By joshua 
By Ikhili Ebalu, Benin City
There is no doubt that the various party candidates for the 2023 general elections are round up their campaigns for the elections billed to commence Saturday, February 25.
There is also no doubt that the candidates who are in a fixed are looking for any kind of factual proof to use in persuading the electorate to vote for them.
From the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), the experience is virtually the same, with the unhappy mood of the electorate, who no longer willing to be cajoled by what they regard as the “lying political class” who have never kept to their promises to the people.
And to the chagrin of the party candidates, they have found out that the old playbook is no longer useful in the current political dispensation. Without knowing it, the psychology of the electorate has undergone a 360-degrees shift from the mundane to the substantial.
As the party candidates continue the search for relevance, there are also pockets of opportunity for them to cash in on.
And for the APC candidates, caught in the loop of the brewing mistrust between them and the voting public, the likes of Engineer Saliu Ahmed provide a veritable escape route in the politically dark tunnel to market themselves and gain some advantage in the ensuing political contest.
In more ways than one, Engr Ahmed, who holds the chieftaincy title of “Sodiq” of the Auchi kingdom and also the managing director of Benin- Owena River Basin Department Authority, BORDA, has become the poster boy of the APC in Edo North senatorial district.
His success story at the BORDA is now the major plank on which the APC in the district is leveraging on to sell its candidates to a discerning voting public who are asking questions about the competence, capacity, and character of those aspiring to lead them.
The floundering APC has found it difficult to keep pace with the demands of a brutal campaign season where the potential voters are swayed more by the track record of the candidate than the rabble-rousing associated with rallies.
Though the BORDA is a federal agency under the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and headed by the Auchi-born Engineer Ahmed, the Authority has been able to extend the impact of its core responsibilities to every nooks and crannies of the six local government areas of the Edo North senatorial district, a feat that has earned him several accolades and chieftaincy titles from diverse groups.
Last year, the minister of water resources, Alhaji Suleiman Adamu, was in Edo North to commission some projects executed by the Authority, including the three integrated farms Auchi, Okpe, and Uneme Nekhua, which were modeled after the Songhai Integrated Farms in Port Novo, Benin Republic.
No part of the Edo North district is marginalized as far as the distribution of the BORDA projects are concerned. Using the bar of a shared vision in discharging its mandate to the people, the agency’s management has tried to put in place a merit system that treats all the communities as equal. In that way projects are distributed evenly.
For example, the Owan axis, there are litanies of projects bearing the BORDA badge. From the block of classrooms to the water project and the dam, these projects bear true testimony to the agency’s spirit of changing the landscape and impacting lives positively.
There are similar projects in every nook and cranny of the district. At the time they were being built, the architect of these projects, Engr Ahmed, was not in any way factor in the elections but, today, the APC candidates are cashing in on these projects to buoy up their ratings before the voting public.
Indeed, the legacies of Engr Saliu Ahmed-led BORDA management have become the unique selling point (USP) and reference point for the APC candidates to cash in on.