UNDISPUTABLE REASONS APC SHOULD NOMINATE SENATOR URHOGHIDE FOR GOVERNOR

By Besiru Enakhimion.

Nigerian electorates, especially those in Edo State have become very wise.  Having been deceived in the past by political office seekers who make electioneering promises and later renege in them, they (electorates) have become skeptical over promises made by candidates vying for electoral offices. This is why any wise political party that is determined to win in an election should field a candidate that has fulfilled electioneering promises made in the past .  A candidate that  has provided dividends of democracy for his/her people through political office(s )he/she had earlier occupied. 

This is where Senator( Pharm.) Matthew Urhoghide has an edge over every other governorship aspirant in the All Progressives Congress, APC.  

Sen. Urhoghide who is the immediate past Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts at the Nigerian Senate has a lot of projects and programmes that he can showcase in the 77 wards of Edo South Senatorial District. He has given scholarship to 367 students of both tertiary and secondary schools and a total number of 7,423 people have benefitted from his Skill Acquisition Programmes in Edo South Senatorial District so far. 

Names and addresses of location of his projects in the entire 77 wards in the District are documented in his book, entitled, "Senator ( Pharm.) Matthew Urhoghide. My 8 years at the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria ".  In the book, names , addresses and telephone numbers of beneficiaries of his Scholarship Scheme and Skill Acquisition Training Programmes are clearing written for verification too.

At the latest Skill Acquisition Training Programme which took place on Wednesday, November 22, 2023, at the Bishop Kelly Pastoral Center, 100 youths and women in Edo South Senatorial District were trained and each of them was given a starter pack of One Hundred Thousand Naira ( #100,000.00). 

That training took place five months after Senator Urhoghide had quit office as a substantive senator. He had the option of conniving with the officials of the organization in charge of the training to divert and share the starter pack worth Ten Million Naira( #10,000,000.00) since he was no more in office. He chose not to cheat his people but decided to fulfil his promise of uplifting them through public office(s).

 At the training, Sen. Urhoghide even directed that any body who has not seen a project facilitated by him( Sen. Urhoghide) in any of the 77 wards in Edo South Senatorial District should inform him. He boasted that such claim(s) will be verified by him and if found to be correct, he will cause projects to be located in the affected ward(s) within a short time. 

 While campaigning for the 2015 general election, he signed a covenant with the people of his District; in the covenant he made promises to the people. That is what he has classified as his social contract with the people of Edo South Senatorial District. Today he  has fulfilled all the promises or social contract. That is why he is today fondly called ,  "The promise keeper".

The people of Edo State are sophisticated politically and are also hungry for a governor who can deliver the dividends of democracy. They want to vote for a man that has good projects to show as samples of his past performance while occupying a political office. They want a candidate who has projects to display as what he or she had done for his/her people while in office(s) earlier. Antecedents in government is key to winning elections these days . Edo people want to vote for a candidate that can say , '  These are the projects I have done before ', and not a candidate that will merely make promises of ' I will do these projects', which is futuristic and even doubtable.

As it is now, Senator( Pharm.) Matthew Urhoghide is the only one amongst the governorship aspirants in APC that has projects and programmes to show as what he has attracted to his constituency in the past . If he could attract all the projects and programmes he provided for the people of Edo South Senatorial District as a Senator, he will do greater things if given the opportunity to be the governor of the state. He will surely replicate his giant strides in Edo South Senatorial District in the entire state.

Senator Urhoghide is the only aspirant amongst the lot that has won elections on two occasions in more than 6 Local government areas and the Local government areas in question are the largest in the state, in terms of population. Electoral victory is about population. His nomination as the governorship candidate of APC will therefore  earn the party more votes than any other aspirant.

Amongst the APC governorship aspirants, Sen. Urhoghide is the only one who bridges the gap between the three major political parties in Edo State at the moment. His emergence as the  candidate of APC will be a blessing to the party because the three major political parties will tacitly accept him . For instance, members of PDP cannot forget what they enjoyed from him, while he represented them in the Senate in Eight years. 

Therefore it will be a very wise decision for members of APC to nominate Senator Matthew Urhoghide for Governor, for the party to enjoy victory in the 2024 governorship election in Edo state.