Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole on Monday said that the governor-elect, Godwin Obaseki is more competent than him and will bring more development to the state.
Oshiomhole is scheduled to handover to Obaseki next month after eight years in the saddle.
He spoke with State House correspondents after Progressives Governors met with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja.
The governor, who worked tirelessly for Obaseki to win his election, said that he doesn’t care if Obaseki betrays him at the end of the day.
Obaseki’s allegiance, he said, should be to the people and not him.
He also revealed that his service to the people of the state was the main tactics he engaged to give the All Progressives Congress (APC) edge over the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that ruled the state for nine years.
He said: “That is very important if you say he will disappoint me, I am not the state I am only one out of about four million Edo people. So his obligation and his loyalty should be to the people of Edo State.
“The oath of office he is going to subscribe to says that he will defend the constitution of Nigeria, he will do everything to uplift the quality of life of Edo people. Nothing in his oath of office will include ‘I shall not betray my predecessor’ because I have no interest to be betrayed.
“For me, I have presided over Nigeria Labour Congress for eight years and I had a successor, there was no story of me having conflict with my predecessor. Because conflict only arise when you refuse to accept that when your tenure is over, it is over.” He said
He went on: “As for the campaign, and this is the problem, the media picks the negatives from the mouth of those who are the least competent. That I campaigned for him, I was this I was that.
“That is the way it should be. Look at what is going on in the US, is Obama not vigorously campaigning for Clinton? Is Obama’s wife, the First Lady of US, is she not as vigorous perhaps much more than Bill Clinton? But these are skills I acquire from short floor which they will never acquire.
“I am a product of struggle as a result of my many years of being exploited fighting the oppressors, I deployed those skills and I defeated them. At a point they said I should allow the man to talk, did the electorate complain?”. He queried
On what he will want to be remembered for after leaving office, he said, “I want to be remembered as a factory worker who worked and laboured as a daily paid worker in the most subordinates post in textile mill rising to become leader of the textile union and eventually spending eight years as NLC president, then going back home to confront the most feared and vicious godfathers that monopolised Edo state. I fought godfathers, which is essential to make way for liberal democracy”.
On the allegations that he rigged the elections, he said, “PDP lost because it could not convince the people of its legacy while in power. We did not rig the poll, else we would not have allowed our party chairman to lose his unit”.
Oshiomhole, said he was in the Villa to invite President Buhari to come for a state visiting, where he is expected to commission some impacting projects his administration has put in place including state of the art hospital.
Stressing that he has no regret in his eight years stay in Edo Government House, he said that now in his 60’s, it was time to take a break and be a caring husband and father to his children.
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