WEST-IDAHOSA'S REACTION TO HON. JUSTICE AMAIZE'S CONMENTS ON OSHIOMHOLE'S STYLE OF GOVERNANCE;
Thank you my lord for your very frank and fearless comments on the way Oshiomhole ran Edo State like the "Hobbesian State of nature" with little or no resistance from the political, traditional, social, business or religious class. He was hailed as a messiah for building dysfunctional schools with apparently colorful physical structures which had no educational facilities or teachers.
They claimed that he constructed some roads and that entitled him to insult proven Edo elites every minute, humiliate citizens publicly, destroy the public service structure and rendered pensioners completely helpless and hopeless in respect of their entitlements. Like a lord of the manor, he imposed multiple taxes on the people and got them physically arrested by opportunistic and corrupt law enforcement agents who ended up exploiting such victims.
Market women were not spared. They were made to pay all sorts of rates enforced by a newly created set of millionaire thugs who scattered men and fowl alike in market places while extorting money from the downtrodden.
Basking on the general dissatisfaction with the Lucky Igbinedion regime, he made so much noise about ordinary infrastructure as if Igbinedion's regime was a standard regime. He forgot that before him, there was Samuel Ogbemudia, Prof Ambrose Alli and to some limited extent, Prof Osunbor.
He spent public funds like rainfall and borrowed away the financial soul of the State on white elephant projects like the water storm and a most unnecessary university. I wonder how that State will service its many debts.
He treated everyone with levity except a few alleluia men and women from his clan who sang his praise from day to day. Men and women with self esteem avoided him like a plague as he took delight in denigrating anyone who had the qualities that he lacked.
I pity the Ojuromi of Uromi. See how he purportedly suspended him and dethroned him even when a court case was pending. Of course, the State judiciary was his foot mat and the State House of Assembly, his handkerchief.
The wounds he left in the hearts of many Edo people would require serious psychotherapy to heal. The present administration MUST right these wrongs and be humane. God bless Edo State.
Dr. West-Idahosa.
