TELL Magazine

• …Challenges them to surpass the achievements of the 10-member 7th Assembly

Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, and the newly inaugurated 8th State House of Assembly have promised to synergise with the objective of moving the state forward and ensuring that the governor finishes strong and well.
Both the executive and legislative arms of government made this commitment on Friday when the newly elected Speaker, Blessing Agbebaku, his deputy, Maria Omozele Edeko, and the 22 other members of the House presented themselves to the governor at Government House following their inauguration.
Congratulating the legislators, Governor Obaseki solicited a smooth executive-legislative collaboration to sustain the gains recorded by the administration across all sectors in the state in the past six years. He also congratulated Agbebaku and Edeko on their emergence as a speaker and deputy speaker respectively.
The governor said “As we progress in our democracy, it becomes more obvious that the call for economic growth and development is hinged on the rule of law and a well-functioning legislative arm of government. Businesses are functioning well today; there is law, order, safety, stability, and security because we have a very functioning and effective legislature in the state. We have people putting our laws to regulate how we behave and transact businesses in the state.
“I am glad that you are coming now to help me in the journey we started six and half years ago; the journey of reforms. I thank members of the seventh Assembly, as it was a historic and watershed Assembly in the political annals of Nigeria”.
According to Governor Obaseki, “Legislatively, the world would see the work put in by these members of the 7th Assembly in transforming our laws and helping the Executive with the appropriate and timely legislation to do their work, and it’s historic. What the 7th Assembly did, the 8th Assembly must do much better.”
Charging the legislators with effective legislation to engender sustainable development, the governor stated that “We are particular about the work environment as you have inherited a brand new House of Assembly, and it will make you efficient. We would like to work with you, your infrastructure, work environment, and tools, and also let you know the sort of reforms taken as executives to improve service delivery.
“We would like to bring you closer to make you understand the impact of your oversight function and work together to impact and change the lives of the Edo people. As a government, we have reviewed our finishing projects and will carry you all along to help the administration finish well. We are building a solid digital backbone for the Edo people as this is a project that the future of Edo State would rest on.
“We are connecting fibres across every local government area to ensure connectivity and promote digital services as I would be the last governor to work on files manually. All the local government offices are linked, as the project is going to link all our schools. Our students don’t need to buy books because, with their digital devices, they can assess their books.
“All our primary health care centers are linked to enable us to improve our patients’ records, increase telemedicine service, job and training centre, as we would deliver services to our people at their place of residence. It will be useful for our citizens.”
On his part, the new Speaker thanked the governor for the administration’s developmental strides across all sectors of the state, assuring the support and collaboration of his colleagues.
“This 8th Assembly is ready to work with you to form a very concrete and solid synergy with the executive arm of government to ensure that you finish well all you started in the state. We are here to move Edo State forward and make you finish well”.