A leading aspirant in the coming 2024 Edo State governorship election, Mr Asue Ighodalo, during an interaction with members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State Council, , speaks on his vision for the state, motivation to contest ,economic potentials of the state, policies of the administration of incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki. IDAHOSA MOSES brings the excerpts of the interview:
You said you have been in government since 2008. If elected, what will be your priority areas?
My priority will be those policies of this government and of previous governments that worked well. I will focus on them like the civil service reforms, agriculture, investment attraction. I will also focus on those things that don’t appear to have worked well; infrastructure, particularly roads. The problem with roads in Edo State is very peculiar and unfortunately, we have a lot of bad federal roads and because of the pressure and the badness of those roads, many heavy duty vehicles are using the state roads and so they put pressure on the state roads. The state roads have not been as good as they ought to be because they are receiving high level of pressure from heavy duty vehicles. So, we have a peculiar problem and I will design a peculiar approach to the problem and one of the things we will do is to find effective ways in ensuring that our federal roads get effectively repaired so that we will reduce the pressure on state roads. I will also pay attention and continue the work of the present government on the issue of industrialisation and opening up the economy on a digital perspective and digital scale. One thing that has worried me is the fact that the level of poverty in the state is rather high. So, we will look at those things we need to do to drive our people out of poverty from agricultural perspective, from small and medium scale enterprise perspective, from the trade perspective. So, we will ensure that our people are brought out of poverty which is critically fundamental.
There is no economy in the world that can develop; that can be strong when you don’t have appropriate sources of energy and we can’t run away from it. Those will be my priority areas. Security has improved greatly in the state. I will continue to work with the Federal Government, work with our local, security providers to ensure that we have a safe state where every man and woman is safe. Where our investments are safe and where we can travel from one place to another in safety and where we can go to our farms in safety. If we have that environment, Edo State is ready to go. We will also try and ensure that we create an enabling environment for investors the way Governor Godwin Obaseki has been able to attract investment, particularly in Ikpoba-Okha and different parts of the state. We would make provisions for those things that drive investment; we will ensure that those investment are appropriated in various local governments in the state. As at this moment, I am doing a study on the economic and social study on the comparative advantage of each local government and we will enhance that comparative advantage and be sure that the appropriate economies, and appropriate corporate and appropriate businesses and appropriate agric industries from those comparative advantage are there to be enhanced.
How ready are you to navigate the murky waters of politics, considering where you are coming from, that is from the private sector to the public sector?
Who plays politics? Are they men and women like you and I? Do they bleed if you scratch them? Are they human beings or spirits? Honestly, I think in a way, our politicians have been slightly misunderstood. What I think we all need to do is to put a lot more focus. What we all need to do, and I tell people at the party level, we need to force our politicians to choose the best among them. So, if we have four or five parties, each party chooses their best, it doesn’t really matter who we all then select, the person will be good for us. But what we have seen overtime is that for some reason or the other, we don’t choose the most capable. So, it is not the fault of the politicians alone; it is also the fault of us the citizens that have not worked on our politicians to choose the most capable.
What motivated you to leave your comfort zone; from certainty to uncertainty?
I won’t lie to you, it was tough; a really tough decision. Not because of the certainty and uncertainty but coming from a comfort zone that puts you in the forefront of corporate leadership and looking at that comfort zone and the corporate strength and the corporate foresight and you put all of that down to say you want to do good for your people. It is a tough decision but if your love for your people supersedes your interest, and it is not a cliche, there’s no company in which I sit on the board that employs 5.2 million people. Edo State has over 5.2 million, so as the governor of Edo State, I can positively impact the life of 5.2 million. There is no company that affects people directly. So, I have the capability to do many things for many more people.
I have been blessed by God Almighty. And I think that in all honesty, if as a human being you are thinking of legacy, you have been blessed, some of those blessings, you must put it to use especially in an environment where many others are not so blessed.
How do you hope to get the resources to do all that you have outlined?
