Bartholomew Okoudo is the Conference of Non-governmental Organisations president in Edo State, South-south Nigeria. He speaks with PREMIUM TIMES about his expectations of Governor Monday Okpebholo’s administration in Edo.
PT: What is your expectation of the new government?
OKOUDO: He (Governor Okpebholo) should improve on the achievements of his predecessor. He should improve on the ones that are people-oriented and discard the ones that the Edo people frown against. There are some actions and policies of the past administration that people frown at. Such policies and actions should be immediately revoked.
PT: What are those policies?
OKOUDO: He (Governor Monday Okpebholo) has started some. For example, the land that was forcefully taken (by the immediate-past administration) from the people of the Oke-Oroma community in the state has been restored to them by the new government. We appreciate that. The rights and statutory rights of the Oba of Benin have been restored to the Oba. We appreciate them. The banning of union activities in marketplaces, Edo people appreciate it.
But then there are a lot more achievements of the past government that he needs to sustain and work on. He should not spend time and dissipate energy trying to probe the former government because that would cause distraction and division. He should focus less on an attempt to probe the former administration and more on his promises—his five-point agenda to the people of Edo State.
PT: How do you hope to engage the new government?
OKOUDO: We will engage him. Right now, we’ve written a series of letters to him and are waiting for his response. We tend to engage him positively and constructively, not on the part of confrontation. When this meeting is actualised, we are going to point out areas we want him to concentrate on, and those things that he is currently doing that will not be in the interest of Edo people, we would still point out to him.
PT: What are the areas you think he needs to improve on?
OKOUDO: He needs to improve on education. The past administration tried in their Edo Best programme. He should extend Edo Best to more schools, especially in the rural areas. Let more people benefit from it. He should improve the learning environment at our state-owned Ambrose Alli University. That school, for a long time, has not enjoyed the government’s benefit. We are happy he dissolved the Governing Council. He should step beyond dissolving the council and improve staff welfare.
PT: How do you ensure the voices and interests of the marginalised and under-represented communities are heard and accommodated in the development process by the new government?
OKOUDO: I don’t think we have under-represented communities in Edo state right now. We don’t have such. At one point or the other, communities have benefited from the government but he should still take his programmes to the interior. Those in the interiors need his attention more than those in town.
PT: How would you hold the new administration accountable for their actions and policies?
OKOUDO: Through engagements to remind them of their campaign promises and five-point agenda, evaluate and see to what extent he has achieved them and to what extent it benefits the people.
PT: How would you balance the need for collaboration with the new government, maintaining independence, and criticising policies where necessary?
OKOUDO: This is not the first time we have had governments. In the past administrations, we engaged them constructively. Where we need to praise, we praise; where we need to criticise, we criticise; where we need to condemn, we condemn. Same we are going to apply to this government, and it gave us positive results. For instance, in the course of this interview, I commended him (Governor Okpebholo) for some of his actions since assuming office and the areas in which he is not doing well.
PT: What are the major challenges facing civil societies in Edo State, and how do you plan to address them?
OKOUDO: One of the challenges is divisions among civil societies. That unity is not strong enough for us to be able to achieve a common goal.
PT: How do you hope to address them?
OKOUDO: That is why we regularly meet within the civil society network to discuss how we can improve ourselves. It is not the government that will do it for us.
PT: How do you hope civil societies can contribute to the success of this administration?
OKOUDO: It is through constructive engagements, not confrontation, but if we think it requires confrontation, we can also go on the streets to confront them.
PT: Have you tried that before?
OKOUDO: We have tried it, and it worked and we got results.
PT: You’ve repeatedly said you want to engage the government. How do you plan to do this?
OKOUDO: When he was campaigning, he told us that he would be meeting the civil societies quarterly. We are expecting the first quarter meeting because he was sworn in in November. We hope he will keep his promise. But if, at the end of the first quarter, he doesn’t invite us, we will write to him.
PT: What are the critical policies of the former administration that you want the new government not to continue?
OKOUDO: He (Governor Okpebholo) has reversed it—that is, the activities of market unions. Those unions made life difficult for the common man. You cannot take a sachet of water to the market to sell without joining the union. That was the major problem the Edo people faced, which led to an increase in the cost of living. I am happy that when he came, he banned market unions.
The former government forcefully took the lands of the Oke-Oroma community and demolished their houses, even those people who genuinely had their Certificate of Occupancy signed by the state governor. They went to court, and the court restrained the governor (Godwin Obaseki) from doing that. The governor refused to listen, demolished their houses, and chased them away from their ancestral lands, but he (Gov Okpebholo) came and reversed it.
PT: Is there anything not captured in the five-point agenda that the civil society would want the governor to accommodate?
OKOUDO: We are satisfied with the five-point agenda. If he works with the five-agenda, in four years Edo will be developed. Let him concentrate on the agenda that he set out for himself.
PT: You mentioned earlier that Governor Okpebholo should not bother probing his predecessor. Why?
OKOUDO: Is a distraction. Have you ever seen a result anywhere? Tell me which state it yielded a result. It is a distraction, noise-making and does not yield any result. There is no need for that. If you can show me one state where probing yielded results then I would say let him go ahead.
PT: How would you rate the security situation in the state under the past administration and where would you love the present administration to improve upon?
OKOUDO: The past administration tried in the area of security when it brought in the Vigilante. The Vigilante was effective in curbing crimes and complementing the police’s efforts. But in the countdown to the (governorship) election, the APC raised an alarm that those Vigilantes were going to be used as election mercenaries to rig the election. Then the inspector-general of police came and banned them.
As soon as he banned them, what we see is an increase in crime rates and an increase in cult-related killings that is still prevailing today.
Let Governor Okpebholo overhaul Edo State’s security architecture. All we’ve seen now is a directive—police arrest them. He should overhaul it and get the communities involved. Once the communities are involved, as the former governor was doing, the crime rate will reduce.
PT: But the governor has banned cultism…
OKOUDO: (Cuts in) … You don’t just go on air and say I have banned cultism – cultism is not banned like that. You could proscribe the name but what about the actors in it? They will come up with another name. He should involve community leaders, traditional rulers at the grassroots, and religious leaders to be able to curb these cult-related killings because these people live in the community. The community knows them.
PREMIUM TIMES
Comment here
You must be logged in to post a comment.