Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has reassured the people of the state that his government will fulfill all promises made during his second term electoral campaigns.
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He said the state had commenced the process of creating a 30-year development plan to provide the government with the necessary tools, guidelines, and milestones for development planning.
Obaseki, who spoke to journalists in Benin City at a workshop on the development of the Benin City Master Plan and Edo State Development Plan, said the plans, in fulfillment of his campaign promises, would ensure a defined template for the development and growth of the state.
His words: “We are here to start a series of workshops that will lead to the creation of the Benin City Master plan, Edo State Regional plan, and Edo State 30-year Economic Development plan.
“I promised during our electioneering campaigns that one of the legacies of our administration will be to leave behind the compass, like a directional tool, which will indicate where Edo should be headed in the next three decades.
“So, this is in fulfillment of our promise and it was a well-thought-out-out idea. We found out that one of our biggest challenges as a country and as a state is that we don’t plan, we have lost the culture of planning and we just keep moving on.”
“As an administration, one of the biggest concerns that people keep expressing is that the governor and his deputy, Philip Shaibu are doing well by charting a new direction for the state, but what is the guarantee that when we leave office these things will continue?
“My response is that we may not find the person, who will continue all the things we have conceived, but we can create a system that will ensure that whatever we have started continues.”
He expressed confidence that the state government was taking steps in the right direction, adding that from the experiences of people who have done it right, if his administration does things properly, no matter the challenges ahead, it would have the clarity to go through.
“I have been involved in the Edo State government for over 14 years and I discovered that one of our biggest challenges is waste. Most of our resources are wasted because we do not have plans.
“If you look at government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), between six and seven of them are executing the same jobs, because they don’t talk to one another. Our children are going to inherit that plan,” he added.
Chief Executive Officer of SIRA, which will develop the proposed plan, Dr. Kamal Azar, charged all stakeholders to collaborate with the government to actualise the plan.
He said: “The master plan is very important in meeting our current challenges. The regional plan will help us in improving the people’s welfare in areas where there are concerns about the present and future living conditions.
“This plan is important because Benin City is expanding without a plan. Therefore, I urge all stakeholders to join hands in executing the plan.”