Obaseki’s Controversial Legacy

Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, last week charged residents of the state to protect and preserve the environment for a sustainable future.

Receiving the state Commissioner for Urban and Physical Planning, Isoken Omo, members of staff of the ministry, environmentalists and school children, who embarked on an 8.5km walk to mark the 2023 World Habitat Day, at the Government House, the governor charged parents to plant trees for their children to celebrate their birthdays, noting that if one million children plant trees in a year, the state would have successfully planted one million trees.

It is sad that with the deplorable state of roads in the state, Obaseki’s focus is on planting trees.

Today, 12 local government areas out of the 18 in the state are completely cut off from Benin City, the state capital. In fact, the people of the state have never had it so bad. They are really suffering moving from one community to another. 

As a transportation hub, Edo State connects several parts of the country. In the last four years, the major roads leading to the state and outside are in deplorable conditions. These roads include the Benin-Sapele Road, Benin-Agbor Road, Benin-Auchi Road, Benin-Lagos, Benin-Abraka Road and Benin-Akure Road.

The state used to have some of the best road networks in Nigeria, but today, almost all of them – federal and state roads – are in deplorable conditions. Obaseki has not fixed strategic state roads, let alone volunteering to construct federal roads and requesting for a refund from the federal government.

Not even the all-important Benin-Auchi Road that leads to 12 out of the 18 local government areas of the state has caught his attention.

Obaseki’s critics have challenged him to name the strategic state roads he constructed or rehabilitated since he came to power in 2016 but he has not taken up this challenge. Obaseki has been blaming the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government for playing politics and abandoning federal roads in the state.

However, what he failed to realise is that he was a member of the APC in his first term and still failed to successfully attract the attention of the federal government to the federal roads.

His opponents wonder what enduring legacy he plans to bequeath in the state when he leaves office.