● Says “Your seven years security votes of NGN48b outweighs education budget”
Chief (Dr) Patriot Osagie Eholor, otherwise known as Ultimate Equal, and President and founder of One Love Foundation has slammed Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki for kaying claim to integrity and empty sanctimoniousness over cost of governance at the federal level.
Dr Eholor said Governor Obaseki should first remove the log in his eyes before pointing at the speck in other people’s eyes.
He said the Governor who had been fleecing Edo people of their commonwealth through humongous Security Votes far above budget allocations for health, Education, road infrastructure, agriculture and other critical sectors of the state economy had lost the moral high ground to pontificate on the cost of governance.
Patrick Eholor’s adumbration against the governor came against the backdrop of the governor’s criticism of the Federal Government of Nigeria to cut the cost of governance to save for the rainy day
Trojan News Media findings from Edo State Ministry of Finance and Accountant-General’s offices showed that the Governor’s released Security Votes between 2016 and 2023 were far higher than the money approved for education, health, agriculture, road infrastructure and sundry.
The money released to Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) in the years under review is as follows: 2018, N4.673b,
2019 N4.615b,
2020 N8.03b,
2021 N6.42b,
2022 N6.27b, totalling N30.08b after stepping down allocations to the board for 2016 and 2017.
The governor’s Security Votes between 2016 and 2023 was put at 2016, N4.7bn, 2017, N4.9bn, 2018, N5.7bn, 2019, N6.5bn, 2020, N7.6bn, 2021, N6.2bn, 2022, N7.5bn, totally N43.1b
“Governor Godwin is a terrible court jester because he doesn’t know the meaning of cutting the cost of governance in the real sense of the word.
“How much has he saved when debt management office records show that Edo State is the fifth most indebted state in Nigeria with debt overhang of N356.8bn?
“Governor Obaseki is not putting us into the pictures how he is cutting the cost of governance because he doesn’t know the meaning of waste.
“A man who appointed thousands of Special Assistants (SAs) and Senior Special Assistants (SSAs) for elections purposes when there are bad roads, no teachers in Primary and Post Primary Schools, weak and pigsties called hospitals is talking about wastes.
“What about the WiFi in Edo State that cost over 2 billion?
“It is pathetic that the outgoing Governor who has been conquered by insecurity, in a state where people can longer go to their farms and are daily being kidnapped in their houses is the worst disaster that has befallen Edo in the last few years”, Patriot Eholor said. [Trojan News]
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