I lead protests to identify with people, says Oshiomhole

After his convoy was involved in an accident and three journalists died and his Principal Private Secretary, was killed, Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole led a protest to the Benin Office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over updating of voters’ register. He spoke with Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu, on other issues ahead of the governorship election. Excerpts:
THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) claimed that you debased your office of the governor with your participation in protests
The PDP is not in a position to define my role. If members of the public say what PDP is saying, I might pause for a while. The difference between the leaders of the PDP and me is that none of them can walk on the streets of Benin or even Uromi without a bulletproof vehicle. And so, I will not conduct my office according to their dictates; I will conduct my office according to my style and I have a mass background. The qualities that brought me to office include mass protests. If as a governor I feel that an institution of state is being mismanaged or misused I have a duty to go and check it, and if it is something that I can sit in my office and take care of I will do so. I am not one of those leaders who ask people to go and die while they remain in the comfort of their offices. I want to lead by example. If I ask my people to go and protest, I will lead the protest and endure the stress of protesting under the sun. recently, we were out and it stated raining and the people said I should get into the car. I almost listened to them but I said to myself, ‘why should I be inside my car when all these people who are following me are in the rain.’ The rain was heavy and for me, it was a test of will. If PDP says they agree with what I did it means it was wrong but if they say what I did is wrong, it means it is right. I will lead any protest against any attempt to rig this election; I am not going to hide.
We can’t allow these people to mess up the future; there is no fighting shy, no hiding. I put them on notice on what I am going to do, and that is the union style. If you are going to fight, you give notice, we don’t fight like cowards who kill in the dark or use tipper drivers to try to kill their enemies.
If we are going to have a free and fair election, we must be vigilant and have the courage to come out and deal with those agents of darkness. We have told them, they will not be able to change the rules in Edo. What they did not do in Cross River, they cannot do it in Edo and the protest we led is just the beginning. Somebody called me on telephone from the Presidency and said that he heard that half a million people have occupied INEC offices in Benin City. I said yes and that I authorised it. If half a million people can occupy INEC office over the manipulation of voter’s registration exercise, it is just for them to imagine how many people will come out if they attempt to rig the election.
President Goodluck Jonathan has enough headache, managing security and other issues and if he allows a party man to create crisis in Edo, it is his luck, because we will fight them. They are holding nocturnal meetings on how to cheat but we will do everything to frustrate any cheating. We have enough men and women and if the system fails, we have the capacity and we will deploy that capacity and I will be there. I am not going to hide and pretend that I am not part of it.
What was the recent protest about?
An official of the INEC was seen with a machine, which is marked for Igueben as early as 8 am. When he was confronted and asked what the machine was for, he said it was for training and they asked where? He said that they used it for training in Igueben and that he was asked to take it to Uromi. We got information, which confirmed that they have perfected arrangements to deploy machines. In other states, they did the voters’ registration at the level of the council but in Edo, they wanted to do it at every ward as if it is a general registration exercise and in addition, they have 472 machines whereas they need only 192 if they were to do the wards and if they were to do councils they need only 18 machines. So clearly they have over 200 machines, which they want to use secretly to register people and some thugs they will use on the day of the election.
I think the Chairman of the INEC Prof Attahiru Jega is not aware, as this is surely an arrangement between INEC’s director of ICT in Edo and their boss in Abuja. They must have an arrangement with PDP to use the voters’ registration exercise to doctor the register. What they want to do is even much more than this; they were going to mix up the names. There are a couple of things they planned that revolve around the voters’ register but luckily we got one of the boys who confessed.
Recently you claimed that the PDP met in Abuja planning how to manipulate the election. Why are you so sure this is the situation and can you explain it more?
They met in Abuja basically to say that they must rig the election and that they will use the military, the voters’ registration exercise and bring thugs from ex-militants to take advantage of the voters’ registration. They have particular areas where they will use them. They settle a lot of people in INEC particularly those in ICT and basically it is all about how to rig the election.
Do you think you have done enough to earn the mandate of the people for another term?
We still have a lot of infrastructural deficits. In Benin City alone, we have done many roads but we have more to be done. We still need massive investment in rural and urban infrastructure. We need to deliver water and electricity in more communities, open up more rural roads, build more health centers, equip them and make sure they function. We are not done yet with infrastructure but of course infrastructure is a means to an end. When you open up rural areas, provide water, electricity and roads, you have the appropriate environment to attract investors. In the second phase, we believe that a number of people who want to invest in Edo will have the required environment to do so. Basically, we have to continue with what we have started. The flooding problem has not been resolved, but we are dealing with it.
We are also working on power supply. Edo will easily be a hub of selling power to other sates if the federal government eases its monopoly and deregulates the power sector. There are a number of independent power producers who want to come, there are farmers who are interested and all of that will lead to job creation, which ultimately is the only way to fight poverty. When people work and they are paid, that will have an impact on security as we will not have idle hands.
What government can do is to set up enabling environment for industries because I don’t believe that government can run businesses. But we are doing something to revive existing industries like Okpella cement Factory. They are working there now when I threatened to revoke the privatisation done by the PDP. The Bendel Breweries was run down after it incurred a huge debt of over N1.8 billion guaranteed by the state under the PDP. We worked out a deal with AMCON and we are going to pay almost a billion naira. We have started paying the debt off because with the debt hanging on them, we cannot get a private investor to invest there and there are challenges between Churchgate and Edo Government arising from PDP deals with Churchgate that went sour. Until we resolve these issues, there is not much that we can do with Bendel Breweries.
We want to privatise the Juice Factory at Egor, Fertiliser at Auchi, Cassavita at Uromi. To me, they are all fake projects, because the only asset they have is the land; the equipment on the land are second hand, they never really worked from day one. We are attracting a lot of businesses now to the state and creating an enabling environment for the empowerment of the people.