Benin, Edo, Nigeria – By Oladipo Airenakho.
Nigeria’s former Head of State, Retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari said Saturday that Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s excellent performance in Edo State was a testimony to how APC government will transform the country for good when it wins the election at the federal level in 2015.
General Buhari, presidential aspirant of the All Progressive Congress in the forthcoming general election made the remarks at the commissioning of Ayogwiri-Apana-Okpekpe road in Etsako East Local Government Area of the state.
Buhari said having commissioned some other projects in Benin City, he had no doubt that “Edo State is blessed with one of the most dynamic Governors in the country.”
He remarked that roads like that would boost the economy and that it was something only government could provide as it has been done by the Edo State Government.
According to him, deplorable roads pose an obstacle to farmers as they prevent them from taking their products to the city for sale, with the resulting increases in cost.
“It is so expensive because transporters will not come. They will find out that it is not worth it. When they come and they go back they will discover that the repairs will be more than the money they earn from the farmers. And the farmers themselves will think they are working for the transporters.”
“There is no doubt that this road will give accessibility to this community. Without accessibility it will be difficult to convey farm produce and buyers will not want to come since it will increase cost. Only the government can intervene to ease this problem. May God in his infinite mercy pay you back”, he prayed.
“Projects like this are a testimony of the high level thinking of the APC and how the APC government will transform the country for good when it wins the election at the federal level in 2015.”
In his remark, Governor Adams Oshiomhole referred to the problem encountered at the beginning of the project and how it was surmounted with determination and willpower.
“Even to survey this road was quite problematic. But in the end it was done but the amount required to construct it was frightening. And I said to myself there is nothing that is good that will come cheap and we are convinced that rural Nigeria should benefit from development.”
Governor Oshiomhole believed that if government should touch everybody, “ we should spread development to every nook and cranny of the state, then no terrain should be considered too expensive to develop.”
“I feel fulfilled that God has used us to make a difference in the lives of very ordinary people and there is nothing that is good that any leader wants to do that he won’t be able to do and that the poverty we face as a nation is not poverty of resources but poverty of ideas and poverty of commitment”, he said.
Oshiomhole went on to say this: “For the other party they believe that constructing roads to the rural areas is dangerous to their instrument of rigging. When the place cannot be accessed, both INEC and the police are not in a hurry to go there and they will vote for them in the city and announce the result on their behalf.”
According to him, the construction of the road has placed an impediment on the ability of election riggers and their rigging infrastructure by providing access for election materials to get to their locations irrespective of where they are.
Also speaking, the Onwueweko of Okpekpe Kingdom, His Royal Highness, Peter Abalume Osigbemeh recalled how in the past many politicians used the construction of the road as a bait to win votes in the kingdom, adding that they never fulfilled their promises as soon as elections were over.
“At a time, some politicians made us believe that the construction of our road was an impossible task to be done. The Holy Book tells us that there is time for every thing under the sun. So when the time came a great unionist turned politician called Adams Oshiomhole appeared on the political scene. He is the messiah that God ordained to provide a solidly built road for Okpekpe community”, he said.
