Government Retreat in Udomi: A Postmortem of Obaseki and His PDADC Administration in Edo ~ By Liberty 'Ruyi

Once upon a time, Edo glowed on the front pages of national newspapers and on the social media handles of temporarily recruited Edo youths in a professionally organized political misinformation media strategy. The goal was simple: "paint a fantastic picture to win the sentiment of the Edo diaspora community, and hoodwink the supposedly educated and exposed." Obaseki won the battle but not the lasting memory of true performance.

In the days of "Ematon", private companies were commissioned by the government as performance, and government revenues were applied to personal retirement investment; the case of MOWAA and Radisson Blue Hotel. Renovation of public buildings were hyped as "never-before-seen achievements" by a well-oiled propaganda targeted at mind capture, and the condition of schools was celebrated as Edo BEST in a dilapidated condition with casual staff tagged "Edo Star", and the people fell for the whitewash and coercion. It was glory in nothing, not even a road to Godwin Obaseki's village.

But lies travel the middle of the world before truth wears its pants. The "meet and greet" of the refugee faraway home could not save the day. It was only at the middle of the world when truth wore its pants to travel. Truth is now traveling through the different sectors of Edo State with a SHINE agenda, and everywhere it travels, Obaseki's administration becomes a mockery of itself.

Flyovers are rising over our roofs to decongest gridlocks and add to ecstatics, "This is A Federal Road, Bear With Us" signboards are giving way to caterpillars. Rural roads, including the ones leading to Obaseki's village are giving way to modernization. Election SA recruits are becoming civil servants. Edo indigents are now doing better at little cost what Lagos consultants were contracted to do under shady big deals, and the list of the reversals of Obaseki's atrocities by Senator Monday Okpebholo is endless.

As members of the Edo State Executive Council and Heads of Agencies and parastatals of government gather for a retreat in a developing Udomi, a seldom-unknown village before a responsible village Governor arrived, our memory brings us back to the fact that there was once an unknown Iyamho, transformed courtesy of the legendary Comr. (Sen.) Adams Oshiomhole, but Obaseki was lost; having no village today to call his own as a former governor.

Indeed, failure is a lonely orphan as Obaseki's former allies now meander in confusion between the now-disgraced People's Democratic Party, PDP, and the unfortunate Action Democratic Congress, ADC. What remains of them is shame masquerading as opposition, clothed with the bitterness of a wasted opportunity to do good to mankind.