By Simon Ebegbulem
The people of Edo state will never forget Governor Adams Oshiomhole in a hurry as he exits office tomorrow November 12, 2016, after a successful eight-year tenure in office. Oshiomhole, who ran for the governorship of Edo state in 2007 after he serving for eight years as President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC.

He emerged as the governor of Edo state following an Appeal Court judgment, which annulled the election of the then PDP Governor, Prof. Osarhiemen Osunbor and declared him as the winner of the 2007 governorship election in the state.

On assumption office, the Comrade Governor promised to banish political god fathers, revamp decayed infrastructure and ensure one man one vote in state among others.

Governor Elect of Edo State, Mr Godwin Obaseki

To fulfil his promises,  Oshiomhole tackled the infrastructural problem in the state pointedly. Before his coming, the Internally Generated Revenue of the state was about N350milion monthly,   most schools in the state had no roofs. Roads were death traps and the crime rate in the state was high due to high rate of unemployment, which Oshiomhole accused the PDP government that spent 10 years in power of plunging the state into.

The  Comrade governor brought in experts in various sectors to help him revamp the economy and the infrastructural status of the state.

He confessed copying the Lagos State model to develop Edo State due to his passion for the people, who voted overwhelmingly for him in 2007.

Oshiomhole’s achievements

And after spending eight years, Oshiomhole has solved the flooding problem in Edo South senatorial district which was one of the biggest challenges he met as governor.

The N30billion Benin water storm project, which is about 60 per cent completed, today has already checked the erosion problem in Edo South.

His administration changed Benin City from an ancient city to a modern city through its urban renewal and beautification programme.

Benin City the state capital, Auchi and Ekpoma towns were lit up while roads were constructed across the three senatorial districts. The state IGR was increased from N350million as it were during the PDP administration to N1.2billion. He commenced the red roof revolution through his massive investment in the educational sector.

Building schools equipped with modern teaching facilities made most parents to withdraw their children from private schools to these public schools. He tackled the erosion problems in Benin City and Auchi and that was one of the major problems in the state the PDP failed to tackle. And in terms of politics, he gave the  PDP a good fight and got most of their political leaders retired from politics.

It would be recalled that Oshiomhole met a very strong and influential PDP cabal, who he accused of holding the state hostage before his coming. He deployed his oratoral prowess in persuading and reminding the people how PDP treated them  in 10 years  and what he was doing to change the system and make Edo a better state.

Oshiomhole backed his talks with projects in every community and that was the secret of the defeats the PDP suffered in the state in the last eight years.   Oshiomhole said in one of his interviews: “We are not like any other government, our selling point is the trust line between the governed and the government and every responsible and honest steward must, as a matter of duty and obligation, account to his master. I am the steward of Edo State, I have the privilege to be entrusted with the management of the resources of the state and the state is not made up of few elites but of people in the rural areas and urban areas.

”In terms of election, the people are more in number than the elites and so I always like to face them and tell them what has changed since November, 2008 to 2012. In the trade union world, when you are elected, at a certain period you hold meeting and give report of your achievement and where you have challenges you explain it to the people.

”My complain when I was in the NLC was that politicians make promises at the beginning and in between they don’t render account. For me, at the heart of democracy is the commitment to report to your employers what you have done with the tools with which you are asked to work and that is what we did today and that is what we have done in the past years. And I tried to lay a foundation that a future government would feel obliged year-to-year to tell the people what they did with their mandate.”

Thus, Oshiomhole insists that he has laid a solid foundation for the development of the state and the good news for the people of the state is that his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate, Mr Godwin Obaseki, won the just concluded governorship election so he is expected to continue the developmental strides of the APC administration. Good enough, Obaseki has been the chairman of the Economic and Strategy Team of the Oshiomhole administration so he has the blue print for development.

Tasks before Obaseki

All the new governor needs to do is to ensure that salaries are continuously paid as Oshiomhole has done, focus on tarring roads within the Benin municipality, create employment opportunities like Obaseki has promised,bring in more investors to the state so as to create more jobs for the youths.

Obaseki must also maintain the good relationship Oshiomhole had with traditional rulers, market women and  youths who stood by him throughout his tenure. Oshiomhole will really be missed in the state but the good news is that he came, he saw, he conquered, like people will say.

In the past few weeks it has been tears each time he delivers a speech as it occurred to the people that the rugged Comrade will be exiting office tomorrow.