The people of Edo State should coexist with their governor, Monday Okpebholo, for the next four years, according to Reuben Abati, a seasoned journalist and former senior adviser on media and publicity to former President Goodluck Jonathan.
This was said on Wednesday by Abati, the main anchor of the well-liked morning chat show Morning Show on Arise TV.
The declaration follows the governor’s Tuesday presentation of the 2025 budget to the House of Assembly, in which he was caught in a situation of mixed uncertainty. According to Edotoday, Okpebholo had trouble pronouncing the budget’s numerical value.
While discussing the ‘What’s Trending’ segment on the TV programme, Abati said the development could be likened to “what Edo people ordered versus what they were given.”
He said: “Well, I sympathize with the people of Edo State. The state that produced Professor Ambrose Ali, the state that produced my former teacher, Professor Osarime Osunbor, has now produced an individual who cannot even pronounce N650 million, finding it very difficult.
“I don’t understand this argument about being dyslexic and all of that. Well, it has to be medically proven. I think that what we are suspecting here is a question of ‘what Edo people ordered and what they were given.’
“You know they do this thing on social media—’what I ordered, what I got.’ This is a state that has Asue Ighoalo, who has been chairman of a bank, who knows about numbers, who knows about law, you know, who would have pronounced it very well.
“Now, democracy throws up its own tricks. This is what Edo State people said they have ordered. Let them live with it for the next four years.”
