As Governance Confounds Okpebholo

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

When my attention was drawn to Governor Monday Okpebholo’s “Now, it is confusing me” video, I thought his political enemies were at work aided by Artificial Intelligence. The one-minute, 17-second video captured him stuttering while presenting the 2025 Appropriation Bill to the Edo State House of Assembly.

*Monday Okpebholo

Struggling to pronounce the numerical value of the Bill which he christened “Budget of Renewed Hope for a Rising Edo,” the governor said: “The Edo State 2025 budget… appropriation bill of six billion, sixty and fifty, six hundred five billion, seventy six thousand, seventy six million, seventy six.”

Realising his gaffe, he did an encore. “Let me take it again. Five hundred six billion, six hundred and five billion sorry, seven hundred, seventy six billion, sorry. It is confusing me,” he admitted.

At this moment, murmurings erupted in the hallowed chamber, forcing the Speaker, Blessing Agbebaku, to intervene: “Order in the House, please. Mr. Speaker must be heard in silence, please.”

Many Nigerians were nonplussed at the spectacle but expectedly, the puppeteers quickly jumped to his defence, the most inane excuse being that English is a foreign language and lack of proficiency does not detract from leadership capabilities.

That may well be true but the fact remains that Okpebholo himself elected, out of his own volition, to address the lawmakers in English, a language he knows he is not proficient in. Granted, English is Nigeria’s official language, but no law says a governor must address his people in English. After all, the Lagos State House of Assembly once toyed with the idea of conducting proceedings in Yoruba and in fact, the Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, visited the Assembly on January 12, 2017 to observe the plenary conducted in Yoruba language.

But Edo State is home to several ethnic nationalities, including Bini, Okpe, Esan, Afenmai, Akoko, Igbanke, Emai, Owan, Ijaw, with at least 17 languages – Edo, Ebira, Esan, Etsako, Ikpeshi , Ghotu, Okpamheri, Ijaw – spoken in different local governments across the state. So, what explanation will Okpebholo give to those that will definitely be excluded if he decides to communicate to Edo people in his native Esan language?

In any case, how come someone who claims to have a degree in business administration and a Masters in policy and leadership studies from the University of Abuja cannot speak passable English?

But is anyone surprised? Haven’t we seen the WAEC result trending in the social media purported to be Okpebholo’s. If, indeed, it is not his, why has he not put a lie to the claim? That is what leaders do. When Donald Trump lied that then President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S., all that Obama did to put a permanent end to Trump’s lie was to make public his authentic birth certificate.

But the award for the most apocryphal and dubious excuse must go to Mr. Jarret Tenebe, Edo State chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who rationalised Okpebholo’s inexcusable gaffe claiming that he was unfamiliar with figures.

Citing former South African President Jacob Zuma as one of the many global leaders who had made such mistakes in the past, Tenebe said: “I don’t know figures. You see, that is how to know original and innocent people. Obaseki will not make such mistake because he has stolen billions before. Asue Ighodalo will not make such mistake because he has stolen billions before.”

Really?

As if that was not harebrained enough, the APC chieftain further said: “Monday Okpebholo is not a thief, so he is not familiar with figures. So, anybody who wants to talk can continue to talk. It is nonsense. He is the governor of the state. He is performing, and he will continue to perform and anybody who does not like his face should go to hell and burn to ashes. Period!

Therein lies the problem that has made Nigeria a laughing stock. Being arrogant and boastful in idiocy. So, only thieves are familiar with figures? And anyone who does not like the bumbling governor should go to hell and burn to ashes. This is an egregious insult to Edo people which should elicit commensurate outrage. So, why has everybody moved on, perhaps leaving the matter for God to judge?

Could it be true that a member of the National Assembly, an institution responsible for the appropriation of funds for the running of government, is not familiar with figures? If that was the case, what then was he doing in the Senate?

But the more fundamental issue is that a governor should be hands-on, particularly on issues ofbudget, which is, simply put, a financial plan, an estimate of income and expenditure of the government in a given fiscal year. Before presenting the budget to the State Assembly, a governor should be conversant with the figures. He does not need to be a financial wizard. But he should be able to tell the people how much the government intends to spend and where the money will come from. And he can only do that if he was part of the budget preparation process.

Chances are that Okpebholo was just handed the document he presented on the day of presentation by the puppeteers who are remote-controlling him and he didn’t know the details. Neither Obaseki nor Ighodalo will make the grievous mistake Okpebholo made not because they are used to stealing billions but because they are men not only given to details but attuned to the intricate nuances of governance.

Governance is a serious matter which should not be left in the hands of those “not familiar with figures,” which explains why Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher believed that philosopher kings are the ideal rulers because they have the knowledge and skills to govern. If a governor is not familiar with figures, what else should he be familiar with?

In the wake of the Okpebholo gaffe, I have also heard some people say it serves Edo people right, often quoting the third U.S. President Thomas Jefferson’s famous quip that “the government you elect is the government you deserve.”

That will be very unfair to the good people of Edo State. Of course, as I write, Asue Ighodalo, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the Saturday, September 21, 2024 Edo State governorship election is in court challenging the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, result which returned Okpebholo winner. It is left for the courts to decide who won the election. Suffice it to say that almost 100 per cent of the election monitors and observers, both local and international, agree that the result declared by INEC flies in the face of the choice made by the Edo electorate.

But it couldn’t have been otherwise, because aside the tragedy of Okpbholo’s observable lack of capacity, the bigger tragedy would have been that in an election where Asue Ighodalo, a lawyer, former chairman of Sterling Bank, former director at the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA, and ex-chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, NESG, and Olumide Akpata, also a lawyer and the first non-Senior Advocate of Nigeria in 28 years to be elected president of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, were candidates, the highly discerning Edo electorate would prefer a Monday Okpebholo as their governor. That is implausible and it didn’t happen. INEC simply defrauded the people and the Edo electorate did not get the government they voted for and, therefore, undeserving of the prevailing charade.

No one is deceived. But the good thing is that as long as Okpebholo remains governor of Edo State, Tenebe and his co-travellers will have a lot of explanations to make because governance will continue to confuse and confound those not familiar with figures. The joke will always be on the enablers of electoral malfeasance.

*Amaechi is the publisher of TheNiche (ikechukwuamaechi@yahoo.com)

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