Month: April 2025

…As EXCO approves Another flyover–Ohonbamu Edo State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Hon. Paul Ohonbamu has said that the construction work on the first ever flyover Bridge in Benin City by the Governor Monday Okpebholo led administration is been described as a bold statement and testimonial that will speak for the governor. Ohonbamu disclosed in a statement in Benin City, that those peddling rumors that the project has been stopped were dishonest and trying to play politics with their campaign of falsehood. The Commissioner also disclosed that the last Executive Council Session which held on Monday, April 14th 2025 approved the construction of the second flyover bridge at the Adesuwa-Sapele road intersection in Benin City. According to him, ” Governor Okpebholo has adopted a more practical approach to governance putting priority on the growth and development of the people of the state and to ensure that all projects executed are of high quality. That is why he personally monitors them.” “The Governor is a man of few words with the agenda to set the state on the path of sustainable development, building roads, schools and supporting communities across the state. Edo people should be patient because the governor is poised to rebuilding lives and bringing joy to the lives of the people. “The Governor has started doing in the last few months in office what he promised during his electioneering campaign and he believes that with good roads the people should be able to move freely, especially the creation of new roads linking communities in his developmental programmes. The Commissioner said the Governor has been justifying the confidence reposed in him by the people with his development strides across all sectors of the state, adding that the giant strides to construct the first flyover in Benin city is a deliberate step towards achieving the urban development of Benin City as Capital of Edo State. “The Governor is very enthusiastic about quality of execution of all the road projects which are sufficiently solid and executed by reputable contractors because it is these projects that will speak for the government. Those peddling rumors are dishonest because people see the progress and quality of work going on by the contractors. “The Governor want communities linked with roads,so that their economy can be integrated into the national and state economies. Though the state government cannot fix all the roads in the state at the same time, the bold steps taken so far should be appreciated and not to be politicized. “It should not be that whenever we are not in the helm of affairs or in government we create all manners of dangerous rumours to distract from the bigger picture and emasculate the good work that is going on. The Contractor handling the flyover bridge, Mr. Andy Duan of CCECC has assured that the company will work according to specifications and do their best to meet up with construction period. “The Governor is monitoring projects across the state to ensure the Jobs are done according to agreed specification and has directed that contracts whose handlers are not working according to specification would be revoked,” Ohonbamu added.

  A Response from a Concerned PDP Member By: Rita Ebiuwa When Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State boldly declared that he has the capacity to become Nigeria’s President, it raised eyebrows and ignited conversations across political spaces. Capacity? Perhaps. The Nigerian Constitution guarantees every qualified citizen the right to aspire to any political office, including the highest one in the land. So, on that basis, Governor Makinde is well within his rights to dream big. However, capacity alone does not qualify one for the ticket of a political party — loyalty, commitment, and consistency do. This is where the real issue lies, and this is why many of us in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) take serious exception to Governor Makinde’s recent posturing. The same Makinde who now seeks the PDP presidential ticket was part of the infamous G-5 — a group of five governors who, at a crucial time in our party’s journey, chose to place personal loyalty and ego above the collective interest of the party. In the buildup to the 2023 general elections, when the PDP needed every loyal hand on deck, when the stakes were high and the party was gearing up to return to power at the federal level, Governor Makinde — alongside Nyesom Wike and other G-5 members — turned their backs on the party. Why? Because their preferred candidate, Wike, lost the presidential ticket to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Rather than unite behind the party’s democratic choice, Makinde and his allies deliberately worked against PDP’s victory. They courted anti-party alliances, sowed division, and handed their respective states to the opposition — all in a bid to frustrate the party’s presidential campaign. That betrayal is still fresh in the minds of many party faithful. Let’s not forget how we, as committed PDP members from all corners of the country, once rallied around Makinde. Many of us defended him from online attacks, engaged APC supporters in Oyo State, and promoted his policies even without ever meeting him — simply because he flew the PDP flag. That loyalty was one-sided. When the party needed him the most, he chose friendship with Wike and proximity to power over party principles. Now, as 2027 draws near, Makinde is conveniently remembering the party. He wants the same platform he tried to destabilize to give him the most coveted ticket in Nigeria. But we must ask ourselves: to what end? So he can repeat the 2023 script — feign loyalty, secure the ticket, and then step down for Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the eleventh hour? Is this another backdoor plot to retain power within a close circle of allies? We see through the game. The agenda is clear, and the party must not be deceived again. Governor Makinde, you have the right to aspire, but not under the PDP — not after 2023. The party cannot afford to reward disloyalty. It is time to draw a line between those who stood firm through thick and thin, and those who only see the party as a vehicle for personal ambition. The PDP ticket must go to a member who has consistently served, defended, and stood by the party in its toughest moments. As for you, Mr. Governor, finish your term, return home, and let the PDP rebuild itself without the shadow of betrayal hanging over its future. There is no presidential ticket in 2027 for G-5 sympathizers. Not again.

