Godwin Obaseki, the governor of Edo State has declared himself Governor of everybody and everything in Edo.
He also assured the management of the University of Benin, UNIBEN, his administration would ensure the university community benefits from the dualisation of Ekehuan road and the Ossiomo Independent Power Plant projects.
Obaseki stated these at Government House, Benin during a courtesy visit by management of UNIBEN led by its Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Lilian Salami, according to a statement by the Governor’s media aide, Crusoe Osagie.
He said: “I am the governor of everybody and everything in the state, including UNIBEN. We look forward to collaborating more with you. We are working on the Ekehuan Road project, which is now going to make the Ekehuan Campus of the university accessible.
“We are happy we have UNIBEN in our state, particularly in Benin City. It will not be fair for a government that emphasises education not to take advantage of the very fact that the institution is in our territory.
“We are happy we have UNIBEN. We know how much it has contributed to the educational and social development of our state over the last four decades.
“It does not matter if it is ours, but for the fact that the university (owned by the Federal Government) is located here in our state, it gives us a responsibility to make sure we make it part of our existence.
“We are working very hard to connect 50 megawatts of electricity from Ossiomo Power Plant to the Government Science and Technical College and some of the power will be extended to UNIBEN. So that you can have an uninterrupted power supply. I am making the whole axis an Integrated Science and Technology Hub with a Data Centre.”
While responding to the requests by UNIBEN’s VC, Obaseki also revealed the state government had awarded repairs of the road network in the higher institution.
He said: “We will mandate the Edo 2020 National Sports Festival, NSF, contractor in charge of the hostel renovation to go back to the site. We are beneficiaries of the Federal Fire Service. I am going to make a case for you.
“I am also going to talk to some of our corporate organisations, who are operating here, to see if we can support the university with fire trucks, but we are hoping to create a fire service centre that people can call when there is a fire outbreak.
“We have been talking with the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, to create an ambulance service for the citizens in the state, where you can call an ambulance when the need arises.”
Source: The Nation
