The Edo State governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, yesterday, hinted that he could be arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after his eight-year tenure in office. Obaseki revealed this in Abuja during the EdoBEST National Results-Sharing Session, with the theme, “EdoBEST: A legacy of Re-engineering Education in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
He said if arrested, he would spend custody time on reflection and research.
Obaseki said he was not afraid of any arrests and probe of his administration, stressing that “silly” petitions have been written against him by “cruel and wicked” people for vendetta in order to hurt him.
He said one of the things that will last for a very long time to come was the fact that his administration was able to focus on Edo people and the things that matter to them as well as reform and implement those things.
The governor stated, “I will serve as a resource person after office and I’m going to give the cheapest services so far from lessons garnered in my eight years’ experience as governor.
“I hear that the EFCC will pick me next week after my tenure. Wherever they keep me, I’ll spend time doing research.
“There are many things we have done that can be described as legacy projects. I believe in Edo State, one of the things that will last for a very long time to come is the fact that we were able to focus on Edo people and the things that matter to them, reform and implement those things.
“Why should I have fears? I just focused on what I believe in and today, you can see what has been achieved. What happens after that is not up to me. They can continue with their political witch-hunt and do all they can to hurt me, that’s their problem.
“I’m not afraid, I’m not worried. They have written all sorts of silly petitions against me and that’s part of the challenge. In fact, I can even hand myself over, and if they call me, I don’t have anything to hide.
“You know how this country is, it is all about bitterness, it is all about vendetta, wickedness and people who have opposed me in Edo State are cruel, very wicked people, very jealous and envious and this is because they cannot show as much as the achievements we have made in the past eight years.
“But what is important to us is to focus on our people in order to make Nigeria better because the suffering is too much. We have the advantage and privilege to make things happen. So, we should focus on issues and not on vendetta.”
Explaining his success, particularly in the sphere of education, the governor said Nigeria had always played at global standards, explaining that to be at par with the world, one must teach for impact.
He said the Nigerian government was not poor, but the issue of waste, theft and corruption had been the bane of the nation.
According to Obaseki, “What we spend money on many times are not necessary. You cannot expect to raise money if you haven’t put some of yours into it. You have to build trust and people have to believe in what you’re saying and that’s how we’ve been able to raise resources.”
The keynote speaker, Professor Olubayi Olubayi, from Kenya, called on the Nigerian government to adopt the Indian model of advancement through ideas embedded in human capital development.
In his presentation, titled, “Dedication and Investment in Education-leveraging Education for Sustainable Human Capital Development,” cited examples with technology and business moguls, such as CEOs of Microsoft and Harvard Business Schools. He remarked that they were all raised in India despite its historical poverty state that had, however, changed over the years.
He said, “The best model for Nigeria to follow is India with its 18 formal languages and writing systems and yet it’s is a rising power. It has no money to educate it’s over 1.4 billion population and yet is rising.
“India has ideas and even though it used to be poor, it leveraged on ideas imbued in human capital. Another country is Singapore which has same population of about five million with Edo State.”
