Godwin Obaseki is a “CLASSIC GIFT” to Edo People - Hon. Rasaq Bello Osagie

The immediate past member of the House of Representatives who represented Oredo Federal constituency in Edo State,  Hon. Rasaq Bello Osagie  has described Edo APC's anointed candidate Mr. Godwin Obaseki,  as  a "CLASSIC GIFT" to the people of Edo state.  Mr Rasaq Bello-Osagie, who is also a  chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in an exclusive interview with the NATION and GETITRIGHTNIGERIANS,
endorsed Mr. Godwin Obaseki, describing him as most suitable and capable to face the challenges ahead.  Mr Rasaq Bello-Osagie who believes governor Adams Oshiomhole is acting within his rights to protect his legacies by endorsing a candidate of his choice,  also admonished aspiring governorship candidates of the party in the state to market their antecedents and pedigree to delegates of the party rather than dissipate energy and resources in heating up the polity.


Read excerpts below. 

As a chieftain of APC, would you say that your party has done enough to return to Edo people to ask for another mandate? 

“Yes” I want to say, at the risk of any contradiction that Edo people are very lucky.

Let us create some reflective space to look at where we are coming from, where we are now and of course where we want to be in the unfolding dispensations;  what readily comes to mind is that Edo state has been quite fortunate, knowing  that this state has witnessed a long regime of underdevelopment. Though we saw some shades of development in the past occasioned by our father “ Dr. Sam Ugbemudia” the defunt governor of Bendel state; and after that some people tried within the limits of their capacity, but Nigerians, particularly Edo citizens were still very  hungry to see visible development, something unusual, and we were lucky God brought a man  that has this capacity to manage both men and resources. A man with very striking intelligence, a labour leader per excellence who came into the political space; and in seven and half years, we have seen unprecedented developmental strides occasioned by various policies that brought about what we now see as visible development in all sectors of our national lives. We are still counting, but that is not to say that we have gotten to where we want to be.

                     

There is hope, but  to avoid the contamination of this process and allow a continuation of this strides therefore our political space is yearning for a leader, a very unusual manager because times have changed. The days of running to Abuja to collect handouts are over in my opinion.  At a $110 per barrel, we did not manage our economy very well, neither do we save for the raining day. So what we see now is a plethora of problems hitting us in the face, and to solve this problem, what we need is a man with uncommon exposure in both the public and private sectors.

Having mentioned all these qualities, bearing in mind  APC has plethora of candidates, who would you recommend as a  rancourless candidate to create a united family for the election? 

You see the primaries which is an internal process of the party, shouldn’t ordinarily bring any rancour at all.

But what I have seen in the past in my views,  are some desperate politicians who would stop at nothing to take advantage of the situation because of auxiliary gains involved in the process; so they see the primaries  as a period of harvest, and therefore suggest and heat up the system for selfish gains.

 But my recommendation and prescription has always been, please go out there and market your credentials and pedigree to the voters who will make the decision.

We derive our powers as representatives of the people from the people, and therefore the circus that I see and this culture of relighting up our political space and create the impression that there is so much crisis, is usual the work of some fifth colonist, because they are always there; going from one candidate to another, seeking some pecuniary gain from here and there.

So I want to see this as a problem that is usually associated with evolution, and all we need to do as players and stakeholders is to begin to remove the boundaries of imaginary partisanship and build a coalition of change army that would take us to our destination. It is a process!

To answer your question directly, what we need now are some uncommon and exemplary leaders who are desirous of leading us and taking us through this turbulence, so that Edo people can continue to enjoy the gains recorded under comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

Though I want to believe that all those who have aspired to run the 2016 gubernatorial race are eminently qualified, we still need to take an helicopter view to find out who is most suitable for the job, and very clearly it is only one person that must be chosen.

So for me, my compass or radar is hungry to pick  a man who has that pedigree that would take us to where we want to be; and very clearly too in my view, I have looked at it, and at the risk of any contradiction, what comes to me very clearly is that we are looking for an unusual manager, a man that can creatively manage the meager resources of the state, a man who understands the policies of government and governance, a man that has been a player, and a man that has been in the policy cockpit of this government, and very clearly my radar has picked “Godwin Obaseki”, somebody  that has an intimidating track record in investment banking and asset management both locally and internationally.

Am also aware that he was been part of the team as project manager that led to the establishment of two new generation banks.

Very intimidating educational pedigree, University of Ibadan,  Columbian University and Pace University, New York. 

 A man that has been a member of the presidential council pension’s reform, chairman Edo state economic team for seven and half years or more now; very intimidating family pedigree, chairman Afri-invest, and over all and above all of this, a man who believes that service is about people and therefore his action has been predicated on vision, service, integrity, leadership and purpose.

 Pro-bono, Godwin Obaseki has worked for this administration for seven and half years without any income. How selfless can a man be? So for me, I’m not under any illusion, neither do I have a problem in pitching my tent with him or supporting him; I have endorsed him and several other people have endorsed him too.

Though when this project first started and was still at a very embryonic stage, several people were saying, “we don’t know him”. But today, the pages are unfolding, and because a man cannot operate outside his ability, we can clearly see deficit in the disposition of some of the candidates, and knowing this is not pool betting where you say let me try! You must be very very clear about what you want to do, I know where we are coming from, and therefore the strategy to take us to where we want to be, can only come from a man who understands what it is to diagnose and come up with prescriptions. That is where we are now!

