As we speak, once it is 7 pm, the entire Edo State plunges into darkness. A recent tour of major streets within the Benin metropolis, from Akpakpava, Ekenwan Road, Mission Road, Sapele Road, Airport Road, and Third East Circular, among others reveals this sad reality.

Business activities in the State are crumbling. Crime and criminality are at an all-time high, fueled by this persistent cover of darkness, driven by the neglect of the street lightening project of the immediate past government of Godwin Obaseki by the new administration of the governor-select, Monday Okpebholo.

The Obaseki-led administration, knowing the role of such critical infrastructure in ensuring public safety and sustaining a viable night economy, had connected the streetlights to the 95MW Ossiomo Power Plant, ensuring a steady and reliable electricity supply. The system revived the State’s night economy and enhanced the safety and security of the lives and property of the people of Edo State.

But sadly, that functional and essential system has now been abandoned, leaving the entire state in darkness and a shadow of its former self.

Incredibly, this same person who threw the State into widespread darkness and rising insecurity is bragging about his plans to revive a water fountain at Ring Road within the Benin metropolis, a project that serves purely aesthetic purposes.

How can a governor abandon an already completed and functional project critical to the security of Edo State, with far-reaching impacts on the economy, tourism, and public safety, among others for a water fountain that serves only aesthetic purposes, a mere feel-good project?

Does Okpebholo even realize that the museum ground where the water fountain is located belongs to the Federal Government?

What an irony for someone who claims to be a governor of nearly five million educated and sophisticated Edo people not to know the importance of dealing with the basics of human needs.

Even a 100-level university student understands that needs are often classified as popularly exemplified by Maslow in his theory of hierarchy of needs where he identified physiological needs, including food, water, shelter, and health, among others as number one in the hierarchy of needs. Safety and security is also high up on that Maslow’s list.

Self-actualization and self-satisfaction where the water fountain falls is very low on the ladder, ranking as the least on that list.

For a governor to be jumping, bragging about refurbishing a water fountain that serves only aesthetics purposes, a project that will cost the state government not less than N100 million a month to keep afloat, while the city is in darkness and crime and criminality run rampant, shows clearly that he didn’t come to government with a plan.

We want to repeat, for the umpteenth time, that Okpebholo is a politician out of his depth and lacks the knowledge required for effective and efficient governance and administration.

He needs to wake up and realize that the resources that he has to work with in Edo State are limited and must therefore dwell first on the most critical and essential needs before focusing on superficial and aesthetic needs like the water fountain.

Crusoe Osagie, Media Adviser to His Excellency, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, Former Governor, Edo State