A leading group under the banner of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the cross carpeting of Governor Obaseki into PDP as an added advantage for the party in Edo State, South South Zone and the National level.
Comrade Usman Okai Austin,the National Coordinator of the PDP Youth Frontiers in a press statement on Saturday, 20th June 2020 stated that, Obaseki as a modern and educated politician his entrance into PDP should be seen as a welcome development to members of PDP in Edo State which is largely dominated by the party. PDP is known to have the strong culture that rotates on the axiom: Power belongs to the people, a slogan which has drastically reduced and eliminated from PDP fold godfatherism.
Unlike APC where Obaseki is coming from which promote egoistic tendencies and hence godfathers interests are seen as superior to the masses in making development and electoral decisions,
In PDP we have very strong believe that the unnecessary distractions,that Obaseki encountered in the APC due to his recourse to the overall interest of the people rather than those of the party leaders alone is no longer fashionable. Since Obaseki is a project oriented politician, he will definitely not have problem in the PDP where we have performers in governors like Wike, Udom,Okowa, Seyi, Makinde among others, who have proven to be development driven in all it ramifications.
Okai,argued that, the crisis that engulfed APC can be for the interest of PDP and urged the leadership of the party to learn from what is destroying and destabilizing the APC.
He said that, despite the glaring facts, that Obaseki performed and achieved what other APC governor’s like Yahaya Bello of Kogi State cannot achieve, even if he is given 10 more years, the party turned their back on him. The party called APC, is about who can satisfy and massage the ego of godfathers, Bello was given all the necessary supports including the use of helicopter against the electorate, killing and maiming of innocent citizens of the state.At the detriment of the good people of Kogi State including the workers who were continually deprived of their wages and salaries, Bello was rigged into office for second term by the same Adams Oshiomhole, who unfortunately rose to limelight and political prominence on the shadow of comradeship. However, Oshiomhole’s has proven not to be the “Man of the Masses” attributed to him some years ago due to his NLC “stewardship”. All lies in ruin and it is bunkum after all. Protesting in the name of the masses in the day time and in the night collecting kickbacks is evil.
Therefore, I call on the Youth and the good people of Edo State to be circumspect in deciding the fate of Obaseki. As a matter of fact, we need to rally around Gov. Obaseki for his second term to enable him continue with his development strides which truly borders on the interest of the masses. A governor who is already known to be paying workers’ salary promptly and also building critical infrastructures like road, electricity,water with investments in agriculture, education and other vital sectors of the economy should be more desirable than any other person aspiring for the same position.
The development attributes of Obaseki are the hallmark of PDP across the states where it hold sway the instruments of governance.
Therefore, I urge Obaseki should build on the APC manifesto to continue with development strides and uphold the welfare of the workers and the generalty of the people of Edo State.