You did mention that a lot of people said  Mr. Godwin Obaseki is relatively unknown in the political sphere of the state, how do you think that concept would change?

Well, his involvement in governance  has prepared the ground for him, because he has gained some experience. Mind you, I do not subscribe to the school of thought that says offices of this nature should be reserved for only politicians.

We have gone pass that stage, because the challenges are new now, we are having very uncommon challenges. The days of going to Abuja to collect handouts and come back home are over, anybody can do that. The challenges now are different.

Before now, if a governor needed N4 billion to run his office, and he was able to get N3 billion by chance,  it became very easy for him to seat in the comfort of his office and give orders to commissioners.

Now we are talking about uncommon times knowing resources are scarce, where you need to be very creative, where you need to look at the new frontiers to create wealth. Do you now begin to seat down on a note of lamentation and say you can’t go beyond this one?

As I speak with you, am aware that  Godwin Obaseki has been in the engine room of some of the investments you are seeing in Edo state today.

Dangote and other investors are here to invest in a cement plant and others, by the time these projects come up, people will be absorbed by way of employment; which is one of the fundamental problems we have in this country at the moment.

And in any case, we may not even be able to utilize all the power coming from Azura power plant, we may have to sell some of the megawatts to other states, to generate income for the state.

Again when you seat down to listen to Obaseki, am not under any contraction that he is eminently qualified to be the governor, and that he is a “CLASSIC GIFT” to Edo state. Godwin Obaseki is a classic gift to Edo people 

Looking at the Anti-Corruption Drive of president Buhari, a lot of Nigerians are saying its a one-sided war being targeted at opposition members, what is your take on this? 

If I were a member of PDP, I should have resigned from politics by now, because of the public odium surrounding that party. The people seat down and begin to talk about persecution having stolen so much money as if our national currency and foreign currency was going out of fashion.

A man takes N800m, N400m and then they ask you to come and explain, then you run to the court to say the court should stop them from investigating you. What kind of environment do we now live in? the values are now upside down.

So basically, I do not have problems with the general election, I want to believe that might even be easier. The PDP should talk to people about what they did in 16 years.  We all can see what Adams Oshiomhole has done in seven and a half years.

So seeing some orders coming in, how resources have been manged;  it is only fair that we do not allow a contamination of the process, that is why an Obaseki must come in.  

So as we speak now, what we see coming into government, we have looked at the books, we have seen the can of worms, let me even give kudos to EFCC for doing a great job, but that doesn’t mean we have gotten to where we want to be in our corruption drive.

I think the emphasis drive for this administration is to see what we can get, so as to honour our obligation to citizens and put smiles on the faces of Nigerians, because politics is about uplifting the quality of lives of our people, and development of our environment.  We need resources to prosecute these kinds of agenda.

But beyond that, I will also strongly recommend that we need to build very strong institutions and legal framework, so that at the end of the day, the emphasis will not be on looking at individuals. Once you violate with impunity and you move against the law, it is very  clear that there would be sanctions for these infractions.

So once the institutions and judiciary are strong, and we have very strong persons who would make the decisions based on evidence before them, i think alot of people eminently qualify to be in jail.

But i also think that we need more investments in some of our facilities, so you don't just dump people, but allow them be kept away so that you can make them better persons. So the idea is not to keep people in the most inhuman conditions.

 So as you file them away, we can now begin to know the number of people who are rational and we can live with and interact with.

A lot of people are saying Governor Adams Oshiomole has plans to Impose his candidate on the party, Do you think this is acceptable in a democratic setting?

The word "endorsement" is not a bini language, neither is it an Edo language, and the word "imposition" is also not an esan language or etsako language; they are in the dictionary.

 If I have worked for seven and a half years and I have worked with some individuals around me and I know the quality of these individuals around me and I know their qualities, then it is only fair that I protect my legacy. … and the only way to do that is to look for a man that has been part of the system, to continue in the  consolidation of  the gains that have been achieved so that the people can continue to enjoy the gains of democracy. 

So eminently without missing words, governor Oshiomhole, eminently has a right to identify with someone that he feels by his own assessment can continue from where he stopped, someone that by his own estimation should even be able to do better because he understand the issues. That is why he has identified with Godwin Obaseki.

This is not a child’s play, and the challenges are getting hydra-headed. The problems that Oshiomole inherited to take us to where we are now, was nothing compared to what we have now, looking at the meager resources after the oil crash;  with the collapse of the price of oil, and the reduction of crude oil output, we are having more challenges now. Am even  told that we are producing about 1.1barrels per day now.

I was a member of appropriation  committee representing  Edo state in the house of representatives, 2011- 2015; and some of the figures i saw then were signals to the fact that these challenges were coming, and after we left, the situation exploded.

So to answer your question, comrade Oshiomole has a right to endorse a candidate, the only right he doesn’t’ have is to impose a candidate, so in which case I can assure you that the primary would be conducted within the rules of engagement just as the party leadership has said when they visited Benin.  I don’t think there is anything to add.

Watch more on the interview below