When I look at the total balance sheet of Edo State, I can understand sometimes why we have difficulty in doing some of the things we needed to do. But you know, if you look at Governor Obaseki’s value for money, things he achieved in fairness to him, regardless what other criticisms they have about him and the administration, you will see value for money and that goes to show how he has been able to use his economic and financial mind to stretch small money into big projects. I don’t have any problem in stretching money or borrowing money. The issue really is what you use the borrowed money for. If you borrow money for capital expenditure, that is not a problem. If you use borrowed money for wasteful and recurrent expenditure, that is the problem. The problem we’ve had as a country is that a lot of times we use earned money, borrowed money on wasteful recurrent expenditure. So, I am clear in mind that we will borrow money and Edo State has the capacity to borrow money but for proper capital expenditure that would build value and create an economy as the first world economy.
Number two, we will create an Edo State that attracts even more investment sources so as to strengthen the base of our economy and bring direct investment flow. Three, in lifting people out of poverty, we will create a taxable base, not increasing taxes. We will just create a wider taxable base, more people that can pay tax. What is the need to create a wider tax if people are not earning? They can’t pay tax but if there is economic rejuvenation, people can then pay tax. One of the major sources of inflow to our state is remittances from the Diaspora; we will make them more committed to their remittances. We will create an environment in which they will not send money for family upkeep alone but they will also send money for investments so that they can diversify their own investment pool. I see light, shining light; I see prospects; I see glory. Let’s just take palm products, if we continue working on research which we’re working on, in the next few years, Edo will top palm production in Africa and in six to seven years, we’ll be competing for number one in the world and that’s just one aspect. So, if we look at every area of investment where we have comparative advantage, we will build something.
Are you not worried about the crisis in PDP in the state?
I truly see myself as the unifier for the PDP and I can put myself in the position where everybody should be able to trust me. I know there are people who are carrying so much rumour that he is this person’s candidate; he is that person’s candidate but by the grace of God Almighty, I am nobody’s candidate. However,t I’m not going to be shouting and arguing it with anybody. I will allow my person, my character and the way I approach and the way I speak to work for me. In my work so far, I’ve tried to interact with every political leader in the PDP in Edo State and I’m going to see a few that I haven’t seen. My story to them is this: we cannot allow ourselves to continue making the same mistakes; a divided PDP lost the national election in 2023 and lost the national election in 2015. If we love the people of Edo State and we want the PDP to provide continuous service and continuous development of Edo State, and the only way the PDP can win is to come together as one party. My focus is to unify the party where there are disagreements. We are all sisters or brothers. If we love the people of Edo State, there should be no ego. We should be able to forgive each other and forget what has gone past and look forward to the future, work for the future and work for the people of Edo State. That is the message that I am bringing. We cannot afford to continue to make the same mistakes because of ego. PDP loves the people; it is vocal, strong party; it is a party of the people and we should always make that count. So, I am working and making sure we come together as one people; as one party for the betterment of the people of the state. I think we just need to bridge a few gaps, cross a few distrust points and it’s not that difficult. If there is a sense of purpose, there is a trustworthy perspective and if people can forgive. Everybody needs to give and take, there must be a win-win, there must be give and take; people must be ready to respect each other’s views. If we come from that perspective, I don’t see a problem. We’ll keep working at it.
What are your plans for the youth in Edo?
In my law office and in every place I have worked, my commitment to the development of youths is first class. And in Edo State, we will have a government that consists of a large chunk of youths because they have the energy, they have the new wisdom, the new intellect and they are for the future. A majority of my cabinet members, my advisers and those who will work with me will be younger people and we will work together as a strong team. They will bring their creativity, and they will bring a new way of doing things. If you see what is happening in the world today, it is the youths that are driving the economy. We must not make them lose hope in our country and in our state because it is the loss of hope that is making them to japa. So, we make them stay here, they form the fulcrum of our government. Edo State is ready to take off.
