The Governorship Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Asuen Ighodalo, has vowed to make Edo State a model for the remaining 35 states to emulate.
He said: “In this election, we want to win very seriously and we have the resilience to do the work necessary to win. This is because we want to be given the chance to prove that we can create an Edo State of our dreams. Through peer pressure from Edo State, we want to pull up other states in Nigeria and then Nigeria can get its chance at development.
“My focus is truly Edo State; and by God’s grace we will be given the opportunity to create a First-World governance structure that will benefit the people of the state with love.”
Ighodalo, PDP Governorship Candidate in the September 21, 2024 off-season election in Edo State, spoke on Sunday at a luncheon with Press executives in Lagos.
According to him, this dream model fired the competitive zeal in Nigeria in the early 1960s, where the Western Region took the lead in development, following which the Eastern Region moved up too; and both pulled up the Northern Region.
He said: “That was the time the country had its fastest growth ever. And the Federal Government had no part to play in it. You will recall that in the Exclusive List of the Constitution at the time, all the Federal Government was concerned with were Immigration, Defence, Foreign Affairs and Currency. The Federal Government gained small money from the regions. So it didn’t have funds to waste. The Minister of Works from Daura, what is his business with the road passing in front of my house?”
According to him, the current structure created a constitutional friction that must be addressed before the country would move forward on the rungs of development.
Lamenting that Nigerians tended to excel abroad, where they had been recognised as the best immigrant group in the US, for example, Ighodalo said that time had come to replicate the Diaspora excellence back home in the country.
“There is something fundamentally wrong with us here at home; and we must deal with it,” he said. “And my promise is that we will start dealing with these symptoms from Edo State.”
Responding to charges by the likes of former Edo State’s Governor Adams Oshiomhole that he lacked a home base or impact in the native Esan land, the PDP candidate charged the sitting Senator of Edo North with being mischievous.
Ighodalo subsequently reeled out achievements he had chalked up in his hometown Ewohinmi, including: Adoption of schools for privately-funded projects, awarding of scholarships, sinking of boreholes, establishing of a micro-credit firm, and influencing the Late Minister of Power Chief Bola Ige to provide electricity in the town.
He narrated: “Since we brought electricity to Ewohinmi, more than nine times, when people have vandalised the transformer and cables, I have paid. The last time was towards the last Christmas when I paid N11 million to resuscitate the lines and repair the transformer.
“I have a scheme where I give N20,000 to women periodically. I have a N25 million facility for women traders and farmers. When I was Chairman of Sterling Bank, the bank matched my effort with N50 million grants. I can say that these people have not done one-tenth of what I have done for my people.”
When a Media Executive challenged him on why he had kept such initiatives under wraps until now, the PDP politician said: “Maybe if I knew I was going to run for office, I would be shouting so that people will know. But you have been helping people undergoing pain and suffering, for me there was nothing to shout about.”
Dismissing charges of not being a home boy in Edo, Ighodalo pointed out that most of his accusers equally lived “abroad” outside Edo.
He said that former Governor Oshiomhole was previously based in Kaduna most of his adult life, while Deputy Governor Philip Shaibu (Ighodalo’s archrival in PDP) used to live in Jos, Plateau State before both men became active in Edo State politics.
Submitting that the last election injured Nigerians’ faith in the electoral process, Ighodalo, however, vowed that he and the party would do everything to protect their votes in the coming elections.
