Okpebholo’s eight-month delay in forming full cabinet draws backlash

On July 12, 2025, exactly eight months after Monday Okpebholo was sworn in as the Governor of Edo State, he appointed only a few commissioners, a situation many state residents have described as shocking and unfortunate.

He took the oath of office on November 12, 2024.

Analysts are worried that instead of the governor kicking off running and championing a different course of governance, he chose to follow the footsteps of his predecessor, Godwin Obaseki, as well as the immediate past president of the country, late Muhammad Buhari, who it took almost a year to constitute their respective cabinets.

During the second term of Obaseki, the All Progressives Congress, in loud voices criticized him for the delay in the appointment of commissioners.

From three months of his administration to six and nine months, the party was critical of the administration.

One would have expected that, based on the party’s critics, the Governor Monday Okpebholo-led government, on assumption of office, would do things differently.

Enahoro Iyemefokhai, writes that stakeholders in the Edo politics and government have come out to express their displeasure with the development.

DAILY POST reports that Senator Monday Okpebholo was sworn in after he was declared the winner of the September 21, 2024, Governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

INEC declared Okpebholo, the All Progressives Congress, APC candidate, the winner of the election with 291,667 votes to defeat his closest opponent, Asue Ighodalo of PDP, who polled 247,274 votes.

Residents, who spoke to DAILY POST, said the governor should have emulated his Kogi State counterpart, Ahmed Usman Ododo, who wasted no time on the assumption of office on January 27, 2025, and constituted a cabinet, with the swearing-in of 19 commissioners on January 31, 2024.

The residents, including Comrade Tony Erha, Leftist Agho Omobude, human rights activists, Mr Johnbull Osagie, and Eric Obi, both retirees, also urged the governor to do the needful by constituting the full State Executive Council.

They also urged Governor Okpebholo to emulate the Ondo State Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, who was sworn in on February 24, 2025, and has since constituted a 16-member Executive Council on July 14, 2025.

DAILY POST also reports that since the assumption of office, Governor Okpebholo has only appointed about six commissioners.

The commissioners are Dr Paddy Iyamu, Education; Dr Cyril Oshiomhole, Health; Dr Samson Osagie, Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice; Dr Washington Osifo, Water Resources and Energy; Bisi Idaomi, Women Affairs and Social Development; Hon Paul Ohonbamu, Information and Communication.

Others are Lucky Eseigbe, Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Andrew Ijegbai, Mining, Oil and Gas, and Emmanuel Ehidiamen Okoebor, Finance

The respondents, who spoke in an interview with DAILY POST, opined that the delay in the appointment of commissioners negatively impacts the governance of the state, especially the critical sectors like the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Road and Commerce and Industry, Environment, among others.

Leftist Omobude, the Coordinator General, Edo Civil Society Organisations, EDOCSO, posited that the non-constitution of the full executive council by Governor Monday Okpebholo after eight months of swearing-in was surprising and shocking to him and other well-meaning Edo citizens and residents.

Omobude said if the Kogi and Ondo State governors could constitute a full cabinet within the shortest period of taking oath of office, he wondered what was delaying the Edo State Governor from doing the same.

According to him, he would have expected that by now Governor Monday Okpebholo would have constituted his Executive, “and we would have seen action or governance at work everywhere.

“He hasn’t done that. He has only appointed about nine commissioners. These appointments are less than 7% of the total number of Commissioners that we expected.

“The most painful aspect is that the most critical ministries that should have commissioners don’t even have them.

“Like the ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, the ministry of works, and the ministry of Environment.

“These three ministries are very germane and important in any administrative governance. They drive society.

“Till now, the governor has not appointed important commissioners, I wonder in eight months. Who has been advising him in the affairs and activities of these ministries concerning the development of Edo State?

“If he has not appointed commissioners over these ministries you and I will still be wondering how he runs the affairs of the ministries.

“With permanent secretaries who are civil servants? Who doesn’t have any stake or any responsibility? Whose activity is to resume at 8 am and close at 4pm?

“Are they the ones he wants to leave the lives of these ministries in their hands?

“Our people say that any man who fails to plan has also planned to fail. I don’t know if that can also be attributed to the administration of Governor Monday Okpebholo.

“Eight months have already passed out of the four years. You know, in governance, we don’t really have four years.

