A drowning man, desperate for survival, will clutch at straws. The same is the case with Godwin Obaseki who as Governor, has failed so horribly in delivering his campaign promises and keeping the peace of the state, that he has resorted to clutching at straws and parading all kinds of thing before the people as “achievements”.
The latest in this assault on our sensibilities and intelligence, is the fanfare that followed the launch of Uber, a ride service hailing company which partners with existing car owners seeking commercial profits, in Benin City.
Anyone familiar with the service knows that for it to achieve any success, it requires the existence of basic infrastructure which can only be provided by a serious government. And here begins the disheartening irony: a celebration of unsustainable achievement, set up for inevitable failure by the same irrationally jubilant government.
If one understands the working and structural techniques of the hailing company, he may loudly ponder on the road which these vehicles will ply. Worse, by which people, for which people and in which state/city? Certainly, Godwin Obaseki’s Edo state lacks the wherewithal to, in answering these questions, provide the needed structure for the thrive of Uber.
Arising from Obaseki’s abysmal maintenance culture, the roads in Benin city due to lack of drainage desilt, are widely flooded at any occasion of rainfall hence bringing mobility to a standstill. Resolve to carry on at such condition orchestrates risk, the type that makes rife the chances of death as the blocked drainage systems are hardly differentiated from the major roads.
Obaseki’s failure exists in two-fold. The lack of foresight to conceive innovative ways of leading the state and secondly, a total absence of will to carry on from the pre-existing government and complete projects previously under execution. These put the state in infrastructural reverse, diminishing the business success chances of the Uber initiative.
Uber is expertly designed to function with already existing car owners. People who their vehicle is of a certain standard and above the year 2006 in model. The challenge in this domain obtains from understanding the distributive ratio of youths who owns suitable vehicles accepted by the international company for standardized operation.
However, the unemployment and fast-rising debt profile wrought by Obaseki on the state leaves the populace grappling with a special kind of poverty and the economy shrinks.
This equally contributes towards ensuring that the Uber initiative remains merely wishful thinking, never mind it has been physically celebrated. Who rides a car when feeding and clothing is a herculean task? The promised 200,000 jobs existing only in his manifesto, the previously existing ones disappear, making such ambitions like owning and riding a car, a luxury less needed.
A close study of the states where Uber functions, like Lagos and Abuja, reveals a solid security system that can guarantee swift operations and reliable driver-client relationship. Weighing Edo in this context provides only one result if we are true to ourselves. It is also this same Obaseki who has institutionalized thuggery in Edo state, Benin city especially, allocating cash to service the machinery of vandalism, persecuting opposition with state-funded rascals. If Obaseki engages the youths, paying them money just to make noise on his behalf, where and how then can they find the motivation for honest labor?
The enormity of these claw-back issues notwithstanding, it is not the existence of challenges that offends because challenges, with honest and visionary leadership, can be surmounted. What breaks the heart about this shameful claim of achievement is the evidence, now clear, that this administration does not value the people of Edo state. It is only a total lack of value and respect that would get a man to believe he can present a vastly learned population like Edo state, the Uber initiative, as an achievement of governance in the few months leading up to the election.
But it reminds why Edo people must not make the mistake of allowing whatever late minute interventions Obaseki and his henchmen are inventing, to lull them from what is true and real: the prodigious incompetence and tyrannical legacy of Godwin Obaseki.
In all honesty, with the present infrastructural conditions of Edo state, Uber is almost impossible to operate in Benin city — thanks to Obaseki’s lackluster administration. However, one ride can firstly be test-run; and that is one hailed for Obaseki, driving him home, permanently, from Osadebey Avenue come February 2020.
Written by John Mayaki.
