By GEORGE ETAKIBUEBU

Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Senator Monday Okpebholo, has announced a strange and questionable empowerment programme on the eve of a crucial gubernatorial election in the state in which he is a candidate. According to available information by his own media team, it is billed to hold on Tuesday, August 6, 2024, at Irrua, Esan Central Local Government Area.

A statement on Sunday morning in many social media accounts by Godswill Inegbe, a Legislative Aide to Senator Okpebholo on Media & Communications, showed that it will involve a total of 1,200 beneficiaries, cutting across the 5 local governments of Esan Central, Esan North East, Esan West, Esan South East and Igueben.

And the following items will be distributed as empowerment, entrepreneurship materials and palliatives: "30 cars, agricultural equipments, farm crops fertilizers, sowing and welding machines, thousands of bags of rice and grants."

This empowerment programme coming on the 'eve' of the state's gubernatorial election in which Senator Okpebholo is a candidate is highly suspicious as it raises moral and integrity questions. This is not an empowerment. This is a poorly disguised vote buying scheme. It has all to do with the September 21 election and nothing to do with humanitarian consideration or compassionate grounds. Even the blind can see the ulterior motive behind the so-called empowerment programme billed for Tuesday.

Reggae King, Bob Marley, in his hit track #GetUpStandUp, said "You can fool some people sometimes, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."

It's a grave error of judgement for Okpebholo to think that he can fool all of Esan and Edo people, renowned for their high intelligence, social awareness and outspoken prowess with some woe-be-gone empowerment designed to buy the conscience of the people and their freedom to freely choose who should be their next governor on the basis of proven competence, capacity, integrity and demonstrable compassion.

If Okpebholo thinks that he can make up for his obvious and glaring deficiencies and deficits in terms of competence and capacity to do the job by bribing the people with his Greek Gift he christened empowerment, he missed it and must quickly have a rethink.

It's a huge and crying shame that all Okpebholo and his handlers can think of as an election strategy is to weaponise poverty and hardship which his party has foisted on hapless and almost helpless Nigerians in the last 9 years. The results of the poor managerial and administrative acumen and know-how of the APC is all over the land and all can see it. The current nationwide protests is an eloquent testimony against the APC and all it claims to represent.

Okpebholo has been a senator for 13 months with nothing to show for it. Why is he just waking up from a deep slumber of inactivity and no results to want to gift 30 cars to members of his constituents now. Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, aka Yayi, APC Ogun West, had a talk of the town empowerment in late January 2024. What was Okpebholo waiting for. If the governorship election was not just 45 days away, would he have remembered the good people of Edo Central as worthy and deserving of empowerment? This is a Greek Gift and he should keep his tainted and questionable empowerment programme till after the election, if his motive is pure and genuine.

This is to all intent and purposes, a wilful manipulation of the people and there is no advance vote buying programme that could be bigger than this.

There are other senators in the state, why are they not also conducting their empowerment now? Okpebholo is just unconscionably taking undue advantage of the many vulnerable people in Esan land. He knows that the level of poverty created by his party is enormous and never seen before in this country. Why didn't he bring out the palliatives before the protest began? Why allow the people to go hungry all this while? He has a hidden agenda. He certainly has an ulterior motive. It's all about the votes of the people. No more no less. And it's a shame that Okpebholo and the APC can shamelessly resort to this vote buying tactic even ahead of the election as the only possible route to Osadebey Avenue come September. It's a shame. Esan people should do well to reject Okpebholo and his contrived empowerment programme. It's tainted. It's corrupt. It's ungodly. The timing is odd and should be seen for what it is — advance vote buying.

•Etakibuebu, a public affairs analyst, wrote in from Benin City.

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