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Nigerians should
insist on credible polls so that they would have the moral right to
call leaders to order once they are elected, Edo State governor, Adams
Oshiomhole said yesterday in Ekpoma.

Mr Oshiomhole, who
spoke during the commissioning of heavy capacity drilling rigs that
could go as far as 1,400 metres, said his administration promised the
people of the area that he will deploy the latest technology that would
give them water since they have suffered from low water level for a
long time.

“We have said in
Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) that power must return to the people,
the people shall never again be held in captive and no one godfather
shall ever again be permitted to depose the political fortunes of
individuals,” he said. “Politicians who want power must respect their
people. As they say in a democracy; if the people are like dwarfs,
whoever wishes to be a king must go to the level of the dwarfs
otherwise he will not be crowned. The beauty of what we are doing today
is that we recognized that our political future is in the hands of our
people. If our people are happy, we are happy, if they are not happy we
cannot be happy.” He advised the people of the area to be ready to
defend their rights and not be taken for granted. He said his
administration will not just lament the poor state of facilities but
work with the people to find means to correct them.

“We want people to
challenge them on what they achieved in the 10 years of their rule and
we want to tell them what we have achieved in two years of our
administration; the facts must speak for us,” he said. “Wherever they
said there is no water, we have said there must be water. Water is life
and therefore every responsible government, whether of the right or of
the centre or of the left must see water as one of the key things
government must provide for its people. We tried to understand how we
got here. After all here in Esan land, water flowed before.”

Fulfilled promise

He said it was a
tragedy that places like Uromi, which had potable water some years ago,
no longer enjoyed access to clean water as things simply degenerated.
“The only people who now have water are people who are highly placed
who create boreholes for themselves or at the very best extend it to
their hotels but certainly not for the community,” he said. “I did
promise that government will not join the people in lamenting the
impossibilities of getting water to our people, but government will
find the will and the resources to deal with that problem on a
sustainable basis, today I am here to fulfil that promise.”