When Governor Obaseki set up the Political Appointments Screening Committee to help him get the possible best and brightest in delivering on his mandate and MEGA Agenda vision to the Edo People many praised the idea because it would largely cut out the culture of throwing up incompetents by entrenched godfathers who always nominate people they can easily manipulate all in the name of “Loyalty”.
We will not even bother you with news of the rigmarole that took place across the Local Governments because the so-called old and new PDP could not work harmoniously together.
When eventually the Committee sat and screened the Commissioner-Nominees there were allegations of bias against the old PDP Nominees. The 15-Man Committee had only two old PDP members. Others were either returnees or those who came with the Governor.
The Committee submitted its report a few days ago and already there are reports of manipulation especially in Edo North by the Deputy Governor whose 2024 governorship ambition is making him doing everything possible to entrench his loyalists even to the point of financially inducing the Edo North Panel members of the Committee. Information reaching us is that he ensured his loyalists were scored the highest even when they fell short of most of the scoring criteria such as dressing, academic qualification, oral presentation, amongst others. This has greatly called to question the credibility and authenticity of the process. Some have even dubbed it “predetermined”.
A leader of the Party our Correspondent spoke to said the whole exercise was a sham as most Committee Members already had been scripted.
“What do you expect from a Committee where the leader of the Edo North Panel gets contracts from the Deputy Governor’s Chief of Staff! The piper simply played the dictated tune for present and future payments.
The Governor, if he is not complicit himself, would do well to bin the report and device a more credible process of getting his Dream Team. His Deputy has tainted the process with his callous interference”.
We will keep you updated on this as things unfold.