In a country where power often shelters impunity and politics protects profiteers, Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State is choosing a different path one paved with courage, clarity, and conscience.
With a simple but firm directive, the Governor has banned illegal revenue collection by unions and private consultants, including the NURTW, RTEAN, and others long associated with street-level extortion. This isn’t just an administrative move it is a bold dismantling of a corrupt structure that has preyed on everyday citizens for decades. For transport workers, traders, and commuters, this isn’t policy it’s relief.
What makes this action remarkable isn’t just the outcome, but the context. These groups didn’t emerge from the shadows they operated with tacit approval or direct empowerment by past governments. Undoing that arrangement takes more than a directive; it takes political will. Governor Okpebholo didn’t flinch. He chose justice over convenience. Principle over pressure.
Under his leadership, Edo is no longer a haven for street-level tyranny masked as revenue collection. He has replaced cash-based levies with a transparent, tech-driven system through the Edo State Internal Revenue Service. This isn’t a temporary fix; it’s structural reform. The days of brutal levies and arbitrary taxation at motor parks, markets, and street corners are numbered.
What sets this initiative apart is its clarity of purpose. It isn’t wrapped in bureaucratic vagueness. A Special Taskforce has been mobilized. Offenders are being arrested. Whistleblower channels have been opened. There is no ambiguity about the Governor’s intent: to restore sanity, enforce order, and put the people first.
It’s a model of leadership that is rare decisive, disciplined, and deeply attuned to the cries of the streets. Okpebholo isn’t just responding to complaints he’s acting on them. And in doing so, he is restoring the social contract between government and the governed.
This isn’t performance. It’s principle in motion.
The contrast with previous administrations is stark. Where others tolerated or even benefited from these revenue syndicates, Okpebholo has chosen to confront them head-on. In a political culture where silence often protects impunity, he has chosen to speak and act with clarity.
And his message is resonating far beyond Edo.
Other states are watching. Citizens are watching. Even Abuja is watching. Because in this one policy move, the Governor has not only disrupted a corrupt system he has redefined the expectations of leadership.
Governor Okpebholo is proving that reform does not have to be loud to be revolutionary. That integrity, when matched with action, can restore dignity to governance. And that in a nation weary of excuses, quiet courage is still the loudest voice of all.
Edo is changing. Not with noise. But with results.
