With cameras clicking away amidst banters and reverie, the curtain was finally lowered for members of the Edo State Executive Council last Friday, as the first term of Governor Adams Oshiomhole came to a close, writes TONY IYARE.
The end was so memorable. Members were locked in rounds of photo sessions laced with hugs and sharing of banters. And then frank talk. The curtain was later drawn on the life of the first-term cabinet as its last working day in the first stanza came to a close.
No dull moments. Neither do you need a mug of coffee to ward off sleep. It was usually full of life. Even with a dose of laughing gas, surviving the rib-cracking banters at the weekly meeting of the Edo State Executive Council led by Governor Adams Oshiomhole can be a hard nut.
This is where the grand vision of a new Edo State is weaned, leading to massive infrastructural renewal in a clime where things had before now been in limbo for close to 30 years. As the governor’s mien radiates anger or smiles depending on what manner of briefs, he reaches for his carrot and stick, if you are caught on the wrong side, things may be particularly awry.
As members reel on a grindstone to meet set target, there are no excuses.? Even when information seems to flow from an inverted pyramid and funds come in trickles, the comrade governor expects his aides to be on top of their game and will brook no stories.
A not too palatable report from any member of the cabinet will attract a dinner of bile with Oshiomhole hitting hard with the edge of his tongue. He will not spare his reproach even in a market place. He can be caustic and makes no bone about any predilection for diplomatic niceties.? “One thing I cannot strive for is to be a diplomat”, he will always reel. When this is done with gesticulation from his trade mark left hand or stern gaze, then that member may be stewed in his own pot.
Working with Oshiomhole, easily one of the Nigeria’s most hard working and busiest governors can stretch one to his or her teeter.? For his aides, the ground rules and matching orders are clear. Your nose must constantly be on the grindstone. You must always be on the grill. You must be ready to pull chestnuts from a raging fire. You must be ready to bring down a mountain with bare hands.
You must be ready to work for an average of 15 hours a day without a wink. You must be ready for long distance races almost every other day. Like the five wise virgins, you must be packed and ready to hop anywhere as the eyes twinkle.
For Oshiomhole who never treated his aides with kid gloves, these are modest demands. Perhaps busier than a bee, his work schedules are hectic. He works very late into the wee hours of the morning and hardly sleeps. His bountiful engine never knocks. You have to virtually plead with him to retire at 4am. And before anyone is up, he’s in the office.
In what was dubbed as the session of the midnight sun, the cabinet was once locked in a meeting that lasted for more than 24 hours in the formative period of the administration. As Oshiomhole describes it, “We did not come here to lament. So we needed to come up with ideas on how to revive the state”.
Not many of his aides will pay him gladly for always putting them through their paces. “I know it is very difficult to work with me, I know I’m a very hard and ruthless driver, I’m a long distance runner”, he mused to members of his cabinet who had gathered last Friday which marked the last working day of his first tenure.
While acknowledging their collective work and thanking members profusely for their contribution that has earned accolades from far and near, he was almost moved to tears as he blew the whistle.
“Whatever accolades we have received are products of our collective effort. I believe that we collectively gave our best as commissioners. We ensured that what we were doing benefitted from the renewal of our mandate. It was clear that those projects which we presented before the people, was the collective result of our efforts. I want to thank you immensely for your contribution. But no matter how we enjoy a game, when it is full time, the referee must blow the whistle”, he said.
Continuing in his effusive thanks to members of the cabinet, Oshiomhole quips: “You are perhaps one of the least paid and appreciated in the country but that did not translate to low productivity. Thank you so much for what God has used you to do”.
No doubt, the robust discourses at the cabinet weekly meetings have been quite engaging. As the curtain drew for the first stanza, and members took turns to engage in photo sessions with Governor Oshiomhole, it was clear that this was nunc dimitis.
While acknowledging the frank engagement with the cabinet, Dr Osagie Obayuwana, attorney general and commissioner of Justice who responded on behalf of members was equally emphatic that the out-going cabinet had impacted positively on the welfare of the people of the state. “This is perhaps one of the best assemblages of the cabinet consisting of egg heads. We have learnt many things from you Sir”, he said.?????
For many like this writer, thanks to Oshiomhole, the length and breadth of the state are now on the back of the palms. From his work ethics, deft management of funds, rigorous engagement of the people spread in different parts of the state to his dance steps on the soap box which leaves butterflies in the stomach of his political opponents, Oshiomhole has left his imprint. His commitment to social and political re-engineering of Edo state has nudged significant fruits.
It is perhaps easier to pass a camel through the eye of a needle than pass a file through him. With his red biro, he reduces many long memos to craps and then a reprimand. “Do you think you know what you are doing?”
Oshiomhole has more than any governor before him visited several far-flung hamlets and taken governance to the people’s door steps. “We have ‘eye-marked’ and not earmarked projects”, he says in his latest contribution to the country’s political lexicon evoking the administration’s real democracy dividends to Edo people.?
In virtually all the 18 local government areas and the 192 wards of the state, there’s a newly built road, school, hospital, water or rural electricity project. His imprint dots almost everywhere. It was therefore easy for the people to glean the empty and banal rhetoric of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election.?
From a situation where students sat on stones in dilapidated classrooms to the red roof schools equipped with aluminium windows and doors, PVC ceilings, white boards, tiles and alluring desks that has brought them to the standard of any school in America, the fundamental restructuring of the education sector has taken life.
New roads with daunting engineering are now constructed across communities that have waited for the proverbial Godot, opening them for prime investments. The road around Imiegba and Okpekpe in Etsako Central LGA reminds you only of the Sierra Mountains in California. In other areas, the transformation has been equally stunning.
For the members of the retiring cabinet, being part of the team that contributed immensely to the baking process of a new Edo State was quite fulfilling as they all took their bow.
— Iyare is the media aide to the Edo State governor