By Victor Ogiemwonyi
The recent effort in implementing E-Governance in Edo state, to make the public service effective and efficient, is most commendable, and reflects what can be done when there is focus to do the right thing.
The institutional processes put in place, are the most important building blocks for development. No matter what anyone thinks of Godwin Obaseki, he has been consistent and focused on the important things, especially in building the institutions that will ensure development in the long run.
Godwin Obaseki and I once shared a vision of what will make our people and Edo State standout, in a Nigeria that has refused to work.
Sometime in 2006, at a chance meeting with our mutual friend Yemi Cardoso, a former Economic planning commissioner in Lagos state, he inspired us by letting us know that we did not need to be politicians to make impact in our state.
He said if the National (Nigeria) continues to underperform, the Sub Nationals (the States) must take their fate in their own hands and do the needful, to do well, no matter what Nigeria chooses to do.
He said, all we needed to do was to find a viable politician and line up behind him and help him with workable ideas. That is what he and Mr. Wale Edun had done in Lagos State. That chance meeting was the inspiration that propelled everything else we did later and has brought Godwin Obaseki to where he is today.
The credit for providing the leadership that led to the creation of the Economic Strategy Team (EST) for Edo State, goes to Godwin Obaseki. We created the thinking group behind Adams Oshiomohole administration.
At first, I was a little reluctant to participate, because I had tried to help in Chief Lucky Igbinedion’s administration, by organizing the first ever economic summit in any state in 1999, just about 5 Weeks after the administration was birthed.
The focus was to ask for ideas from everyone in the state and out of it, what was required to get Edo State to achieve a sound sub-national status that will propel it to greater heights.
No matter what Nigeria chose to do, we were worried that Edo State at the time was slipping, despite having key advantages. It was allowing itself to be dragged down with Nigeria that was going down gradually at that time.
Edo state had problems with declining educational opportunities, where the state used to thrive, we had unprecedented poverty, with all the attendant issues of unemployment, insecurity and mass illegal migration.
We thought these were things we needed to focus on. We called the summit “Edo reality” because we wanted to look at our state realistically and put forward solutions for the new administration to work with.
My good friend, Hon. Edos Ebomonyi headed the secretariat. The two days summit was a huge success and over 100 papers with various solutions were presented. I appealed to core Edo professionals at the time to make input and attend, with some chairing some of the sessions.
People like the late Mr. Arit Adams who was in NNPC at the time, Mr. Emmanuel Ijewere a very prominent Chartered Accountant, who ran one of the leading Accounting Firms who was from Edo State, Dr. Joseph Uujamah a forward-looking Engineer, who would become president of Nigeria Society of Engineers, Chief Lawson Omokhodion, Mrs. Ifueko Omogui – Okuaro, and several others.
The 2-day event which took place at the state House of Assembly premises at Ring Road in Benin City, attracted a huge crowd. The huge public attendance was a pleasant surprise.
The summit was opened by the new Governor, Chief Lucky Igbinedion and his wife, her Excellency Eki Igbinedion who was present on day 2, to represent the Governor. That was the measure and belief the Governor had in the economic summit program.
Unfortunately, the success of the program, became its problem. Some of those in the corridors of power, became threatened. They started saying to my hearing that PDP have their own programs, and they were not impressed with the “big, big” English.
The Governor was however still enthusiastic about some of the ideas and the optimism with which the public received the economic summit, was something he noticed. Everywhere he went, people spoke positively about the summit proposals and public expectation was very high.
I remember being on an Edo Broadcasting Service Radio (EBSR) “call in program,” the usual 1-hour time slot, had to be extended because of the huge participation and public interest. Many called in to commend the effort or to make their own suggestions on implementation of some of the ideas.
As is usual with these things, gradually the politicians and those around the Governor, started to tear away at these proposals, some even proposed themselves for leading some of the initiatives and were appointed, but because they had no idea of what it was about, they made a royal mess of it and became so bad, that it became a source of the first scandals, for the new administration.
Some of these disasters were the beginning of what negatively branded the administration.
One of the ideas that came out of that summit, was the Micro Credit program.
When I saw the reluctance to do the needful in some of the proposals, I spoke to the Governor directly about the importance of the Micro Credit program; I told him the poverty level in our state was alarming and was responsible for most of the other ills manifesting in our society.
I encouraged him to see himself as a champion of the poor. He can even use the program to build a loyal voter base that will always support him. It took a fire disaster at New Benin Market to activate the pilot program, which became known as the EDO STATE MICRO CREDIT SCHEME.
Despite its success and the very strong base for it, it did not receive the support it needed. When it was high-jacked to start distributing Motorcycles (Okadas)…. It was time to opt out. We handed over to the supervising Ministry. (Ministry of Commerce and Industry).
At the time, the program had over 3,000 beneficiaries and over N22m in loans, with a repayment history of 97%. (The poor don’t owe) We also gave them Bank statements showing all the activities.
We gave an album with all beneficiaries and their pictures showing all the Government officials, who were present at Check presentations to beneficiaries. Loans were only given to members of co – operative societies registered with the ministry.
The structure was straight forward, Beneficiaries formed themselves into cooperative societies, along their lines of business, (Rice sellers Association, for example). The criteria for eligibility was, the poor who were engaged in economic activities, no matter how small.
The cooperative societies registered with the state ministry of Commerce and industry, who will then forward their list. We only made the N50k loans, to those on the list.
