Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the September 19, 2020 election in Edo State
has declared his interest to again contest next year’s election in the state.
While declaring his intent, pastor Osagie stated that the state needs new, competent and purposeful leadership in 2024.
He stated that this will enable the state to cultivate the right collaborations, formulate appropriate policies, and create the necessary frameworks that are not only people oriented, but also doable, amid limited resources.
He also declared that Edo needed a government that would be led by one from among Edo residents, not a Lagos-based politician, while apparently referring to Governor Godwin Obaseki’s anointed aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Asue Ighodalo.
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Ize-Iyamu, an indigene of Benin Kingdom in Edo South Senatorial District, who is also the governorship candidate of PDP in 2016 in Edo, but was defeated by Obaseki, then of APC, before defecting to PDP on June 19, 2020, spoke in Benin, while declaring to succeed Edo governor on November 12, 2024.
Ize-Iyamu declared that Edo residents could not continue “this way, if they were to safeguard the future of their children and generations yet unborn.”
Osagie, a senior pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), said: “We need to steer Edo State from the direction of parlousness, insincere governance and rudderlessness.
For over seven years, Edo people have had to endure governance by propaganda and falsehoods, and the use of government institutions for the purpose of personal vendetta and the oppression of her citizens.
“Edo state government has denied the people the best practice approach to continuous growth, because it lacked a comprehensive, realisable and sustainable plan that encompasses the improvement of infrastructure, health, education, human resource development, job creation, industrialisation, agriculture, security and the refinement of municipal services such as the provision of clean, potable water and electricity.
“Despite the receipt of colossal revenue, Edo State remains terribly underdeveloped and with the government enmeshed in brazen corruption and larceny.
A classic example of this government’s ineptitude is the perennial flooding that has ravaged most parts of Edo, as a result of scant road maintenance, and a deliberate decision to abandon the Benin storm water project, started by the administration of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.”
The governorship aspirant also insisted that in reality, Edo state government had performed abysmally in every sector of Edo’s economy.
He said: “In agriculture, Edo government has seized vast farmlands from indigenes and handed same to foreigners, in education it has shut down more schools than any other government in Nigeria, it is unarguably the most renowned for land grabbing in the state’s history, even as its ease of doing business has collapsed. It is a pity that the technocratic Governor Obaseki, who arrogantly boasts of his economic prowess, has not been able to move our state forward.
“The primary purpose of government is the pursuance of happiness for the greater number of people in the society. The government of Edo State, under my leadership, will strive to meet this purpose at all times. We shall serve the needs of our people efficiently, effectively and fairly, through empathetic governance that is geared towards solving social problems, because I have the requisite know-how to do this.
“I will run a government that is truly of the people, for the people and by the people. I am out to stop the state’s drift into anomie and hopelessness, to give hope and succour to our people and to give their government a human face.”
Ize-Iyamu also declared that for Edo to be uplifted, for the state to witness the much-yearned-for renaissance, there must be fight for freedom from political tyranny, reckless misuse of the scarce communal resources, rapid and unsustainable accumulation of domestic and external debts.
He noted that the sincere lovers of Edo must be prepared to deliver the kind of change that people of the state desired, especially one that was not based on empty sloganeering, propaganda and deceit, but one that would be real, verifiable, purposeful and sustainable.
The frontline governorship aspirant stressed that having served Edo state creditably as Chief of Staff to the Governor (1999-2003), Secretary to the State Government (SSG) between 2003 and 2007, he possessed a unique insight into the workings of government.
Ize-Iyamu pointed out that his SIMPLE agenda, borne out of intense research and consultation, offered measurable commitments that would be implemented with passion, single-mindedness, incisive competence and experience, while addressing matters relating to Security/Social welfare, Infrastructural development/urban renewal, Manpower development/training, Public/private/partnerships, Leadership by example and Employment creation/social empowerment scheme.
