By Ohis Akhigbemudu
SENATOR Oserheimen Osunbor, a household name in the heartbeat of the nation, Edo, once again has signified his intention to govern the state he tried to rebrand within 18 months with the sole aim of taking it to greater heights of excellence.
In those 18 months Edolites knew that there was a man at Denis Osadebey House that gave governance a human face and brought all and sundry close to Government House.
But the abrupt stoppage of the Osunbor reign via the courts stopped the rebranding process that would have taken Edo to greater heights of excellence. Osunbor could have been regretting if Comrade Adams Oshhiomhole had done otherwise, instead Oshio continued and got accolades for a job well done in the state.
Within those 18 months the short lived Osunbor administration left behind indelible marks that cannot easily be erased from the minds of Edolites.
Within the said period Osunbor touched virtually all the major economic sectors of the state abandoned since the Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia days. If Osunbor had remained in office till second week of December of 2008, Edolites would have found bags of rice produced by the four farm settlements revamped by his administration in their homes. This was never to be because his administration was truncated when his efforts were been crystalised into reality.
He did not stop at that he looked at the transport sector and decided to pump life into the then moribund Edo state transport service by providing more than 32 brand new coastal buses. He equally extended this laudable gesture to Edo Line another government owned outfit. Barely two weeks after that he bought tractors for all the farm settlements in the state to further boost agriculture in the state.
Osunbor being the son of a teacher and a parliamentarian in the First Republic knows where it pinches. He too as a teacher, the professor of law never owed teachers for those 18 months he worked as the chief servant of Edo people. He did not stop at that as he made sure pensionerswere not owed a dime in those months he sat on the saddle.
Pensions for teachers:
The records are there for all Edolites to check as there was no time teachers and pensioners queued to collect their legitimate stipends.
Security took a new shape and it is on record that for the first time in 15 years not even a gun shot was heard in Benin City in the 2007 Christmas period.
What the Professor of law simply did then was to arm the Nigerian Police to the hilt and the police surprised Edo people by displaying the arms and amoured vehicles round the city of Benin that they were ready for anything in 2007. Osunbor saw the roads when he emerged and he wept vowing to touch all parts of the state.
In 18 months he renovated, refurbished and constructed 32 roads across the heartbeat of the nation.
A landmark that is rare in such a short period. Like a senior editor once told this writer, even my street in Benin was tarred by Osunbor and for that singular reason anything Osunbor touches I will be part of it. There was no segment in Edo that did not feel the hand of Osunbor so his second appearance in government is just a matter of time as he remains a major agent of change in the heartbeat.
Osunbor is on the march again to put Edo in the right place in Nigeria. Capacity building and reengineering the various sectors for higher productivity are in his agenda.
APC does not need to start searching for the right flag bearer when it already has a Senator Osunbor who has an intimidating CV equal to none among those eyeing Governor Godwin Obaseki’s job next year.
By Ohis Akhigbemudu, a Public Affairs Analyst wrote from Igbanke, in Edo South Senatorial District.