Obaseki And His Reverse Thinking Critics. An ‘Engineer’ Mocks Him For Lighting Up Edo State
The Oasis Reporters
February 11, 2023
L-R: Special Adviser to Edo State Governor on Strategy, Policy, Project and Performance Management, Mrs. Sarah Ajose-Adeogun; Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, and Permanent Secretary, Edo State Ministry of Electricity, Victor Obanor, during inspection of project site for Street Lights along Akpakpava Road in Benin City.
By Greg Abolo
@gregabolo
@Theoasisreport1
While Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki has been up and about, doing the incredible job of lighting up Edo state to the envy and admiration of not only
Nigerian citizens in the country and those in the diaspora, surprise and shock greeted people when a certain Oseghale Victor was vituperative against the governor for lighting up Edo.
Read:
Busy doing nothing government. Mounting street lights & other laughable projects when, no roads & Jobs for Edo state. The state of Esan roads, especially benin-auchi road is in serious crises.
— Engr OseghaleVictor (@OseghaleVictor_) February 6, 2023
The big shock is why anyone, an engineer for that matter, have unkind words for Godwin Obaseki who is doing what Nigerians have always wanted, albeit in his state only.
Is it a case of compulsive criticism?
Or that a supposed engineer does not know the importance of electricity provision in this modern day economy?
For instance, can a welder work without electricity ?
Many Nigerians have become economic migrants due to the abysmal lack of electricity. Those in the digital economy have had no choice but to walk away in order to achieve their dreams and fulfill their potential. But Oseghale Victor doesn’t seem to understand the challenge Obaseki is trying hard to meet.
Electricity lifts people out of poverty and improves their health and standards of living. Yet 1.3 billion of the world’s people don’t have access to it. And more than half of them are in sub-Saharan Africa. Out of this number, a disproportionate part of it is in Nigeria.
Provision of electricity is a Federal concern. Yet, Governor Obaseki found a way to walk and work around the daunting problem that has defeated every regime in Nigeria ever since by proving that it is doable. So he set himself to doing it for his people in Edo.
Yet he has critics.
It’s a shame that more accolades are not pouring in to encourage him. It’s almost a huge shame.
“Getting affordable electricity to the sub-Saharan population is a multifaceted challenge. Demand is expected to increase by 4% year on year, but the supply shortage already results in frequent blackouts. People are forced to use expensive and inefficient generators which run on fossil fuels to provide reliable power”, an academic wrote on the vexatious issue.
Today, buying petrol for generators has become a huge challenge. A litre of it that use to cost 97 naira under president Goodluck Jonathan about 8 years ago now sells for 350 naira or more per litre. Finding it is even a much bigger challenge. Nigerians are currently under intense darkness.
Gregabolo@gmail.com
