Between Constituency and ESP projects: Hon Oghuma’s letter supports Minister Agba’s position, By Johnson Itsuokor

A few days ago, member representing Etsako Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Johnson Oghuma, was reported in a section of the media to have claimed that Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, had appropriated his constituency projects.

Oghuma’s claim was against the backdrop of the minister’s inspection of ongoing construction and rehabilitation of Iviukhua/Iviebua/ Iviegbepui/Ivianokpodi/Ivoghe rural road project in Edo North Senatorial zone.

The road project was awarded by the Federal Government under the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP), which was a response to the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and a deliberate project to open the rural communities along the agro-corridors to put an end to post-harvest losses, among other things.

According to sundry media reports, the inspection took place on February 4, 202I. The minister had also inspected, on February 2, 2021, a similar rural project: Ikpalla-Ikoro road in Ovia Northeast Local Government Area in Edo South Senatorial zone.

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The media had, since February, this year, when the minister started the inspection of the roads, referenced and quoted him to have said that there were 377 of such roads in 266 communities countrywide for which the Federal Government had approved N34 billion under the ESP.

The media had also reported the minister’s inspection of similar projects in Imo and Enugu States, in accordance with the discharge of his ministry’s National Monitoring and Evaluation (NM&E) mandate.

For better contextual understanding, the point needs to be made that the minister (Agba) is a member of the Economic Sustainability Committee (ESC) under the chair of the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, that birthed the ESP.  So, the minister could not have been mistaken about the projects that he facilitated in Edo State under the ESP.

I grant the minister the huge benefit of clear-headedness, and of course, his brilliance is a given, and to that extent, he is well positioned to understand the idea behind the ESP as Buhari’s legacy policy to build legacy projects.  The roads in question are in his community, providing asphaltic rural road network connecting it to its environs.  So, he knows the landscape and where the shoe pinches the people. He did not vacillate. He proceeded to facilitate inclusion of the roads for which the people are grateful to President Buhari, who approved the project(s).

The minister could not be said to have appropriated Oghuma’s constituency projects, which he (Oghuma) said he listed and proposed as some of the projects in a 2018 letter he purportedly sent to the Minister of State for Agriculture. Clearly, Oghuma’s letter has helped to clarify the issue and properly put it in the context of the minister Agba’s response to his original misrepresentation of facts in the media.

The minister had simply clarified, to help Oghuma reset his perception of the issue, that there were no constituency projects in the ESP.  And, I agree with the minister, simply because the ESP remains Buhari government’s most ambitious and effective response yet to the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. And by referencing a 2018 letter when COVID-19 had not happened, Oghuma simply shot himself in the foot.  He completely begged the question. And he must necessarily be asked to answer the following questions flowing from his claim supra.

When Oghuma wrote his letter in 2018, was there COVID, whether 18 or 19? Was there Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) as of the time he wrote to lobby for or solicit the implementation of the constituency projects listed in his letter of 2018? Did the minister of of State fir Agriculture send him a reply to assure him that his requests would be treated or had been granted? Besides, is the Minister of State for Agriculture a member of the Economic Sustainability Committee? To help Oghuma with this Notice, not at all. Only the Minister of Agriculture is a member of the ESC. Again, are the project titles even the same?

I consider the shenanigans by Hon Oghuma at seeking to take credit for projects he did not facilitate their inclusion in the ESP unparliamentary. The move to misinform the people of Edo State and befuddle the issue for personal political gains was simply Goebellian and such propaganda was uncalled for.  Assuming without even conceding that his effort was contributory to the siting of the projects in contention, should he be concerned about taking the credit more than the effort to ensure the execution of the projects?

Truly, this is where the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, appears different from the legislator. Agba was instrumental to the inclusion of these road projects and that was the reason he was able to follow the release of the fund and embark on inspection of the project and others.  He enjoys a robust synergy with the supervising ministry of Agriculture whose officials were always on sites everywhere he had gone to inspect rural road projects to provide answers to his enquiries and observations about the projects. I consider Oghuma’s current predilection to advert attention to himself a disingenuous attempt to distract Agba and Agba should not fall for that cheap tactic as to continue to respond to the legislator, whom I make bold to submit is relishing in playing the devil’s advocate.

▪︎Mr Itusokor contributed this piece from Auchi, Edo State.