Edo 2020 Debate: Oboh Accuses Channels TV Of Discrimination
POLITICS DIGEST-Mabel Oboh, ADC’s guber candidate for the Edo 2020 elections holding September19 has carpeted Channels TV for displaying what she allegedly described as gender and class discrimination during the recently held Edo 2020 debates hosted by the news channel on Friday, Sept. 11 and Sunday, Sept. 13th respectively.
Speaking through her spokesman, John Anyaibe, Oboh alleged: “Channels TV exhibited gender discrimination in the Edo 2020 Governorship debates held on Friday the 11th and Sunday, the 13th of September. We wish to condemn the exclusivity given to governor Obaseki of PDP and Ize-Iyamu of APC which relegated other contestants to the background. Channels TV should have given every political party equal level playing field. For the so called lesser political parties to be lumped together on Friday Sept. 11th while the so-called big wigs, PDP and APC where on the same podium alone for the debate on Sunday was a deliberate attempt by channels TV to down play the abilities of other parties and confuse the electorate in the forth coming election.
“Nigeria will not move forward if gender and class discrimination persists. A television station like Channels TV should not be seen as exhibiting gender and class bias. With eight contestants available for the debate, it would have been fair to pair four each with a woman to strike gender balance. Furthermore, ADC is a non gender discriminatory political party which gives equal opportunity irrespective of class and gender; that is the ADC DNA.”
Meanwhile, he also used the opportunity to clear the air on Oboh’s absence at the debates held on Friday.
He said: “Mabel Oboh iş indisposed and was hospitalized. That was why she was not present at the debate organized by Channels TV on September 11. Moreover, Mabel Oboh regrets deeply her not being able to articulate her manifesto and policy positions before the Edo people. Oboh remains a democrat who believes in people power and will continue to push for the liberation of the Edo people and even as I speak to you, her running-mate, Dr. Edokpayi and her campaign DG are currently on the campaign trail. Meanwhile her medical team has advised her to take time off to recuperate. She will be back on the campaign trail on time for the D Day, 19th of Sept. However, I can assure you that she is recuperating well.”
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Oboh’s campaign received a major boost recently when the Oba of Benin hosted her at the palace and gave her his blessings. Running on a campaign of transformation, Oboh has promised to eradicate poverty and transform Edo State to an economic power house by investing massively in agriculture, tourism, health and ICT among others.
Speaking on her manifesto recently, Oboh said: “My manifesto is about what would take Edo State out of its sorry state. There is high inflation and you cannot compare it with Lagos. Food is expensive here and for a state that is blessed with arable land, committed and dedicated farmers, this is a big disgrace! The first point in my manifesto is to get rid of hunger because as a criminologist, I know that there are a lot of reasons why people go into crime and hunger is one. So, reviving agriculture has become a necessity. I think we should be more advanced than what we are doing now in the agricultural sector. We should be looking at food packaging, preservation, and export. Through farming, we can also be looking at generating electricity with our waste products, we should be going green. We can also generate pharmaceutical by-products from agriculture.
“In Edo, these are things that we have and we can tap into the grants that we have to achieve these. If the grants are already tapped into, I will be asking, why have we not improved? With these grants available, we can get the experts to train our people. We are looking at an instant solution that will go into the long term. In the health sector, we can give all the health institutions space for us to have health tourism. We would introduce the health insurance scheme as well across communities. These are things I have surveyed and found feasible with the health insurance companies; no matter how small, everyone can afford it and the government will also subsidise it.
“We would also consider the physical challenged and the aged; they should be looked after because they are not being paid at the moment. We should be looking at a superlative Nigeria and Edo State in the next 20 years and this should start from somewhere. By that I mean we should be able to eventually achieve a full welfarist state that can cater to the unemployed. I found out that our system is just not right at all and that is why the likes of people like me who lived for years overseas think it can be replicated here because it is us (foreigners, including Nigerians) that make it work there. Diasporas are the ones making the economy of the western world big.”
Oboh concluded that if the people of Edo state are allowed to vote, they will vote for the people’s woman, Mabel Oboh for a greater Edo state.
