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By John Mayaki
An Edo marked 35 years of statehood, Governor Monday Okpebholo turned 56 two days later. What followed was more than a birthday celebration: senators, former governors, traditional rulers, Benin leaders, party chiefs, political aspirants, government officials, grassroots groups and the Diaspora turned newspaper pages and digital platforms into an extraordinary exhibition of political goodwill. Some returned to the newspapers for a second day. But beyond the applause lies the bigger question: what will remain when the advertisements disappear?
There are birthdays that pass with cakes, prayers and handshakes. And there are birthdays that become a measure of a political moment. For Senator Monday Okpebholo, August 29, was unmistakably the latter. The governor turned 56 at a moment rich in symbolism. Edo itself had marked 35 years since its creation only two days earlier, on August 27. One anniversary celebrated the journey of a state. The other celebrated the man currently entrusted with its direction.
For one remarkable weekend, the two stories converged.
Across national newspaper pages and digital platforms, congratulatory messages poured in. Senators, former governors, traditional rulers, party leaders, commissioners, political candidates and aspirants, government officials, grassroots organisations and Edo people in the Diaspora joined the celebration. The messages differed in language and emphasis, but repeatedly returned to a common theme: development.
Roads. Schools. Healthcare. Security. Agriculture. Workers. Infrastructure. Inclusion. Pensioners. Power generation. It was less of a conventional birthday chorus than an unofficial assessment of a governorship still being written.
But birthdays in politics are rarely neutral documents. They provide opportunities to observe relationships, alliances, loyalties and sometimes ambitions. And birthdays, particularly political birthdays, provide unusually useful windows into how leaders are being positioned for history.
Then entered the aspirants making their statements. For politicians looking towards 2027, publicly identifying with a sitting governor is never without significance. Some issued statements. Others placed advertisements. Some celebrated his political leadership. Others concentrated on his record in office.
Yet the celebration was not presented solely as an elite gathering. Political support groups and grassroots organisations also joined the chorus. The Coalition for Tinubu-Okpebholo-Nigeria and the Renewed Hope Ambassadors were among organisations that publicly celebrated the governor.
That grassroots dimension matters because political strength is ultimately tested not in newspaper advertisements but among voters.
Some of the most revealing messages came from beyond Nigeria’s borders. For Edo people in the Diaspora, the birthday conversation was not merely about celebrating a governor. It was about the relationship between those who left and the home they still carry with them.
Loretta Oduware Ogboro-Okor, Director-General of the Edo State Diaspora Agency, celebrated Okpebholo on behalf of Edo indigenes worldwide and friends of the state. Her description was concise: A governor thinking globally and acting locally. It captured an increasingly important dimension of modern subnational governance in Nigeria.
The Edo community is no longer defined solely by those living within the state’s boundaries. A substantial community of professionals, entrepreneurs and families abroad remains economically and emotionally connected to home. Yet, birthday advertisements are testimonials, not audits. That distinction matters. The extraordinary outpouring of praise for Okpebholo should not be confused with an independent verdict on every aspect of his administration.
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Here, the tributes returned to visible government. Infrastructure has become central to the administration’s political identity. Roads and flyovers have supplied some of its most recognisable images. Healthcare, education, agriculture and security have similarly featured prominently in the government’s account of its achievements.
Workers and pensioners have occupied another part of the narrative, while the administration has sought to project itself as one focused on practical delivery and restoring confidence in government. These are not small expectations to create. Once a government defines itself by practical results, it also establishes the standard by which the public will judge it.
Every unfinished road becomes more conspicuous. Every unfulfilled promise becomes easier to measure. Every completed project becomes part of the argument. That is the bargain of governing through visible delivery. None of this means Edo suddenly became a state without problems because its governor had a well-celebrated birthday. It did not.
There are roads still demanding attention. Families continue to confront cost-of-living pressures. Infrastructure deficits accumulated over decades cannot disappear overnight. Citizens will continue to ask questions about public expenditure, services and the pace of development.
Indeed, that is precisely why the scale of the birthday applause matters; the louder the applause, the greater the obligation to deliver. Political goodwill is not a substitute for governance. It is political capital entrusted to a leader. And like all capital, it can appreciate or disappear. And then the coincidence. Edo was 35. Okpebholo was 56.
The state’s anniversary invited reflection on its journey since August 27, 1991: its achievements, disappointments, leaders and unrealised possibilities. The governor’s birthday, two days later, invited another question: What will Edo look like when his own chapter is eventually written?
Governors inherit many things; institutions, debts, abandoned projects, functioning programmes, political rivalries and public expectations. They do not inherit legacies. Those are built.
At 56, Okpebholo’s supporters believe the outlines of his are becoming visible: roads under construction, flyovers rising, schools receiving attention, healthcare facilities being strengthened, security measures being expanded and a government seeking to establish a reputation for practical delivery.
The birthday became the moment they assembled those individual claims into a larger argument about his governorship. And they made that argument loudly.
A safer community will remember security long after it has forgotten who bought which page in which newspaper. And a citizen who once believed there was nothing to return home to, but decides to invest in Edo again, may ultimately say more about a government than any anniversary proclamation. For one remarkable weekend, however, much of Edo’s political establishment appeared to speak with one voice.
Statesmen and traditional rulers came. Senators and former governors came. The party leadership came. Benin leaders came. Commissioners and government officials came. Political candidates and aspirants came. Grassroots organisations came. The Diaspora came. Some came once. Others returned to the newspaper pages the following day and said it all over again.
The applause was considerable. So, inevitably, is the burden it creates. At 56, Okpebholo has been handed something more consequential than birthday praise: Expectation. History will not count the advertisements. It will count what remains after them. Congratulations, Edo. Congratulations, Okpebholo.
• Mayaki, a journalist, writes from Benin City, Edo State.