  BY : TONY ERHA The world is fast changing its old garments. Yes, it’s tumbling down and gliding on its head. Agape love is feigned and hate fills the human minds and earth’s dwelling places. Particularly, superpower nations have failed a simple test of love and a harmless co-existence of nations. To weaker nations, the powerful profess to being the watchdog, in a comity of nations that are, supposedly independent and each maintaining a sovereignty. Ruthless competition, perpetual domination, exploitation, gunboat diplomacy and mutual distrusts are measures of the fickle love that pervades. When super nations gift charity to struggling nations, the minor league, with the right hand, sabotage is their left hand that snatches it back from the indigent receivers! And the tendency is to give lesser countries indecent names and steadily faulting their actions. The foregone is only a takeout from a misgiving the United States (US) Mission in Nigeria, has for the governorship election, which took place in Edo State, last year. The Mission thus emanated a widespread media statement, which portrayed the election as heavily rigged and the litigation process undermined. The stance of the mission is said to have followed the protracted depositions by some finicky civil society organisations (CSOs), which the diplomatic mission accepted, without proper investigation. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, had fielded Senator Monday Okpebholo, who trounced Dr. Asue Ighodalo of the state’s opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), to get the seat. But, in a judgement of the election petition tribunal, delivered by the three-man panel, led by the Justice Wilfred Kpochi, the election of Governor Okpebholo was validated. Even though the election had long been concluded and Okpebholo, its winner has settled for the business of governance, the US Mission in Abuja, still carried on as if it was still in the election monitoring stage, where their intervention mandate counted and expired. And it was at the heel of this judgement that the American mission made the statement. And for some unsolved civil society organisations, that had been consistently accused of partisanship and a ‘procured-support’ from the PDP opposition and its backers, a revered US Mission outside its home country, known for its tradition for unbiased Ombudsmanism, seemed to have staked its hard-earned reputation on a skewed narrative by the said CSOs. Even then, the mission’s outburst also seems partisan, and an affront on the sacredness and impartiality of the Nigeria’s Court of Appeal; of a sovereign nation, that ordinarily draws its strength from its judiciary. But, why will a purported superpower and policeman of the world, ignore irritating happenings and worsening of her ‘God’s own country’, only to be stuck in the web of internal affairs of Edo, a minute and catalyst of a Nigeria country, that is belittled by them as weak and dependent? Why will the Americans, renowned for its firmly defence of the judiciary in their own soil, play the ‘Trump-card’ that tended to deride the judiciary, in another clime, where the Americans see the same judiciary as the last hope of the common man, and also of the bourgeois? More so, Mr. Austin Osaghae, a public affairs analyst, had posed nagging questions, thus validating the bewilderment of numerous Nigerians, that the US Mission in Nigeria, as shepherded by Mr. Richard M. Mills, its Ambassador, who was dragged into an objectionable public declaration. “Even the naive would be aware that the statement by the US Mission in Nigeria was prejudicial on the initial tribunal judgement and an Appeal Court’s version that was yet to come. Where the PDP had not taken its decision on going for the appeal, the mission had already issued the statement. Was the mission privy to the PDP’s decision to appeal the judgement?” The Mr. Mills’ mission should have known that there are two sides to a coin, a euphemism that it should have done a through homework so as not to be deceived by the CSOs. Before and during the election, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, who brandished the levers of power as the state governor, had slanted the paraphernalia of his office, in favour of Dr. Ighodalo, his choice successor as governor. Obaseki had earlier imploded his PDP party by manipulating a simple election primary, where Asue Ighodalo emerged as a governorship candidate, over others. Mr. Obaseki also created an impossible huddle for other party’s candidates, buying over advertising spaces on the public advert billboards and stopping them, excepting Ighodalo, from using public auditoriums, open spaces and government-owned media houses for campaigns. There were crime upsurges, where political opponents were allegedly harassed, intimidated, maimed and sometimes killed, so that Ighodalo could emerge. It is also on record that Inspector Onuh Akoh, of the Nigerian police, was murdered in daylight, while on official duty at the precincts of the Benin Airport. Accusation was that some gunmen from the Edo Vigilante Group, which Obaseki had purposely set up, in order to rig the election, were responsible for the killing. The Inspector General of Police was strategic for stopping the deployment of the vigilantes for the election, in order to avoid bloodshed. Why would the US Mission in Nigeria, funded by American taxpayers, undermine the overriding policy of its president, Donald Trump, who abhors undue interference in external matters of sovereign nations and official extravagance of its missions? Why will President Trump insist on a policy and a US mission abroad do the opposite? It is like in the holy book, where a mocker, who criticises another for having a speckle in his eyes, whereas he had failed to remove the logs in his own eyes. Presently, it isn’t well with the God’s own country, as it encounters severe economic meltdown, political turmoil and social vices, never experienced in recent time. About political and cultural diversity, the US shares likeness with Nigeria. For instance, the US presidential democracy, as adopted by Nigeria, is implicated in the country’s systemic rot, double-dealing and exorbitant cost of governance. But there are hardly no