04022017

SATURDAY Vanguard, FEBRUARY 4, 2017—19
SIMON EBEGBULEM, BENIN
CITY
It is becoming obvious that the
two major leaders in Edo state
today, Omo N’Oba N’Edo
Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare 11
and Governor Godwin Obaseki,
share the same vision and mission
and have the will to take drastic
decisions in areas that have been
very problematic to the people of
the state over the years.
Immediately Oba Ewuare 11
became the Oba of Benin, his first
assignment was to ban Community
Development Associations (CDAs)
in the seven Local Government
Areas in Edo South. This singular
decision endeared him to the
people of the Kingdom because
these CDAs had become killer
groups in various communities. In
fact there are communities today
whose elders have fled as they
have become the targets of killing
by the youths who occupied these
positions and saw the elders as
threats to their interests
On his part, Governor Obaseki
on the 31st of December, 2016
banned collection of taxes, levies
and all dues in the state by private
indigenes who used to do that on
behalf of the state government in
previous administrations. These
collectors had become a threat to
the state as they harassed innocent
citizens and visitors over one levy
or the other and painting the state
in bad light. And knowing that this
was a major problem in the state,
Obaseki banned it and sent a bill
to the state House of Assembly
which will ensure that all levies
and taxes that are collected by
government agents are paid
directly to the coffers of the
government. This decision was
again received with a loud
applause.
Also, as Obaseki has been
strategizing on how to fulfil the
200,000 jobs he promised to Edo
people, Oba Ewuare is working
hard to ensure the establishment
of an Export Free Zone in
Gelegele which will also create
employment for the people of the
state. And working towards the
same direction, Obaseki returned
from China two weeks ago where
he met with investors who are
willing to come and develop the
Export Free zone.
In appreciation of what the
governor had done so far, Oba
Ewuare 11, paid a royal visit to
Governor Obaseki two weeks ago
with his senior chiefs and held
discussions for several hours where
issues that border on security,
economy, and employment were
tackled.
Ewuare II commends Gov
Obaseki
Emerging from the private
meeting, Oba Ewuare said that he
was impressed with the activities
of the governor particularly his
efforts in ensuring the realization
of his dream, which was the
establishment of an Export Free
Zone in Gelegele.
His words: “I have been
passionate about the export free
processing zone. When President
Buhari came to visit me at Uselu
when I was Ediaken N’Uselu, I
mentioned it to him. I repeated it
in the coronation speech and then
That Oba of
Benin’s visit to
Obaseki
Emerging from the private
meeting, Oba Ewuare said that he
was impressed with the activities
of the governor particularly his
efforts in ensuring the realization
of his dream, which was the
establishment of an Export Free
Zone in Gelegele
Oba Ewuare 11 and Governor Godwin
Obaseki
reiterated it when the
governor visited me as the
Oba of Benin. This is to show
how passionate I am about
the Export free zone.
“When I was in Rome I tried
to bring some investors to
Benin, to develop the
Gelegele sea port
specifically. But I was advised
by some professionals that if I focused
on the development of Gelegele sea
port, the Federal Government would not
support it but if I looked towards the
development of Export free zone tied
to agro allied industries, the
government would like it. So I looked
at it and I started working on that ever
since and when I came to Nigeria I
focused on it”.
Palace forges partnership with state
govt
Giving his royal blessings to Obaseki’s
administration, Oba Ewuare 11
declared: “I want to appeal to other
members of the government to please
support the governor. I want to assure
you of the support of the palace. We want
to assure you that you have the full
support of our ancestors to be where
you are. You should feel comfortable in
your office. If you have any issue don’t
hesitate to come to me personally as you
are already doing and we will always
assist your government to succeed. By
the grace of God and our ancestors you
will succeed in your tenure. We have
discussed areas of mutual cooperation
where the palace and the state
government will cooperate as I
mentioned in my speech during
inauguration”.
Edo will become Nigeria’s economic
hub——Obaseki
An elated Obaseki then responded:
“No honour can be greater than this
when your father decides to greet and
honour you and pray for you, you cannot
ask for more. We realized that Edo state
more than any other state in the country,
has tremendous advantages that will
make it a major economic center in this
country. We also have a very high
agricultural potentials unlike Lagos and
many other states And one other asset
which we have like Lagos which we
never really thought about is access to
international trade through the
Gelegele axis. And if we are going to
re-enact our glory days, it is an asset
we cannot continue to ignore and that
is why we took steps to make sure that
we fast track the process of making
Gelegele an industrial and agricultural
hub. We were in China to meet some
potential investors and the interest was
very encouraging.
“The issue of CDAs is an issue that
we must stem because it will be very
difficult and challenging to create
200,000 jobs if we don’t put order in our
land administration system in Edo state.
We have finalized a draft bill which we
are sending to the state House of
Assembly. This will criminalize any act
by any CDA because the status today
does not criminalize the activities of
these people.
“We have also looked very closely at
the issue of governance particularly at
the local government level. The
constitution permits only state actors to
collect government revenue because we
began to see a very dangerous trend
where private people and groups have
become a lot more efficient in collecting
revenues in the name of the state for
themselves and they were becoming a
threat to the state itself. We could not
sit back and allow such situation to
continue, we had to allow stop it. We
also sent our first bill to the state House
of Assembly harmonizing all taxes and
levies in the state. I want to assure you
that we are very clear, we are very
determined in ensuring that Edo state
is restored to its pride of place in this
country and we become the economic
hub which we are naturally destined to
be in this country” he stated.