Chris Osa Nehikhare, with all due respect, your comparison is not only flawed — it is misleading.
The situation in Edo State did not begin today, and you know it. What Governor Monday Okpebholo inherited was a local government system deliberately weakened, crippled by years of mismanagement, and turned into a political playground for a previous administration. Institutions were manipulated, democratic structures were ignored, and constitutional order was bent to serve narrow interests. Governor Okpebholo stepped into this broken system and has taken difficult, decisive, and necessary steps to restore legality, transparency, and genuine grassroots governance.
You also know — and Edo people have not forgotten — that the so-called “election” that brought in the former council chairmen and councillors was anything but an election. The candidates were imposed, the process was choreographed, and the outcome was predetermined to serve political loyalists, not the people. And you, Mr. Chris Osa Nehikhare, were part of the very administration that orchestrated and defended this imposed system. Your sudden outrage now is therefore both selective and surprising.
It gets worse. Under the previous administration, most council activities — from revenue management to project execution — were run by imported Lagos Big Boys and Ikoyi Club consultants who wielded more power than the elected officials themselves. Even the health centres across the LGAs were practically overseen from outside the state, by consultants who had no connection to the communities and no accountability. That was the reality you supported in silence.
Leadership is indeed about dialogue and inclusion — but it is also about confronting decay, not rewriting history. Governor Okpebholo did not suspend chairmen for personal gain; he acted on credible security reports, constitutional responsibility, and the urgent need to prevent further collapse of governance at the grassroots. The elections you call “illegal” were conducted under the state’s constitutionally empowered electoral body. Dislike of the outcome does not equal illegality.
If your concern for institutions were genuine, you would have spoken up when the local government system was reduced to a private estate of the previous administration — run by proxies, consultants, and outsiders controlling everything from finances to health centres. Selective outrage is not advocacy; it is hypocrisy.
Real leadership is measured not by foreign comparisons or convenient narratives but by the courage to fix what others have broken. Governor Monday Okpebholo is doing exactly that — rebuilding Edo’s governance architecture after years of deliberate sabotage, returning the councils to the people, restoring the rule of law, strengthening institutions, and ensuring local government funds finally serve local communities.
Edo people are not fooled by sudden moral sermons. They know who destroyed the system and they clearly see who is now working tirelessly to repair it.
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