We insisted that a government official, Deputy Governor, LGA Chairman, Commissioner, must be present to witness the disbursement and take pictures with the beneficiaries, with evidence of the beneficiary taking the Check when it was handed over.
All this ensured there was a transparent and accountable system that can be auditable. The Governor never at any time interfered with the process and never recommended any of the beneficiaries.
We also noted that Mr. Philip Olumese who was the Commissioner at the time, was also a strong believer in the program and very supportive. He did his best to move the program from its pilot program stage but the negative influences around the Governor, were too strong.
This program was before, even the first Micro Finance Bank existed in Nigeria. Another, fallout of the summit, was the inspiration that it gave to a group that emerged in Benin immediately after, called the Association of Good Governance. (AGG).
It was hosted and anchored by the now Senator Matthew Uroghide, our objective was to ensure the state capitalized on some of the ideas of the summit. It fizzled out because some of the later joiners were more interested in making it an opposition group to the new Government.
The discouragement I got in that effort to help the new Government, was why I was unenthusiastic at the start of (EST). Godwin Obaseki was a strong influence in our starting the Economic Strategy Team (EST) that gave Comrade Adams Oshiomhole the strong start, when he became Governor.
Our thinking was that Togo and Benin Republics were countries who maintain an army, customs service, police, etc., yet their Budget was less than what Edo state had, so all we needed to do, was to think like a country within Nigeria.
We were going to build our institutions and infrastructure to support our economy. Lagos was already emerging as such sub-national. Godwin never stopped talking about this idea, he repeatedly told me: victor, we should get involved with Edo and do whatever it takes to make our State stand out.
As it was in those days, Godwin and I spoke a minimum of twice a day. We did not even have a candidate in mind, just that we needed to find someone who will work with us. The opportunity came in late 2006.
I had gone to a function at the Federal Palace Hotel in Lagos, the former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Governor Obong Atta was having some reception for his wife, a 50th birthday or wedding anniversary or something like that, I cannot remember now.
Comrade Adams walked in, as is usual in these types of occasion you automatically sit with those you know. He came and sat beside me. Let me say, Comrade Adams was just an acquaintance, he did not really know me, despite our many interactions previously.
We had mutual friends and met severally. As the event progressed, we started to talk, and he told me, he was interested in running for the governorship of Edo state, his tenure as president of NLC was coming to an end soon.
He was afraid that he will not have the resources and the PDP will be a hostile place for him, given his activism during his tenure and his clashes with OBJ. I encouraged him and told him that given his very successful tenure as NLC president, he had become a known name and that was an asset he could leverage on.
I also told him that finding the resources for running for office, was not a one-man effort. I told him, I could introduce him to say, 100 of my friends who will pledge N5m each for his campaign. The key word was pledge.
They will only redeem their pledge if they think he has a chance, but at least, he will be starting his campaign with a pledge of N500m IOUs. He was very excited and said this was something he had not thought about, he was encouraged to now give it a serious thought.
As soon as I got out of there, I made a call to Godwin, I told him I think we have found our candidate, when I mentioned Comrade Adams, he was not immediately convinced, and I told him I thought he was a pragmatic person, and we may be able to work with him.
As chance will have it, the next weekend, our mutual friend Osakwe Agbontaen was having his 50th birthday anniversary and we were having a party for him at La Scala Italian Restaurant at the Muson Center, in Lagos.
Halfway through the Event, Comrade Adams showed up, I immediately walked over with Godwin to join him, and we went outside to talk. As I was about to introduce Godwin Obaseki to him, they both said they had already met and knew each other.
Comrade Adams in his usual jovial self, made a joke that he met Godwin at the National Pension steering Committee meeting where they both served, he said naturally, Godwin was on the Capitalist side of the table, and he was on the worker’s side.
That was the beginning of what was to come. Godwin and I became serious about moving the idea forward. In fact, the very first funding that went into Comrade Adams campaign, did not come from him.
Godwin and I put down N250k each, hired a hotel in Dolphin Estate in Ikoyi and the very first Economic Strategy Team meetings started. We invited a number of our friends to join, with some very intelligent young men to assist us.
That is how people like Igbinidu Inneh and Taiwo Akerele came on board. We made plans for 10 years …. Our visioning process was asking people, what would you like to see in Edo State in 10 years? We made our strategy revolve around 3 things – Productivity, Infrastructure, Education (our PIE strategy).
Anyone who understands the importance of these planks as the basis of Godwin Obaseki’s focus, will give him credit. These planks are evident in the success of the administration’s education programs and the strengthening of the public service that can deliver development.
He has brought in good brains into his government and the public service. He has instituted training for public servants, and enhanced their welfare, all these are towards the productivity plan.
He has also implemented our plans to focus on generating the required revenue for the State by simply, focusing on everyone making a contribution to the state revenues, no matter how small and their status. This is also an inclusive taxation plan, to put people at the center of democracy.
If you pay taxes, you will be interested in how your money is spent. Godwin has not done everything he should do in our plans, but he is on track. He has been derailed somewhat by the unnecessary political wars, which has also drained resources that could have gone to better things.
That is the reality. We should appreciate him for what he has done. I am only writing this as a stakeholder that is pleased that some of these ideas are taking root. Those who were in the background, are happy that some of these things, will outlast him, and in some cases are irreversible.
I am not a politician and not a contractor and God forbid, I can never be a praise singer for any benefit.
Victor Ogiemwonyi is a retired Investment Banker, and writes from Ikoyi, Lagos.
