For sometime now, Dr. Isaiah Osifo as All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) gubernatorial candidate in Edo State has been telling the world why he deserves to be the next governor of Edo.

So far, he has also used the platform of Man Around Town Programme of Independent Radio, Benin to tell everyone that he is the best candidate for the job out of the 17 candidates in the race to Osadebay Avenue, the seat of power.

On the 6th, 14th, 22nd and 29th of May, 2024 he was on the worldwide programme to sell himself and his party to Edo voters.

In review, he spoke well as an academic with a Ph.D in Political Science earned in the United Kingdom.

His ideological presentations at the media event was scintillating. To start with, he displayed profuse knowledge of the theories and practices of development he will deploy to govern Edo State if elected governor.
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According to him, he will hit the ground running from Day One in office. No novitiate malingering.

This is because of his rich and vast wealth of experience warehoused as a politician who has politics in his blood.

For instance his late father was a thoroughbred politician from whom he learnt the clean art and science of politics while growing up. So he inherited the coded DNA of people-driven, practical grassroots politics from him.

The implication here is that he won't be an unfit experimental governor that will fumble, wobble and tumble in puerile policy; project and programme wasteful somersaults in his years in office and then seek refuge in media propaganda to hide his failure.

Also, Dr. Isaiah Osifo on radio informed his audience that unlike his other co-contestants, he is not a new comer in the political arena. To prove his point, he announced that he has been twice local government chairman of Uhunmwonde Local Government Council in unblemished succession. That is over 22 year ago. At the time, he reached out to national politics ending up as national chairman of the Association Of Local Government(ALGON) Chairmen in Nigeria.

CertaInly, this is not a small feat. But he achieved it all the same because of his trustworthiness, the robust scholarly content of his campaign delivery and his persuasive communication skills. And, so, he got the winning mandate to lead ALGON.

Introspection, it was these assets that he used to secured the votes that made him the Secretary- General of the Student Union Government of University of Nigeria, Nsukka as an undergraduate from the Benin Kingdom of Edo State. That he is not of Ibo stock but still won the election into the offices of Secretary-General and Chairman of ALGON showcases Dr. Isaiah Osifo as a likeable consummate and cosmopolitan political statesman.

He gladly then says that as a local government chairman, he made remarkable achievements.

Three of them need mention. Firstly, he disclosed that he built the biggest quarters for Unhunmwonde Local Government Council staff while in office as elected chairman. He stressed that during his tenure, he was a resident chairman alternating living in the quarters with staying in his family home in his village.

Secondly, as chairman, he went on full throttle to set up an oil palm farm in a bid to
diversify the revenue base of the council.

Today, according to him, these projects are there for verification by independent observers. Furthermore; he put in place the distribution infrastructure for bringing electricity to Ehor, headquarters of his council.

Dr. Isaiah Osifo is not done yet. Still speaking on the radio programme, he flaunts one of his credentials which also impeccably qualifies him to be the next govemor of Edo State. It is that he was Chief of Staff to Prof Oserhiemen Osunbor when he was governor. Through working with him, he learnt a lot about of governance of a complex public organisation like Edo State.

Invariably, he is far ahead of his peers coming with the wrong ideas from a private sector background that Edo State should be run to make profit only for the omnibus state at the expense of the people who are then subjected to poverty and suffering in the plentitude of rising GDP as it is today in Edo State.

To rub in his point, Dr. Isaiah Osifo canvasses that such a policy should not continue again under a governor that will pursue continuity in governance.

Indeed, says Osifo, Edo people should not vote for Godfathered annointes again.

From his submissions, you can discern that Osifo dislikes politics of Godfatherism. So, he is not sponsored by any Godfather that will bottle-feed him while in office. He is in the race on personal mission to rescue Edo State using the content of his fidelity, academic prowess and vast political experience.

From the way he addressed issues during his radio engagements, Osifo has the socio-economic, political and demographic map of Edo State on his fingertips having toured it several times on campaign with biģ-time politicians including Prof Osarhiemen Osunbor. He states that what helped him to acquire this knowledge is that he is a resident, homeboy politician not an absentee, opportunistic one who cannot even define their village.

Osifo isn't pleased at all with so many things, including in Agriculture, that the current administration has failed to do.

Infact, in agriculture he scores the government low. Specifically in the area of food security, there is nothing to write home about. For example, while talking on the same radio programmes, on May 6, 2024 he noted with a voice of lamentation, "Edo State is known for Agbede, Ekpoma, Anegbette and Ilĺushi rice. But where are they
today? They are no where to be found."

Therefore, it is not surprising rice insecurity exists in Edo State, he posits.

Meanwhile, he says that he enjoys food security in his home, because he has a big farm in his village where he has offered gainful employment to youths from his community as practical empowerment.

Without mincing words, he declared that if elected as governor he would restore local government autonomy for which he has fought for about 22 years.

Additionally, he vowed to start paying to all the 18 local government councils their constitutional 5 percent of internally-generated revenues in the state due to them.

At a point in the radio programme, Osifo points out that he is not a jobless man seeking to be governor of Edo State to feed his family. He revealed that he lectures in a university where he teaches and grooms technocrats; while his wife is a business woman in Benin City, capital of Edo State.

Any one with Freudian insight should by now realise that Dr Isaiah Osifo may not have a warchest for campaigning to be Edo State next governor but show he is a determined man with brilliant ideas that can take the state to glorious heights of excellence.