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Senator Monday Okpebholo, governor of Edo state, is a man of few words. Taciturn and media shy, he thrives in quiet strength, a special leadership quality only common among a few politicians, especially in Nigeria where oratorical vulgarity and brash loudness define leadership.
Encased in the frame of a sportsman, Okpebholo’s cultured tendency to reticence and urbane silence is compensated by a fireball energy for work and more work. On Thursday, November 12, Okpebholo marked two years on the job as governor. In a country where some governors roll out the red carpet amid buntings and celebratory banners to mark any anniversary including ‘first 100 days’ in office, Okpebholo chose work over fanfare. And for two days last week, barely 48 hours to the anniversary date, the governor was traversing his state. He defied the rain which poured with vengeful fury as if the sun robbed it of its providential opportunity. Out in the rain, the governor inspected projects after projects. He was not alone. His duty tour had senior media executives and sundry stakeholders in tow.
And if the media executives had thought it would be a brief duty tour, they read the barometer wrongly. The two-day projects tour taxed their physical vigour and mental strength. But not Okpebholo. He packs power, resilience and a resolute resolve to carry on; to take the next step; to trudge on. Did the media executives satiate their curiosity? Much more than that. They drove through major roads and byways constructed by Okpebholo. They saw schools hitherto forgotten and abandoned, but now glowing with the splash of modernity. In two years, just two years, Okpebholo has imprinted his development signature in the hearts of the people far more than some governors had done in eight years. The governor’s development footprints are writ large in healthcare, education, roads infrastructure, agriculture, security, judiciary, among other sectors. And he says he has only just begun.
One of the standout projects is the completed one-kilometre flyover at the ever-bustling Ramat Park junction along the Ikpoba Hill axis in Benin. This is more than a flyover. Aside its architectural majesty which lifts the urban landscape of the city, it serves as a critical artery connecting the Benin-Auchi expressway and the Benin-Asaba highway. It also adds a bit of history to its essence: it is the first ever flyover constructed in the annals of the state. If you consider that Benin has a rich history dating back to over 1000 years, you’ll appreciate the historical value of the overpass (pardon my Americanese). The Ramat Park is a busy intersection famed for gridlock. Such traffic misery now belongs in the past. The flyover comes bundled with flood control mechanisms, gully reclamation, as well as surface and underground drain that channels flood to the nearby Ikpoba River. This makes it more than a vehicular access, it solves the flooding challenges associated with the area. It is a veritable masterstroke in the basket of response strategies to emerging climate change concerns. The Ramat Park flyover is the first, but it won’t be the last under Okpebholo. Work has progressed rapidly on the second one located at the Adesuwa Road Junction along Sapele Road in Benin City. Again, the purpose is to degrade the intensity of gridlock on that busy corridor.
And you just wonder, with all that he has done in all the three senatorial districts of the state including the completion of over 82 primary healthcare centres and hiring more medical professionals, why is Governor Okpebholo not buying up airtime in major TV stations to commission the various projects as is the manner of some of his peers? He answers the question with a quip: The works we have done will speak for themselves. Truly, the works are speaking for him and his administration. What makes the Okpebholo model of governance distinct is that he has focused extensively on the alternative social actors in the state: the poor, the rural communities and the abandoned. While building the urban centres, he has also deployed resources to impact the rural communities and uplift the peasants and the underclass.
The slew of multi-sector infrastructure across the state, on the surface, gives the impression that Okpebholo is primarily an infrastructure governor. He’s more than that. He has upped the ante in human capital development. He has improved the education sector by recruiting more teachers. In October 2025, he officially confirmed over 5,000 contract teachers inherited from his predecessor. He has since gone ahead to recruit additional 3000 teachers. This has added not only quantity but also quality to the calibre of teachers in the state. With highly motivated teachers now teaching in remodeled classrooms, there is now a surge in public school enrolment as many parents and guardians are moving their wards from private schools to the emergent Okpebholo public schools.
Okpebholo scores himself high in the aspect of security. This is not mere self-aggrandisement. It is the stark truth. He has been ruthless and unsparing in his quest to rid Edo State of criminals, cultists and allied crooks including kidnappers. He has made a success of it. The recent sentencing of four persons to death by hanging or lethal injection for kidnapping, armed robbery, cultism, and unlawful firearms possession by the Edo State Special Criminal Court in Benin City underscores the governor’s unwavering commitment to the cause of keeping criminals out of the state. The offence was committed in June 2026 when the suspects abducted a woman at the Vegetable Market in Benin City. By end of September, the suspects were convicted. From arrest, investigation, prosecution and conviction, took barely three months. That is the responsiveness of a leader determined to make his state better than he met it.
Okpebholo is up against cultists and other variants of criminals in the state. He’s not hiding his aversion to crimes and criminality. He says with cold calmness that he will sign the death warrant of convicted cultists even if his parents or brothers were involved. On the convicted four, he says except judgment is upturned on appeal, he will sign their death warrant. The governor’s anti-crime posturing and gestures point to a leader who will spare nothing to keep his community safe. He has restored sanity, nightlife, commercial activities and order in Edo State. This reflects in the state’s improved internally generated revenue, resurgence in the buzz of commerce and spike in activities within the state’s agriculture ecosystem.Okpebholo, the man Edo people now endearingly call Okpes Baby, (a moniker that connotes how emotionally connected the people are to him) is quietly building a new Edo State. May he succeed!
