A former commissioner for Information and Orientation in Edo state, Kassim Afegbua has alleged that the successor of Governor Godwin Obaseki will inherit a huge burden.
Afegbua is one of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirants for the forthcoming gubernatorial election in the state.
Afegbua said he would turn the fortune of the state around for the people if given the mandate to serve.
Afebua accused Governor Godwin Obaseki of plunging the state into debt.
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He said: ”For me, anybody who is taking over from the governor of Edo state with 325 billion as our debts will have a huge task on our hands. So, we must put our thinking cap on and think outside the box that can generate ideas.
“We must keep the conversation around governance to ensure that we are able to do that which will help our people to advance their collective interest.”
Afegbua said he would beg the federal government if the situation demanded to fix the bad road from Auchi to Benin.
He said the road has become so deplorable that it should provoke action from any state chief executive, to do whatever was legally possible to bring succour to the people.
Afegbua, who spoke to journalists in Abuja, said he was the best aspirants among those seeking the acceptability of the members of the party to fly the flag of the APC in the Edo gubernatorial election.
According to him, it would not be out of place to plead with the federal government to get a special grant to construct the road from Auchi to Edo state capital.
He said: “For God sake, Edo state is in the news for the wrong reason, there is huge infrastructural decay, address then, instead, you go and put a sign board and say this is federal government roads. What about the ones that are state roads, have you done anything to warrant applause from the people?”
“Have you impacted on the state road, so that we can say that you have done all the internal roads, community roads such that we are happy with you?
“Why do I have to play politics with everything? If I am opportune to be the governor of Edo state today, I will go cap in hand to go and plead with the federal government and say that this is an APC state, we need to do this road, please give us with a special grant, if it is N20bn, let us fix the road between Auchi and Benin.
“Edo is major artery to reach out to the North, southwest and the southeast, so Edo state, is a state in transit, there is so much to this, a lot of people do not connect with this, they need to understand that Edo state is divinely positioned as a middle, of the situation which earned it the ‘Midwest.’”
Afegbua argued that he is the best aspirant in the lot of those seeking the ticket of the APC as he comes with impeccable assets that the party needs to progress.
He said his decades of political experience in the various parties he has sojourned with one thing remained: he has been loyal to the truth and has been consistent with the issues of development and respect for defined processes.
Afegbua noted that the development within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state was good for the APC.
He said: “We have the legacy PDP, the PDP of Philip Shuaibu and the PDP of Obaseki, Now Obaseki has chosen anointed one, so to speak, Asue ighodalo, Philip Shuaibu is contesting and Ogbeide Ihama for the legacy PDP, we are entering into another era of political altercation horse trading and all of that, it is good for the PDP in the state so that the APC would have its own smooth sail.
”I condemn his style of government, his fight with the Benin Monarchy, he is trying to balkanize the kingdom for no just cause, he is fighting over artifact, fighting with the deputy, deputy fighting with the governor, governor fighting with party, party fighting with governor.
“I love the processes the APC has put in place to get all of us aspirants on the platform, on board to sit down and set up a committee of six persons who will prune down the figure from 29 to maybe between six and eight contestants, so that we will be a manageable figure that will contest at the appropriate time.”
