Horse’s Mouth News appreciates donations in support of good journalism and quality reportage. (Naira Account, Nigeria)
Account number: 6281917627
Account name: Horse’s Mouth News Media
Bank: Monie Point
Edo in darkness: Obaseki’s proactive strategy, Okpebholo’s lackadaisical approach
By John Ewah
To quote Plato, you may forgive a child who is afraid of the dark, but the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
It was on the grey morning of November 12, 2024, the story of Edo’s travails began.
Nothing might have seemed unusual to the simple minded when Monday Okpebholo assumed office as governor. However, those with a basic knowledge of history and a modicum of foresight knew winter was coming for the state.
This was not an ideological group with clearly mapped out objectives coming into power, but a group of bitter politicians ready to unleash mayhem on every achievement recorded by the preceding administration.
Their mobocratic style of governance is evident in the city center today which has become a den of uncontrollable hooliganism.
The relative peace and sanity restored by the previous administration have collapsed completely and insanity is once again set loosed. Commercial bus drivers have turned the very heart of King Square, popularly known as Ring Road, into motor parks.
Vigilantes are on rampage, publicly extorting motorists, while EDSTMA which has become a shadow of its former self, watch gleefully.
It would seem that the administration is driven by what may be termed “Obaseki Derangement Syndrome”, a psychological state which places the “patient” in perpetual hatred of anything related to Obaseki.
It did not matter how novel the initiative was, as long as it was a recorded achievement of former governor Godwin Obaseki, the goal was to pull it down.
From Ossiomo Power to MOWAA, from e-governance to civil service reforms, the Okpebholo administration resorted to the basest of human actions, the green-eyed monster of envy and hate, crumbling the system.
No matter how people-oriented the programs were; education ministry upgrade, Stella Obasanjo hospital project, command and control center, EdoJobs, EdoBEST and countless others, all were abandoned.
The people did not matter as long as Obaseki was impacted. The tales of the rage unleashed on the previous administration could make up a new book of chronicles.
Today, Edo is once again in darkness because the administration, just like Plato stated, is literally afraid of the light. The 95-megawatts capacity Ossiomo Power which provided government agencies and several communities with 24 hours electricity was somehow taken out of play.
The power outlet had functioned as a viable competition to the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), breaking BEDC’s hold on the people as well as its monopoly of the power sector in the state.
Prior to the establishment of Ossiomo under the previous administration, Obaseki had fought BEDC to a standstill. He became the people’s champion.
Fortunately, following the Electricity Act 2023 and the subsequent Electricity Act Amendment Bill signed into law, state governments in Nigeria were given the legal authority to regulate intra-state electricity markets, thereby moving power from the exclusive list to the concurrent list.
BEDC however remains uncontrollable in Edo today, thanks to the Okpebholo administration which turned a blind eye to the ordeal of Ossiomo Power, its only competitor in Edo.
While the state government had largely blamed the shut down of operations by Ossiomo on internal corporate and ownership issues, it displayed indifference when the company attempted to resume power generation as recent as August 2026, but youths at its Ologbo facility disrupted its efforts.
Sources had alleged that the government was already reconnecting some of its offices to BEDC before Ossiomo shut down operations in September 2025. It is like walking out the door and then acting shocked when the lights go out behind you.
Stemming from lack of competition, BEDC is on a spree, billing electricity users arbitrarily, migrating communities to Band A unsolicitedly in order to shore up revenues, and reportedly engaging in diverse sorts of shady activities, while the state government does nothing.
Edo would have been less impacted by the current industrial action by electricity workers if Ossiomo were still in business.
A lackadaisical approach to governance has impeded the growth of an erstwhile thriving power sector in the state, where the people were actual beneficiaries.
Like the previous administration, Edo State Government must now make efforts to encourage multiple sources of electricity generation, especially with states now being able to regulate electricity markets within their borders.
John Ewah is the publisher and chief editor Horse’s Mouth News
