Senator Adams Oshiomhole, have charged Edo State indigenes to be active in politics in order to attract development in the state.
The former Governor made the call at the weekend when a group under the umbrella of Weppa Wanno Pyramid Club of Nigeria, had the club’s 8th biennial retreat in Lagos as the community pleaded with the Federal Government to pay attention to a city, Agenebode in Etako East.
Speaking on the theme: “Poltics as a veritable tool for community development,’ Oshiomhole who was represented by Prof. Marcel Okhakhu from the department of Mass Communication, University of Benin said: “You must be active in politics. Politics is not for card carrying members alone, everybody is a politician. And those that you have sent by a way of mandate must not be left alone even after you have voted for them.
“You must call them to account, give them a shopping list of what is possible, you may not know what they know, that’s why you must have a town hall meetings so as to brainstorm, share ideas and prioritize the things that need to be done, no man is an island, nobody knows it all. They need ideas, support, information and they too should be willing to carry your message further so that the world can know that the world doesn’t stop in Lagos or Abuja.”
Also, the club regretted that the area lacks the basic infrastructures such as a linking bridge to Ida, Kogi state, tertiary institutions and good road networks all that have hindered development in that part of the state.
Okhakhu explained that the state government has not given attention to that part of the state.
He said: “Agenebode is almost like a back town because it’s the last of the towns in Edo State particularly in Etako East. The next community to us is Ida which is in Kogi state and it’s the body of water, the river Niger that separates us from Kogi and that on its own has a specific disadvantage for the people.
“If we had a bridge across the water, from Agenebode to Kogi, we will see more development.
“Another thing is that there is no tertiary schools in the place, the schools we have are the secondary schools established in 1967 and pockets of private schools. Even the few schools that exist have no teachers, we do community service to pay PTA teachers.
“The General Hospital in the area was built by people, clubs like this, donate items from time,” Okhakhu said.
Earlier in his speech, President of the club, Dr. Austine Aipoh said that the theme of the retreat was relevant at no better time than now in the “life of our nation, taking into consideration that a new administration came into being about four months ago.
Politics affects all facets of our lives, and all sectors of the economy are subjected political power play and control, community development being no exception,” he said.
Also, one of the past Presidents of the club, Mr Kenndy Izuagbe said: “We lack basic infrastructure. We believe that the federal government of Nigeria should take our cry for bridge linking us with Ida in Kogi as a matter of priority. It will open up Edo state and Kogi as commerce will improve.
“About 10 years ago, Edo state government established the school of agriculture and we started engaging the government to upgrade the institution to University but, sadly the institution had been closed down for the past four years,” Izuagbe added.
