By Jethro Ibileke
The Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has taunted the government of Monday Okpebholo as lacking in ideas, vision, and a basic grasp of modern governance.
The party, in a statement on Saturday by its Publicity Secretary, Dan Osa-Ogbegie, described Okpebholo’s government as beneath governance and does nothing but vendetta and propaganda.
“We have watched the reckless onslaught against the Museum of West African Art project. We have seen the hostility directed at the 95MW Ossiomo Power Project. We witnessed the harassment of Saro Farms and the ethanol investment in Ikpoba Okha. We observed the deliberate crippling of the Edo Printing Press at the Nigerian Observer premises.
“We saw the embarrassing misadventure against Presco Plc, from which the government retreated only after public outrage and investor backlash. Now, the Radisson Hotel project has become the latest victim of this administration’s politics of destruction.
“This pattern is neither accidental nor coincidental. It is the conduct of a government without ideas, without vision, and without a basic grasp of modern governance. Unable to conceive, design, or execute development projects, they resort to tearing down investments they neither initiated nor understand,” he said.
The Edo PDP image maker also called out the State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Kassim Afegbua, for allegedly describing the ₦2 billion invested by former Governor Godwin Obaseki in the Radisson Hotel project as” voodoo financing, describing it as a cocktail of ignorance and mischief.
He added: “It betrays a frightening illiteracy in finance, social investments, and contemporary development economics. Public-Private Partnerships, Special Purpose Vehicles, equity contributions, project-finance loans, and asset-backed repayment structures are not crimes. They are the language of modern infrastructure development across the world.
Under Godwin Obaseki, Edo State was deliberately elevated from rudimentary, rent-seeking governance to international best practice in fiscal discipline, transparency, and investment-led growth. That an Information Commissioner of a State would stand before cameras to demonise standard project-finance instruments only exposes the intellectual bankruptcy of the current administration.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Radisson Hotel project was structured as a Public-Private Partnership. Edo State’s ₦2 billion contribution was seed equity injected to de-risk the project and attract credible private capital. The core private investor brought in substantial equity of its own.
“Other funds referenced by the government, including portions of bond proceeds, were deployed as loans to the Special Purpose Vehicle for construction and completion of the hotel, with clear repayment obligations tied to future operations. This is not plunder. This is development finance.
“Even before commencement of operations, the Edo investment in the Radisson project had already appreciated significantly, conservatively valued at over ₦65 billion, with further upside expected once operations begin. This is what happens when governments think strategically, attract private capital, and invest in long-term economic assets.
“The insinuation that the project was ‘sold for peanuts’ or gifted to cronies is false, malicious, and defamatory. Edo State retained equity in the project. At no point did Mr Godwin Obaseki have any direct or indirect ownership interest in the hotel. Attempts to suggest otherwise are the desperate inventions of a government floundering in incompetence and searching for scapegoats to mask its failures.
“What Kassim Afegbua and his principals describe as ‘voodoo financing’ is, in truth, the globally accepted method by which serious governments deliver infrastructure, stimulate tourism, create jobs, and grow economies. Their inability to comprehend it does not render it fraudulent. It only exposes their illiteracy.”
Osa-Ogbegieurged Edo people to ask the Okpebholo’s administration such pertinent questions as: How does chasing away investors create jobs? How does dragging strategic investments to the EFCC and the courts improve the lives of our youths? How does propaganda substitute for governance?
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