Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole says the Action Congress of Nigeria and other opposition parties came together to form the All Progressives Congress (APC) to enable Nigerians have a robust choice from which to choose in the governance and development of the country.
Speaking yesterday in Benin City, Oshiomhole said: “If a democracy is not capable of bringing a change of parties that can form government at all levels that democracy is not on course.”
According to him, “the good news is that in our neighbouring countries they have shown that it is possible for a government to recognise the ultimate right of the people to determine who governs them. They have been able to have different parties at different time, forming the federal and other levels of government.”
The governor who disclosed this when members of the Igbo Community Union in the state paid him a courtesy call at the Government House, Benin City said, “Nigeria cannot continue to play leadership of the African continent if we don’t get our politics right and it is also the business of those in the other parties to recognise that when we pull resources together it is better to be a small fish in a big pond than to be a big fish in a small pond in which you cannot even swim. I am hopeful that all of us will continue to commit ourselves to democracy and in all recognise that power without purposes is meaningless.
“We must politic on the basis of commitment to use political power and allocate resources in such a way that it is pro-people, pro-development, pro-employment, and pro-welfare. The statistics that government rolls out not just for the fun of it are statistics that actually reflect on the quality of life of the man on the street,” he added.
The Governor disclosed that, “In Edo State, we try everyday not to celebrate abstract achievements. When we say we have delivered, it is something the people can witness.”
On the request of the Igbo Community for a reduction in the hours of market sanitation exercise from 7am to 12noon to 7am to 10am on Mondays, Oshiomhole said, “I am persuaded by your argument that we do not need to shut down the commercial life of the city five hours on Mondays. If you take the environmental sanitation seriously between 7am and 10am and three hours of hard work is enough to clean up the market. The whole idea is not to cripple business it is to make the market clean enough that even the middle class people will like to go there, if the place looks dirty the middle class and upper class people who have the resources will not want to go there.
“I want to appeal to you to continue to encourage your members to pay attention to waste management. As soon as waste is generated ensure that they are properly cleaned up,” he advised.
The governor also approved the request by the Igbo Community to appoint additional fifty one persons to the forty nine Igbo indigenes in the Edo Youth Employment Scheme, Edo YES to show that no one is regarded as settlers in the state and no one should be discriminated against.
Earlier, the chairman of Igbo Community Union in Edo State, Chief Luke Abass thanked the governor for supporting the Igbo Community and even giving employment to Igbo youths even when a state in the east retrenched non-citizens in their civil service.
He thanked the Governor for sponsoring an Igbo youth, Miss Queen Onwunaje to the United Kingdom for a corrective surgery, which, he said, was successful.
