By Ndubuisi Orji And Anthony Obi
The first time Chief
Solomon Edebiri contested the governorship election in Edo State was in
2007. That attempt was not successful. In the run-up to the governorship
election in the state this year, he is taking at another shot at the
coveted seat on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Speaking in interview with Daily Sun, the gubernatorial
hopeful said he stands the best chance to win the state for the PDP.
Edebiri, who stated that he was on a mission to move the state to the
next level, noted that once he wins the PDP governorship ticket, there
would be no stopping the party in the main election.
Excerpts:
Why are you contesting the governorship race again?
I will tell you that a man never stops trying until he
achieves his purpose. Most of the things that I saw that are decayed in
the state that needed to be changed- infrastructure, human capacity,
haven’t change. If they have changed and are working better than I saw
many years ago, I would have been happier and probably have different
thought on which other way I can contribute to the people in the
society.
I have a passion for the state to do something, do
something that is completely different that will turn the state around
for good. A state where we will put the people first; a state where we
will realise that it is only on sound infrastructure that you can build a
solid economy; a state where we will realise that no economy can
survive without sound human capacity. A state where we realise that it
better to be an export-based society than an import-based society.
A state where you will realise that the only antidote of
progress that will allow us to make progress, except saving, is
industrialisation. The antidote to retrogression is industrialisation. A
state where we realise that there is abundant human, natural resources
that can be tapped or enhanced to the benefit of the people. A state
where we realise that tomorrow solar energy will take over some hydro
energy. You need to start thinking ahead to ensure that you are also
prepared for it.
I am on a mission. I come with a message of revolution. A
social and economic revolution backed by technological development and
sound industrialisation policy to move the people forward. Then take us
away from a beggarly state to a giver state. It is people that will come
here to beg. I want to make a name. I am in hurry to make a name and at
the end of the day that people can live just like we call the Clintons,
we call the Carters, Margaret Thatcher, they made name. That is the
kind of name I want to make. The most beautiful part of it is that we
are ready to run, from the next hour after I am sworn-in if I am elected
as governor.
Why should the people entrust you with the governance of the state.
The man on the street is our best friend. The common man
on the street understand that Edebiri know how to integrate this vision
into a reality. They know. They are our greatest friend; it is for them
that we fight. It is for them that we struggle; they are aware. They are
the one that is clamouring for Edebiri to come, because they have
about our vision; they are the one insisting that they want Edebiri,
that the PDP should give them Edebiri. And that if the PDP should bring
Edebiri, they will vote for PDP.
On and off the street we have won the election, but you
know election in general terms is not nomination. Nomination is a
process where the very critical few decide the fate of the many. And
that is the regret of democracy, especially democracy in a presidential
system of government; especially presidential system of government where
indirect primaries are adopted. You leave the fate of millions of
people in the hands of very critical few to decide their future, and it
depends on what they do. And our leaders forget the simple fact that the
future of the state and viability of the state depends on whose hand
the baton is placed.
I have said these different times. If you take me to a
basketball pitch and you gave me the basketball, it is useless. I cannot
turn money out of it, but give it to Michael Jordan, he is a
millionaire. If you take me to a football pitch, I will toss the ball
around and it will just end like a street soccer that earns nothing for
you. But give it to Odemwingie, he will make millions out of it. That
is life. Give me a table tennis, I play table tennis very well, I will
end up turning it into a leisure thing. But give it to Serena, she is a
billionaire. So, it depends on the hands of the person it is placed.
The future of Edo State, those people on the streets that are asking for
Edebiri, believe that if Edo State is placed on Edebiri’s hand, the
future is save. It will be progressive in future, but place it in
another person’s hand they are back into the dungeon again, and only God
can decide what the future holds.
In our blueprint, we already know what to do, where to go,
we know what we want in agriculture, we know what we want in education.
We know where to source income without putting burden on the people to
tax them on a daily basis, increasing their tax by the year and some by
the month and some biannually. We know what to do to turn that around.
We know what to do to change the healthcare system. I had a terrible
situation, I had to send my wife abroad to deliver, when she had a dead
baby her womb for three days and she was in the hospital in the country.
Only God saved her life and at the end of the day she
delivered a stillbirth, and I told them if I had to keep my wife in a
hospital for three days and they didn’t know, it is a hospital. I want
to change that because I have been a victim. I had a situation in my
village where a young man had a motorbike accident and the leg was very
bad, and they needed to get to the hospital within an hour so that it
won’t be amputated. It took three hours to get to the hospital by the
time they got there, it was too late. He is walking with one leg today,
because there is no hospital near him. We want to turn that around. That
is my vision. The primary healthcare centre will be as good as any
general hospital. We want to bring what is abroad here. How many MRI do
we have in Nigeria? I heard they are about two. And the last time I
inquire they said there is only one working. I went to a diagnosis
centre in the UK, and they have sophisticated equipments. When I asked
my doctor how much it take to have this kind laboratory, he said less
than a million pounds to have everything. And I imagine how much our
government officials take away every year, stolen and hid it somewhere.
And meanwhile we need about half a million pounds to setup an
international standard diagnosis centre. Because that is the beginning
of healing. If the diagnosis is right, the interpretation is right; the
healing prescription will be simple. I intend to change all of that.
We have so many hospitals. We don’t need to build new
hospitals, but we need to enhance the ones that we have and upgrade them
to international standard.
We have vision to turn agriculture into a major income
earner, where we can make money for the state and take away the
suffering from the people. Of course, we also know that tourism is one
of the income earner for many countries like France, if you want to make
trip to Disney, you know what it cost.
What are your chances in winning your party’s gubernatorial ticket?
If The PDP is who I think they are, they will listen to
the voice of the people in the street. They will listen to the beating
of the heart of the people. They will listen to the feeling of the
people. And they will look at the people and the impression they carry
on their face and field me as its gubernatorial candidate.
When they think otherwise, it will be an unfortunate development and I hope they don’t. I sincerely hope they don’t.
Remember that the Ekweremadu’s report simply stated that
the party should be returned back to the people. And if you follow the
Ekweremadu’s report, the people’s candidate will always emerge. I am the
people’s candidate. I am the people’s choice. It is on their strength
that I stand, not on my personal strength. The people have the greatest
strength and it on their strength that I stand and lay. I am very sure,
that by the end of the day the people will win.
Don’t forget, in South Africa apartheid the people won,
the war of the 19th Century in Soviet Union the people won. In this
circumstance, Edo State 2016, the people will win.
Do you think the PDP stand any chance in the next Edo State governorship election?
The chances of the PDP to win the 2016 governorship
election in Edo State have never been as bright as it is now. But
remember I said a while ago, it depends on whose hand the ticket is
placed. If they place it in the wrong hand, it will go; if they place it
in the right hand, PDP will be the ruling party in Edo State come
November 12, 2016. I can assure you.
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