is good that we have been able to do all of these in addition to fulfilling our obligation to workers in the state on month to month basis.

Given the dwindling revenue from the federal account, what is the assurance that all the conceived project will be completed before the expiration of the governor’s tenure? They all will be completed. That was why we carried out a retreat in Abuja to say finishing well. The theme means that looking at what has been done and the ones on ground, marrying them with the resources available. After that, there was a resolution that no project on ground will be abandoned come November 12, 2016 when another governor will be handed over. Do not forget that before a project is conceived, there is a projection and analysis on how to get it funded in order to get it finished.

We have got a number of challenges because the money that accrue from the federation account cannot even pay workers in the state in terms of commitment not to talk of embarking on projects. But thanks to the governor who has put in place a solid Board of Internal Revenue Service that is up and doing by ensuring that the state get more money from the IGR to be able to meet up with the shortfalls. It not in doubt. Edo people are no fools. They are very wise. They know that we have moved away from the politics of let us share the money to politics of development. In the past, that has been the slogan when PDP held sway in the state. But now, it not business as usual. We have been able to channel our scarce resources to critical sectors of the economy; we have been able to build an architectural infrastructure can drive enterprise and so we don’t have problem in terms of political succession. What we have is when people want to manipulate the system thinking that they can rig themselves to office. Our mantra, “one man one vote” will surely prevail. Agains don’t forget that the PDP which has gotten its oxygen from the federal government where they deploy all manner of manipulation a to twist the process with huge resources. But the country that we have today is such if you spend huge resources, questions will be asked how you got such resources. So people will be giving much opportunity to exercise their franchise using the power of their votes to chose the right governance at any point in time. We are vibrant in the state. We have 21 out of the 24 member assembly which signpost that we are closer to the people. We also have all the local government chairmen who are doing well at that level irrespective of dwindling resources at the centre. So by the time you approximate all these, by the time we present our candidate after the primary process, we wiLl be home and dry. We are loosing on that at all.

But people are worry that Edo south with a population more that the other two senatorial districts put together surprisingly fell into the hands of the PDP during last presidential and National Assembly elections where the party won the only senate seat and three of the four federal constituencies. Don’t you think there is a lot to worry and what do you think actually happened? Well we have since done a critical assessment of what happened during the presidential and national assembly elections and came out with the fact that there was huge spending of resources because it was a free for all especially from the centre to states particularly those perceived as unfriendly to the aspiration of former President Jonathan. And using this kind of fund, they were able to manipulate the process. That is one. Two, don’t forget that former President Jonathan should have under normal circumstance gotten some level of support and sympathy being a product of the south south zone if not that we insisted that in the contest of that election, we need a better material who has integrity and humble to manage the affairs of the country in the person of President Muhammadu Buhari. So despite of the pressures we resisted and they saw that as an affront and they had to deepen all the arsenal at their disposal in order to alter the apple cart. But for the number of votes which were voided over a 100,000 the result wouldn’t have been what we saw at the end of that election. Out of 9 House of Representatives, they got 5 and we got 4. Senate, they got 2 and we got 1. That is fine. But when we got out of that shock, we were able to upstage them in the state assembly election as we won 21 seats while they got 3 seats. That was symbolic because at that time, the oxygen is already deflated and the man who was supplying the weapon was defeated. So they will be beaten silly in the 2016 governorship election because with their 3 members and our 21 members, I don’t think they can put up enough fight. Not when we control all the 18 local government councils.