“One, it is these first few months in the courts. You have two years in full governance and you have the fourth year for another kind of campaign.

“So, out of the two years the governor would have had he has wasted eight months already without constituting his cabinet. I don’t know what kind of system he wants to run.

“It is disappointing to see that the man is acting the way some people had actually predicted. I thought he would have disappointed them by doing things differently”, he said.

On his part, Tony Erha, a human rights activist, also expressed disappointment with the delay in the formation of the full cabinet by Governor Okpebholo.

Erha said a few days after the Governor was sworn in over eight months ago, lots of political observers were full of praise for him for appointing three commissioners, out of about 25 in number.

He noted that he was hailed for “hitting the ground running”, adding that one would have expected him to appoint the rest commissioners.

He added that party faithful are already agitated and worried that the rest of the commissioners have not been appointed.

“They also complain that their constituencies are left dry. It is about time the other posts are filled, to give the various constituencies a sense of belonging”, he added.

Also speaking, Mr Johnbull Osagie, a pensioner, stated that Monday Okpebholo never expected that he would be elected the governor of the State, hence, he was not prepared for governance.

“My take is that he never knew that he would become governor of the state; therefore, he was not prepared.

“When you have an agenda, manifestos, and a pressing agenda, you will be focused and prepared for it.

“He never prepared for it, that is why he is having those challenges.

“This is the same challenge the former president Muhammadu Buhari had. It took him almost a year to constitute his cabinet.

“Though he never believed that he would be governor, the cabals and the godfathers are cashing in on him.

“That is why he is having the challenge of constituting a full cabinet”, he added.

Osagie emphasized that the non-constitution of a full cabinet was negatively affecting critical sectors like agriculture, roads, environment, commerce, and industry.

He noted that commissioners were the governor’s lieutenants and agents to ensure that works in the ministries, departments, and agencies were done promptly, effectively, efficiently, and faithfully.

He stated that the governor was now resorting to doing things and making decisions with fiat because of the lack of a full cabinet.

He averred that when actions were taken in a fiat, “you fall short of the laid down rules and regulations,” which are “procedural rules in administration”.

Osagie noted that taking action against the laid-down rules and regulations in government was an impeachable offence.

He advised that since the Supreme Court had upheld his election, the governor should consolidate governance, noting that at the moment, he was trying to bathe all the political godfathers and politicians.

In his remarks, Eric Obi, also a pensioner, argued that the law does not allow a governor, president, or local government chairman to spend funds that are not approved by EXCO.

He observed that the non-constitution of a full cabinet ought to stall development because the law does not empower the governor to spend money that is not approved by the EXCO, noting that “because we are now in an era of illegality the opposite is bound to happen.”

“Anyway they say might is right. So nobody is questioning it. He can take money from anywhere and spend it anyway. Nobody can question it.

“Maybe something will happen that will make them accountable in the future.

“But for now, they are holding the bread and the butter. But who are we to question him? But what must be said must be said. Illegality is illegality anywhere.

“If we still operate a system called democracy, and if we still have a constitution that is supposed to be legal, if they do not obey, we are waiting for the law to take its course, but for now, that is the situation.

“Normally, the executive is supposed to be incapacitated by the improper constitution of the EXCO, which is the organ of the executive.

“All the decisions are made there. So for now, we are having a pseudo-military administrator”, he added.

DAILY POST recalls that the Legal Adviser to the Governor, Andrew Ewanta, had on June 29, 2025, dismissed the claim that the Governor was waiting for the Supreme Court judgment on the September 21, 2024 governorship election before appointing other cabinet members.

Ewanta argued that it was wrong to attribute the delay to the expected Supreme Court verdict.

He added that Okpebholo had not committed any crime or constitutional breach and had appointed commissioners and special advisers to other key ministries.

“If he is waiting for the Supreme Court judgment, he would not have appointed the first set of commissioners.

“This is the first governor in Edo history to announce some members of his cabinet on the day of inauguration.

“Heads of agencies have been appointed. The government is moving at full pace. Some people joined the APC from the Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party. We have to accommodate them too”, he added.

Political analysts and citizens are of the opinion that since the Supreme Court had affirmed his electoral victory, he has no option than to as soon as possible constitute a full cabinet.