Edo State Governor-Elect Monday Okpebholo has said he is expecting a congratulatory message from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate in the just concluded gubernatorial election, Asue Ighodalo.
Okpebholo, who received his certificate of return from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday before visiting the Presidential Villa to meet with the President, Bola Tinubu, said he will govern as a servant-leader.
The All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate also revealed that he is ready to work with the opposition if they have useful ideas to add to the value of the state.
Okpebholo said, “For me, I’m coming as a servant to serve the Edo people. That is what is required of me, and that is what exactly I’m going to do. So very soon, you will see a lot of development coming up in Edo.
“We are going to employ teachers. We are going to renovate our schools…a lot will be happening over time. So with time, you recognise that a new dawn has happened.
“If they have an idea that is beautiful, that is acceptable by the people, then why not? My door is open to everybody.
”They have to bear it. They have to wait. It has happened. If I had lost I would have borne it, and I would have, by now, congratulated the winner. So I’m expecting them to congratulate me.”
Former Governor of the State, Adams Oshiomhole, who was part of the delegation to the Presidential Villa, said the state is now blessed with a governor the people can relate to easily.
Oshiomhole said governance is not necessarily building roads and schools but about a leadership that is compassionate and listens to the feelings of the people.
He said, “Only God can confer power. Man can make all the effort. If God chooses not to crown it, it will be in vain. So politicians campaign in vain, unless God campaign for you. And I think that is our case, and I am excited not only for the fact that we have reclaimed Edo state, almost in the same manner that we reclaimed it from PDP in 2007, before Obaseki took it away back from us.
“My joy is the fact that Edo people will now have a governor that they can hug, they can touch, they can feel, and the governor that will open the doors. Edo State people now have a governor that will not send pregnant women to jail on account of N20,000 fine by a mobile court and who might end up delivering inside prison.
“We have a man with compassion, with human feeling; because governance is not just about building roads and schools. It is that human touch; a governor with empathy, humble enough to recognise that public trust is not like a corporate Chief Executive.
“Corporate chief executive can behave the way he wants because he heads the business because it is his father’s money.
“But with public trust, the vote of the labourer and the vote of the professor, the vote of the pauper, the beggar and the vote of the wealthiest person, one man, one vote is equal. And so we have a governor who understands this, and who went through this process just about a year ago, and his people entrusted him with the senatorial representation in Edo Central. And what is going for him is precisely what the other guys fail to understand.
“The fact that he’s at home with the ordinary man, is at home with the ordinary woman. He understand the challenges of the rural poor. So they are all excited now that they are back again with a governor that they can say, ‘this is my governor”.