Prince Kelly Udebhulu is a prolific journalist, public affairs analyst and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Edo State Chapter. From his Ward 8 district of Esan West Local Government Area (LGA) of the opposition party in the state, he had been appointed a Deputy Director , Communication/National Orientation of the APC Govenorship Council, to carry out a campaign activity for election of the party's flagbearer, Senator Monday Okpebholo (a.k.a. Akpakomiza), in the guber election holding on 21st September, 2024. In this interview, Prince Udebhulu, a blue blood from Urohi community of the LGA, chats about the electioneering, his party and other issues.
QUESTION: While we congratulate you on your appointment into the APC Governorship Campsign Council, what are the chances of APC winning the governorship election taking place in September?
ANSWER: APC's chances of winning this election are very bright and getting brighter everyday. And we are leaving no stone unturned to get this done. So many things are playing to our advantage to dislodge the People's Democratic Party (PDP), the ruling party in the state, in this all important contest. We have a sacred mandate to sack the PDP from the Dennis Osadebe Avenue, as Edo Government House is called, and to take the hapless, but our dear Edo people, from the manacle of misgovernance which Governor Godwin Obaseki, had dragged the people through, since the past eight years of this double tenure.
QUESTION: Really? Why do you think that will be achieved by your party? Are you assured that APC will not be defeated in the election, like four years ago, when the governorship seat was lost to the PDP?
ANSWER: A lot of blizzards, the strong winds, has swept the political turf of Edo State and things are not the same today as they were, four years ago. Then, our party painfully lost the seat to the PDP. We have gone through the drawboard and have regigged the winning streeks for which APC is known and that will come to play in that election. Now and clearly, the APC's candidacy of Senator Okpebholo and his running mate, Hon Dennis Idahosa, a dutiful lawmaker in the National Assembly and a grossroots oriented person in Edo South district, is all it will take to Garner a winning.
Question: But, your main political rival, the PDP, says there are infighting and irreconciliation in your party, particularly a fallout from the primary contest that threw up Senator Okpebholo, your candidate, which could make you loose the election?
ANSWER: Being a practical journalist who knows his way around, you know very well that our party, the APC is the most peaceful, united and purposeful than any other major party going into this election. Ordinarily, party primary elections, like the last in which Senator Okpebholo had emerged, would raise the dust. But these are initial disagreements that have been amicably resolved in one accord by the faithful members of our party, because we are poised to deliver Edo from the backwardness it had experienced since eight long years. Edo APC is the most disciplined and have better internal mechanism for crises resolution than those other parties.
QUESTION: The 2024 Edo governorship election campaign is said to be about issues, which would swing the election in favour of any of the leading party, PDP, the Labour Party (LP) and your APC? But, insecurity, hunger, exorbitant cost of living and the poor state of federal roads in the state, which are said to be critical areas of neglect by the ruling APC national party, which could dovetail into a loss for the Edo APC?
ANSWER: In all fronts, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is all out to better the lots of Nigerians, including the Edo people. That Peter Obi, the former presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), had given the president a kudo, on his 100 days in office, has said volumes. There is an adage that when the rain falls, it is on every roof, which makes the issues of insecurity, food shortage and high inflation a global crises. And Edo State and Nigerian are not letf alone. By the way, who says it is the federal government alone that is saddled with security that it's failing should be solely blamed on it? Security is localized and is the business of the federal, state and LGAs, as it the duty of all and sundry. The real question you should ask about this is what Governor Obaseki had done with the homongous security votes running into hundreds of billions of Naira, he has so far received as security votes? Whatever happened to the different security outfits he pretended to have established, which are defected in fighting crimes and criminalities, but active in oppressing the opposition and it's elements? The governor, as the Executive Officer, the head of security in the state should answer that question as to why he has failed
QUESTION: Please, gave us your take about food shortages, higher cost of living?
ANSWER: Similarly, the Obaseki's government should be more blamed for the poverty amongst Edos than the federal government. Of course, the Multidimensional Poverty Index report last released by international agencies, in collaboration with the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, with the versatile Prince Clem Agba, an Edo man who was it's immediate past Minister of State, gave more blame to state governments, Edo inclusive, as the cause of poverty, food crises and inflation. And within eight years of Governor Obaseki's tenures, the presence of the state government in sustaining the lives of the people, had been reduced to zero. Businesses in the state have been heavily taxed much more, without rebates, than the APC did when it was in power, under the indomitable Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, now a senator. Even staple food crises has tripped because the governor had misused various huge agriculture loans and grants meant for the local farmers to boost food supply. Instead, he diverted such some to his business associates to forcibly grab lands from local communities to establish single crop plantations. All along, crops and standing forest belonging to local communities have been destroyed to replace his friends' plantations. Dispossessed local farmers are abandoning food production. Do you know that only few months to the expiration of his disastrous tenure that Obaseki is still giving over 47,000 additional hectares of community's forest reserved land to his friends for plantation? The federal roads are already been given the needed attention and are far better than state roads, which the governor had neglected.
QUESTION: Are you not worried that the Labour Party (LP), is waxing stronger in the state and could be an underdog that could win the election? For instance, Peter Obi, the leading figure and protagonist of the blazing Obidients Movement was said to have stormed Edo to encourage Olumide Akpata, its candidate?
ANSWER: Frankly speaking, let me give Obi and the Obidients for pulling that stunt in the last general election. And they were very pushful and had done well in Edo, just to establish their presence in this election. Nevertheless, there is a block between LP and the Obidients, that are Peter Obi's adherents. Mind you, the Edo governorship election is not an Obi's election. Besides, what was once known as the Obidients, with Edo State as its national pivot, have fragmented amongst the diverse interest groups that inform the Edo election. In Edo, the centre cannot hold for the Obidients.
QUESTION: Asue Ighodalo, the PDP candidate and Okpebholo's rival in the guber election is said to be pulling the weight in the campaign buildup than your candidate. He is said to be winning more supports to himself, by getting some of your notable APC members to defect to PDP? What the PDP says is that he is more competent and groomed for the governorship seat than Senator Okpebholo?
ANSWER: I have actually read from the social media that some APC person had crossed the carpet to Ighodalo. But, they are only few. Those who have abandoned PDP to join us are bigtime political players, with their groups and multitudes. In Edo Central District, where Okpebholo and Ighodalo are from, there is no gainsay that Okpebholo is more popular and accepted than Ighodalo, who is more of a stranger therein. He hardly knows his people and his Ebhohimi community people, and the people, him. I don't know what their measures of competence and grooming are that they rate Okpebholo below Ighodalo. Well, I don't know the man, Ighodalo. Pointedly, it is everywhere in the public news domain that a man who had failed in many businesses, especially with a disastrous outing as the boss of the Nigerian Breweries Plc, which went bankrupt, for the first time ever, under his leadership, is the same now angling to rescue Edo State from the valleys, which he had directly contributed to, as an Economic Adviser and a Man Friday to the governor, who imposed his candidature on his party. Unfortunately, during public inquest, the same Ighodalo had promised to continue with the repressive and anti-people policies of the man, who is strong-willed and had suffered the people, the more. Should he be elected? No!
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