AS a young undergraduate in the 1980s, I got mocked by my friends from the eastern part of the country each time they returned after the holidays to then University of Ife in Ile-Ife which was renamed after the great politician who was never allowed to transform Nigeria even though they (the powers that be) knew he had all it took to do so.

Yes, I was mocked that my State capital, then of old Bendel State, Benin City was a glorified village. Benin was a rusty town with old houses made mostly from bricks  and either thatched or rusty zinc roofs. The roads were narrow and bumpy with no drainage, making it a hell to go through whenever it rained.

Not comfortable with the jeers from my friends, I took pains to ask questions whenever I was chanced to visit Benin. I was a Bendelite in the diaspora, born in Onitsha in present day Anambra and had my primary education in Port Harcourt. Though I had my secondary education in Ewohimi, in Edo Central Senatorial district, incidentally the same town Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s late wife comes from, I never lived in Benin.

The answers I got were  unsatisfactory. Some said the Bini people didn’t want to destroy their ancestral heritage hence they abhored any development that would destroy what their forefathers built and therefore left the houses or even roads the way they met them.

My friends became very happy when the Federal Government eventually built the Bye-pass road that cut off Benin main town to ease the perennial traffic jam that usually held motorists for several hours, especially during festive periods.

Somehow the theory about  the Binis  not wanting to destroy their ancestral heritage gained authenticity when the young men and women who went abroad for the proverbial golden fleece returned home to build modern buildings that gave Benin a semblance of a modern township. The old houses, most of which had become dilapidated, still dotted most areas of the town and were not pulled down.

Even in the days of the greatest military governor, Brigadier-General Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia, Benin City did not wear the toga of a modern city. Some other military administrators  who came after Dr. Ogbemudia, especially those posted from the northern part of the country, instead of helping to develop the city, left it worst than they met it.

The worst destruction Benin  suffered, came during the tenure of its own son, Chief Lucky Igbinedion, whose tenure got billions of Naira from the federation account but  did  do any tangible thing for the people.  Even the simplest thing of paying workers salary was as herculean to him as construction of roads.

While Chief Igbinedion (mis)governed the State, his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP  did not see any wrong. All the party top shots were interested in, was getting their own share of the commonwealth which was shared under the supervision of the godfather whose only stock in trade was fixing every election and robbing the rightful winners of  the  people’s  mandate.

However, when God, through the law courts restored Comrade Oshiomhole’s mandate to him, the former labour leader chose to follow a different path different  from all others, (mind you Dr. Ogbemudia governed the old Bendel State, a much more bigger State and also governed well), who ruled the state before him.

Oshiomhole started by seizing the State  from the grip of  the instruments the PDP government  used in terrorising the citizens at motor parks and market squares, collecting illegal fees. He  pulled down  illegal structures that made Benin City a junk city. He introduced mass transit Intra-city  buses for easy movement of people and goods across the state.

He did not stop there. He started massive construction of roads which hitherto was not possible in Benin. To the shock of all, he had to pull down the walls of the Oba of Benin palace, one of the ancestral heritages we were told must not be destroyed to keep the Bini history intact.

Suddenly Benin began to brighten up and look like a modern city. The Oba of Benin, Oba Erediuwa Uku Akpolokpolo, was dazed with the development he saw. At least in his life time, he has seen Benin as a modern city unlike what those who governed the State before now told them. Instead of joining to praise Governor Oshiomhole, the PDP, especially those tied to the apron strings of the godfather, see nothing in what the governor is doing. Some others say Oshiomhole has turned Benin into a huge construction site.

Yes. Before the city turns into a beautiful city, some constructions must be carried out and that is exactly what has been going on. Some of the constructions hat have been completed is already giving Benin City a new look which those who used to mock the city  now applaud.

As a result of what the Oba and his chiefs are seeing, they have more or less thrown their weight behind Oshiomhole for a second term so that “he can complete the good works he has started”. Rather than throw in the towel and prepare for the 2016 election, the PDP is crying foul, saying that the Oba, as a father of all Edo people, should be neutral while all true Bini people should support their son, General Charles Airhiavbere of the PDP.

The Oba palace has replied the PDP well by saying that when you build a house and your son leaves it to deteriorate but a visitor comes to renovate and paint it to look nice, it would be unfair to ignore such a visitor and stick to your son. The Oba also passed a message through visiting President Goodluck Jonathan to PDP’s Mr fix  it, that the July 14 election in Edo State should be allowed to be free and fair.

Mr. PATRICK OMORODION,  a journalist, wrote from Lagos.