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The Grandfather’s Blessing: How Governor Monday Okpebholo Has “Lost Count” of Edo State’s Exploding Projects – An Ancient African Proverb Comes Alive in Just 17 Months

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The Grandfather’s Blessing: How Governor Monday Okpebholo Has “Lost Count” of Edo State’s Exploding Projects – An Ancient African Proverb Comes Alive in Just 17 Months
In the rich oral wisdom of African elders, a man is truly blessed when his household overflows with children. But when those children grow and begin to bear their own – when grandchildren multiply like stars scattered across the night sky – even the wisest patriarch finds himself pausing, scratching his head, and muttering, “Which one is this again?” Not from neglect, but from the sheer, overwhelming abundance of life’s greatest reward.
The names blur. The numbers escape. Prosperity itself becomes the beautiful confusion.Today, that proverb walks the streets of Edo State in human form.Governor Senator Monday Okpebholo has not merely governed; he has turned the entire state into one vast construction site.
In less than one year and seven months in office (sworn in November 2024, now April 2026), his administration has unleashed a deluge of infrastructure projects so rapid, so simultaneous, and so widespread that – by every honest measure – even the Governor himself may have genuinely lost count. And far from being a scandal, this is the ultimate compliment: the man has fathered so many “children” (roads, flyovers, drainages, bridges) that tracking every single grandchild (the adjoining spurs, erosion controls, bypasses) has become a delightful impossibility.
Think about it the way a prolific writer does.
I know this feeling intimately. In my own writing days covering politics, I documented over 14,000 articles across countless topics before I finally stopped counting. The beauty was not in the tally; it was in the unstoppable flow. The same phenomenon is playing out in Edo State right now – only this time, the “articles” are kilometres of concrete, asphalt, and revolutionary infrastructure transforming lives in real time.
And nowhere is this more evident than in Edo South Senatorial District alone.Over 30 Major Roads and Counting – Just in Edo South Governor Okpebholo’s team has not been playing small. While the state boasts over 250 kilometres of ongoing road projects across all three senatorial districts (with 28 new projects formally awarded and many more in execution), Edo South – the bustling heartland of Benin City and its environs – has become the epicentre of this infrastructure explosion.
Just look at the verifiable list from the Governor’s own inspection tours in recent months. These are not campaign promises on paper. These are live, active sites with heavy equipment, engineers working round-the-clock, and communities already rejoicing:....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶
  • Ramat Park / Ikpoba Hill Flyover (by CCECC) – Edo State’s first-ever flyover, already rising dramatically.
  • Adesuwa Junction / Sapele Road Flyover – the second flyover, being built simultaneously – a historic first for the state.
  • Sapele Road reconstruction and bypass (including Old Sapele Road).
  • Evbhukhu-Amagba Road and boundary projects.
  • Ohoghobi roads and Iyore Street (with Agbonze).
  • Oghehe / Ogheghe Road off Sapele Road.
  • Uhie Road.
  • Okhabere Road.
  • Charismatic Renewal / Catholic Charismatic Church Road, Ugbiyoko (off Ekenhuan).
  • Oghede Upper Ekenhuan Road.
  • Mechanic Road, Egor.
  • Ekenwan Barrack Road.
  • Technical College Road and all adjoining roads.
  • Evbuotubu Road.
  • Okhunmwun Road.
  • Upper Ekehuan Road.
  • Ekiuwa–University of Benin Road.
  • Utteh Palace Road (4.7km, flagged off early).
  • Palace Road network.
  • Erosion control and underground drainage at multiple points.
  • Flood control and gully reclamation along Obaseki Street by Ikpoba River.
  • Camplink Road, Obagie N’Evbuos.
  • Ihriri Road.
  • Okpagha-Amufi Road.
  • Boundary Road between Iyanomo and Amufi communities.
  • Water retention projects at Amufi.
  • Benin–Abraka Road reconstruction stretches.
  • And dozens of spurs, link roads, and drainage networks feeding into the major arteries above.

That’s already well over 30 distinct major road and drainage interventions in Edo South alone – and these are only the ones publicly inspected and reported in the last few months. Many more are quietly advancing through the 18 local government councils, now armed with 54 brand-new pieces of heavy construction equipment handed over by the Governor to accelerate grassroots delivery.

He tours them in batches – “several ongoing road and drainage projects across Edo South” in a single day – because attempting to visit them one by one would consume the entire calendar. The sheer volume is what forces the “forgetfulness.” When you are simultaneously building flyovers, dualising corridors, reclaiming gullies, and laying kilometres of concrete across Oredo, Egor, Ikpoba-Okha, Uhunmwonde, and Orhionmwon, even the most meticulous mind begins to sound like the African grandfather: “Wait… is this the one at Adesuwa or the one at Evbhukhu? Ah, both are my children!”
This Is Not Chaos – This Is Abundance. Critics may try to twist this reality into a negative. But the people of Edo South know better. Residents have described the Governor as “God-sent.” They speak of renewed hope after years of neglect.
They see roads that were once death traps now becoming lifelines for commerce, safety, and dignity. And this is happening while the Governor also pushes power projects (100MW plant groundbreaking), education, healthcare, and agriculture – the full SHINE agenda. Yet the roads remain the most visible symbol: over N305 billion budgeted for roads in the 2026 fiscal year alone. Contractors are being warned to work day and night before the rains return.
The pace is unrelenting.Governor Okpebholo is not “losing count” because he is careless. He is losing count the way every truly blessed African patriarch eventually does – because the harvest has been so bountiful that mortal memory cannot contain it all.The children have multiplied. The grandchildren now number in the dozens across Edo South. And the great-grandchildren (the economic boom, the jobs, the safer journeys) are already on the way.
In the end, history will not remember Governor Okpebholo for how perfectly he recited the list of every single project. It will remember him for the one thing that truly matters in African wisdom: he planted so many seeds of development that the land itself became too fertile to count the trees.A New Edo has not just risen.

It has exploded in abundance.And somewhere in Government House, the Governor – like the proud grandfather surrounded by laughing grandchildren – is probably smiling and saying:“Remind me again… which road is this one?”Don’t worry, Your Excellency.
We are all counting with you.
And the number keeps growing beautifully every single day.
Osigwe Omo-Ikirodah is the Principal and CEO of Bush Radio Academy
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