EDO 2024: Why APC Should not repeat 2016 mistake – Ikpea

Edo State 2024 Governorship Aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, State, Mr. Joseph Ikpea, in this interview spoke on the politics of Edo and what will shape the governorship poll next year.

The former chairman of Esan South-East LGA, and former Commissioner in the state, said among others that he is in the race to raise the standard of living of Edo people.

You have officially declared your intention to run for the governorship ticket of the APC for the Edo 2024 governorship election. Why are you running?

I have looked around carefully and found out that the word of God which says that when the righteous is on the throne that the people rejoice cannot be faulted.

The mammoth crowd that followed me to the party secretariat for my official declaration are a very few of the living witnesses of my antecedents of noble deeds at various times in positions of authority. They came to support my aspiration because of the people-centered leadership I have demonstrated in all my previous engagements in leadership positions and because of that reason, they are all happy, hopeful and prayerful for my possible emergence which would redirect leadership to create better living standards for the people.

Many other aspirants have also visited the APC secretariat for the same purpose, what makes you more qualified than them?

That notwithstanding, majority of the aspirants for the governorship position on the platform of the APC are qualified but I can conveniently tell you that I am the most qualified not necessarily because I am one of the founding members of the party but mainly because I have stayed, worked and laboured for the party. The God that I serve knows that I have worked for this party more than any of the aspirants because when there was nobody to work to build the party, I was there for the party. I was the first person that left the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to form ACD, AC, ACN and now APC.

Coupled with my commendable effort of staying in the party to build it to the enviable height it has attained today, I have the prerequisite qualifications, indispensable experiences and pedigree required to reengineer the dwindling and dilapidated socio economic and infrastructural fortunes of the state to an appreciable level where every Edo person and residents are assured a better living condition.

I was a one-time Edo State Library Board chairman under the Lucky Igbinedion Administration. I was a member of State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, under Comrade Adams Oshiomhole Administration, one-time Esan South East LGA chairman; and a commissioner under Godwin Obaseki Administration.

So, you can see from my track record that I am the most qualified, and none of the APC aspirants is as qualified as I am and I believe that my party will not want to make the same mistake it made in the past by supporting Godwin Obaseki, who wasn’t a home boy, an individual who never really knew the people he was parachuted in to govern.

With Obaseki as a technocrat our expectations were high, but today, the reverse is the case and everybody is disappointed because the party made a mistake on the choice of an individual who never had a relationship with the people, who didn’t know the pains, anguish, sorrow, fear and aspiration of the people.

Today, there is no road anywhere across the state but if I am given the opportunity to serve I will turn things around. I will create jobs for the people and that will reduce the criminality and kidnapping that are currently the orders of the day in the state. I have lived all my life as a home boy and community man; lived with the people, I know what their worries are, I know their fears, I know their pains and I know their aspirations and I empathize with them because I live among them.

What is your reaction to the rumour that the leadership of your party has given the go-ahead to your kinsman, Senator Monday Okpebholo to contest in the election and that former Minister of Works Arch Mike Onolenmemen has been tipped to contest the senatorial district’s bye- election in the event that it becomes vacant with the possible exit of the incumbent Senator?

I see it as a mere rumor because the party can never make such a mistake. Senator Akpakomiza is a brother and a friend, but he is a newcomer, and the anticipated political luck does not come every time. Honestly, I can’t foresee such circumstances playing out because the leadership of our party is a composition of very wise and intelligent people who know the possible consequences of such a counter-productive decision that would negatively affect the expected electoral victory of our great party. I Know that our party cannot gamble with such an idea that could portend varying degrees of negative consequences.

On the Arch. Mike Onolenmemen issue, I see that as a hearsay, fabricated lies, which lack merit or moral objectivity. I am not sure anybody will make such a mistake because Arch. Onolenmemen just came to join the party though we are very happy to receive him as a former Minister. Like I said before, the leadership of our party will not allow for such mistake that could negatively impact the party because PDP and Labour Party, LP, are strongly contesting for the control of power in Edo State too, and they are watching us to make mistakes and as such I don’t see APC making such pranks that would boomerang

What do you expect to achieve if given the opportunity to take the ticket?

My objective of coming into the Edo State 2024 governorship race is to raise the standard of living of Edo people through a people-oriented all-inclusive government that will provide infrastructure, adequate security for the people, quality education and above all create job opportunities for the people. When you create jobs for the people, you would have succeeded in minimizing, if not completely eliminating crime and criminality from the state, because as they say ‘the idle mind is the devil’s workshop.’

I have that capacity to create jobs because I have been in the engineering and construction industry for 32 years now so I know what it takes to create jobs, if given the opportunity.

I intend to bring all these long years of experience and empathetic dispositions to bear in the development of Edo State and rapidly raise the standard of living of every Edo person irrespective of tribe, religion and political party affiliation.

The governor of Edo state, Mr Godwin Obaseki is said to be sponsoring a high calibre individual from your constituency in PDP to succeed him. How do you intend to surmount this challenge?

When Oshiomhole came on board in 2008, he came as a brand name and the position APC holds today at the national level is largely dependent on Senator Adams Oshiomhole ‘s pedigree and his brand name because he has a good name. That is exactly how most Edo people see me because of the brand which the name ‘Ikpea’ has come to be in Edo State due to the philanthropic gestures of Ikpea in the lives of most Edo people and beyond. The scholarship programmes, the endless employment opportunities for several Edo people across the country, and the support for the very less privileged people and widows in the society have turned me to a brand name that has touched lives across the state. With that love ingrained in the heart of Edo people, I will surely defeat any candidate the PDP or LP will be presenting because people will always prefer to vote for whom they know and trust, and that is me, and it cuts across all the political parties and the three senatorial districts of the state.