ONE YEAR OF RETREAT, REGRESSION AND REBRANDED FAILURE:A REJOINDER TO “PASTOR” OSAGIE IZE-IYAMU’S SELF-MARKETING FICTICTION

By Dr. Tony Aziegbemi

Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, Edo State

My dear people of Edo State,

The recent publication issued by “Pastor” Osagie Ize-Iyamu is neither a defence of Governor Monday Okpebholo nor a contribution to public discourse. It is a carefully choreographed audition by a man whose only enduring political philosophy is self-interest. His essay drips with desperation, revisionism and opportunism. Since he has chosen to deliberately mislead the public, it is necessary to set the record straight with clarity and precision.

on the flyover propaganda

The so-called Ramat Park flyover is not an achievement. It is a contract awarded without design, without a tenders board, without transparency and without basic due process. After receiving more than two hundred and thirty six billion naira in ten months, the Okpebholo administration cannot point to a single completed project. What is marketed as “development” is nothing more than hurried concrete, hollow publicity and improvised engineering. Edo people deserve better.

on the “legitimacy” sermon

It is curious to see the “Pastor” suddenly embrace judicial legitimacy. This is the same man who rejected election results in 2016, rejected them again in 2020, litigated endlessly, lost at every level, and only discovered “rule of law” after exhausting all appeals. His relationship with legality is transactional. He accepts results only when they favour him. Even more troubling is that what he says about Okpebholo privately is the opposite of what he now proclaims publicly. Hypocrisy has always been his second nature.

on infrastructure and selective forgetfulness

He dismisses eight years of Governor Godwin Obaseki, but facts remain facts. Under Obaseki, Edo witnessed the most ambitious infrastructural transformation since 1999:

the modern secretariat complex

the John Odigie Oyegun Public Service Academy

the Edo Tech Park

one thousand, two hundred kilometres of fibre optic connectivity across all local government areas

remodeled Colleges of Nursing, Agriculture and Education

over two hundred and thirty primary healthcare centres

modular refineries and independent power projects

production centres, stormwater interventions and the Benin Mall

The difference between solid development and hurried political construction is clear.

on education and the EdoBEST distortion

Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (EdoBEST) is globally recognised as a continental model. Over eleven thousand, three hundred teachers trained, more than nine hundred schools strengthened, and over three hundred thousand learners impacted. To trivialise such a landmark reform is not analysis; it is ignorance masquerading as commentary.

on Ambrose Alli University and the truth he avoids

Ambrose Alli University was drowning in ghost workers, payroll manipulation and entrenched fraud. The Special Intervention Team uncovered over one thousand, three hundred ghost workers and rescued the institution from collapse. What Okpebholo now celebrates as “restoration” is merely the return of the same interests that crippled the university for decades.

on the opaque economy

The “Pastor” claims that leakages have been blocked, yet Edo State is now run without audited accounts, without published procurement records, without functioning land administration and with Certificates of Occupancy practically suspended because the governor has not mastered a consistent signature. Investors have fled, revenues are untracked and economic governance has collapsed into patronage. This is regression rebranded as reform.

on security and the worsening climate of fear

Violent cult clashes have surged across Etsako West, Esan West, Egor, Ikpoba-Okha, Uhunmwode and Oredo. Kidnappings have risen even on major roads. Bulldozers and media theatrics do not qualify as security. A government that cannot protect its citizens cannot claim progress.

on social welfare mythology

The “Pastor” reels out billion-naira bursaries, billion-naira traders’ funds and revived social welfare schemes that do not appear in any official budget or circular. Meanwhile, hospitals deteriorate, dialysis centres sit idle, primary healthcare collapses and local governments remain paralysed. This is the reality behind the rhetoric.

on agriculture and the attack on Edo State Oil Palm Programme

The Edo State Oil Palm Programme attracted billions of naira in investment and created thousands of jobs. In one year, the Okpebholo administration has not cultivated a single hectare of farmland. Those who add nothing to agricultural policy cannot credibly rewrite its history.

on the Museum of West African Art and cultural ignorance

The Museum of West African Art is a world-class institution that places Edo on the global cultural map. To reduce such a monumental project to partisan propaganda is intellectual poverty.

on the true character and motivation of “Pastor” Osagie Ize-Iyamu

“Pastor” Ize-Iyamu has never served any cause greater than his own ambition. His loyalty begins and ends with himself, his immediate family and his extended family. His devotion is not ideological; it is financial.

His sudden loud loyalty also has another explanation: he is already positioning himself for the Edo South senatorial ticket of the All Progressives Congress in 2027. Everything he writes, says or pretends to believe is simply an investment in that ambition.

on his record of betrayal

No politician in Edo State has betrayed benefactors with the consistency of Ize-Iyamu:

Chief Lucky Igbinedion actually created Osagie Ize-Iyamu. He made him Personal Assistant, Manager of Skanga, Chief of Staff, Secretary to the State Government, even gifting him the palatial mansion he still lives in. He repaid Lucky Igbinedion with rebellion and humiliation.

Adams Oshiomhole risked his chairmanship to impose him as the All Progressives Congress candidate in 2020. He repaid Oshiomhole by aligning with those who removed him.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu supported him massively in 2020. He repaid Tinubu by supporting another aspirant at the 2022 presidential primaries.

His history is a straight line: use, benefit, betray, abandon. Edo people know this pattern too well.

on Oshiomhole’s unforgettable 2016 verdict

Perhaps Adams Oshiomhole was not wrong after all. In 2016, he unleashed a torrent of truth that still hangs in the air like acid. He declared that Ize-Iyamu was “not fit to be governor,” “a liability to Edo State,” and “a man with a dark past.” On campaign podiums, Oshiomhole asked:

“Would you hand over your state to a man who poured acid on a fellow student in his university days?”

“This is a man who cannot explain the billions in his private accounts, money meant for development that ended in his private pockets. He lives in a palatial mansion but by the work he has done in his life, he should be in a room and parlour.”

He even mocked his credentials, insisting he was neither a lawyer nor a pastor, only a political version of both. Nothing in Ize-Iyamu’s present conduct contradicts those words. Everything confirms them.

conclusion

Edo State is in decline, and no volume of praise-singing from “Pastor” Osagie Ize-Iyamu can hide the failures of the Okpebholo administration. Edo deserves competent governance, not opportunistic choristers auditioning for their next political transaction.