By Helen Ovbiagele, Woman Editor

Experts tell us that for a happy and peaceful life, we should endeavour to be  contented with what we have and what we are, after we’ve done our best to improve our lives.

This is good philosophy which should eliminate the inordinate ambition, envy and greed, which might propel us towards criminal activities in our personal lives.

However, when it comes to the general development of our cities, towns, state or nation, it pays to look over the fence at your neighbours and compare what you have/are, with theirs.  If  this is not done, we won’t develop and be a force to be reckoned with.

In this case, Edo State; my state of origin.  I’m old enough to remember when Nigeria comprised just three regions, i.e., the North, East and  West, with their respective capitals in Kaduna, Enugu and Ibadan, and the nation’s capital was Lagos.

Our Edo elders told us that because we didn’t get fair treatment from the West, part of   which we were at the time, they fought for a fourth region to be created.  Thus, in 1963, the Mid-West region became the fourth region in the country, with the capital in Benin City.

The people rejoiced.  Benin City continued to be the capital, even when its name was changed to BENDEL STATE, when regions ceased to be, and the country was  divided into states.    Understandably,  there was a rush by all the ethnic groups of the state to have a presence in the state capital.  Property and businesses sprang up, most of them established by the industrious people to the south of the state.

Twenty-years ago, BENDEL STATE was divided into two –  EDO and DELTA STATES.
Recently, a childhood friend, who used to be a fellow Bendelite, but became a Deltan when Delta State was created, came to boast about the newly-opened Asaba airport and also the development in Delta State.

“Helen, sorry o!  Take heart.  The young shall grow, although, in your own case, one wonders when your state will come of age and take off.  Well, don’t be discouraged.  Have hope.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Have you been to Asaba recently?”

“No, nothing takes me there.   I was there about five years ago when HRH Martha Dunkwu of Okpanam, turned 50.  It’s a civil servants’ town like my own state capital, so, what’s new?”

“Ah, haven’t you read about the brand new airport we now have? It’s no longer just the airstrip at Osubi  in Warri.  The new airport in Asaba, already handles commercial flights. We don’t have to come through your airport in Benin City any more.  We just fly direct from Lagos or Abuja, or, wherever, as it is developed further, and more routes added.  Wao!  What a relief!  We’ve been liberated.  Halleluiah!  We’ve left you people far behind.  We’ve taken off!”

“Were you bribed to go sing the praises of your government, or what?” I teased her.

“Bribed?  Nobody knows me. I’m just delighted  that we’re no longer on the same low level as your state.”

“What low level?  You came from us, remember?  But for us, you wouldn’t be in existence.”
“Ha! Ha!  Do you know what?”

“What?’

“When we were lumped together with you people, we were the industrialists; the forward mobile people.  We developed your state capital for you.  If we  and the Easterners were to uproot our property and businesses from Benin City, you’ll have very little to show as a state capital.

We’ve been your senior brother right from inception in the early 60s.  Now, you’ll lose revenue and your importance in the region, because we don’t have to pass through your territory any more.  Businessmen and traders will fly direct to Asaba, and from there go to the eastern states, taking business away from your city.

The number  of air passengers to your airport will steadily dwindle, until it assumes again the status of  an airstrip, sorry, aerodrome, like it was when your grandpa was the foreman there, during our childhood.  Ha!  Ha!  Wake up,  Edo State!  Up Delta!  There must be something in your soil which retards progress.  Tough luck!  Ha! Ha!”

Well, it was all meant to be a joke of some sort, but I wasn’t exactly clapping and laughing after my friend left.  I felt like she had come to humiliate me and my state.  I couldn’t bear her a grudge for this, though,  because in her ‘jokey’ comments,  were some home-truths.

Take the issue of the Benin City airport.

I don’t know when it was built, but my late mum told me that my late paternal grandpa was already a foreman there while she was in primary school, and that was before I was born.  Roughly, it means it has been in existence for many decades.
If Benin City was important enough to have an airstrip, probably in the early 20th  century; why has it not been developed all these years and upgraded to the status of an international airport, at least for the African sub-region like, the Cameroons, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Central and East Africa, etc?

We were one of the first in  Nigeria to feel the touch of  Europeans, notably the Portuguese.  Maybe that was why the airstrip was constructed.  Why has it not been expanded meaningfully all these years, especially when the oil boom started, and also when Edo State became the gateway to the East and parts of the North?  Along with good roads, our state would have been well-developed, and our children would have jobs as we attract foreign/national investors. There wouldn’t be brain-drain from the state.

It would be very unfair to blame the current head of government or his predecessors.  The reason for non-development lies in us, the Edo State people.  If we all unite, in spite of  all differences, to put our state and the welfare of  our people seriously first, any head of government would respect us and accede to our requests for even development all over the state.  This is because, whichever group he/she turns to, the same requests for development would be presented.

I know Edo State is not as rich in oil and revenue as our ‘sister/neighbour’, Delta State, and they too have their own divisions and differences,  but if we sink our differences on all fronts, and we allow peace and security of life and property to reign, with the help of God, we can do something meaningful with what we have, and leave a good legacy for our descendants.  Right now, even at the federal level, we’re really nowhere.

I sincerely hope our young people will take up the challenge, get good education and exposure, and unite to come turn Edo State round.  I’m afraid, we the older ones are not performing at present.  That’s the truth.