The Edo State Government has faulted what it described as attempts to use the 2026 Phillips Consulting States Performance Index (pSPI) to assess the performance of the administration of Governor Monday Okpebholo, arguing that the report substantially reflects conditions inherited from previous administrations.
The state commissioner for information and strategy, Prince Kassim Afegbua, in a statement on Monday in Benin, said the government welcomed independent governance assessments as instruments for promoting accountability, transparency and improved public administration, but cautioned against drawing conclusions beyond what the methodology and assessment period of the report could establish.
Afegbua said the timing of Governor Okpebholo’s assumption of office on November 12, 2024, was critical to interpreting the findings on Edo, stressing that “virtually the entire assessment period had elapsed” before the present administration took office.
He argued that most of the fiscal, administrative and governance indicators contained in the index had already been shaped by policies, budgets, expenditure decisions and institutional realities inherited by the administration.
According to him, indicators such as internally generated revenue, debt sustainability, fiscal management, audited financial statements and institutional performance are cumulative and evolve over extended periods, making it inappropriate to attribute historical outcomes entirely to an administration that came into office near the end of the assessment period.
“The central issue is not whether governance should be measured, but whether historical outcomes should automatically be attributed to a government that did not formulate or implement the policies that produced those outcomes,” Afegbua said, insisting that chronology was fundamental to credible governance analysis and democratic accountability.
The commissioner said the Okpebholo administration had since assuming office embarked on reforms designed to change the state’s developmental trajectory, citing strengthened revenue administration, road construction and rehabilitation, the regularisation of over 5,000 teachers and the renovation of more than 80 public schools.
He also listed the construction, upgrading or rehabilitation of over 70 primary healthcare centres and the recruitment of additional health personnel among the administration’s interventions.
Afegbua further said the government had strengthened security through the deployment of about 2,500 Security Corps personnel and 500 Forest Guards, alongside conventional security agencies, while also pursuing urban renewal, market reconstruction, public service reforms and youth development programmes.
He maintained that future editions of the SPI would provide a more representative assessment of the administration because they would increasingly capture policies conceived, funded and implemented during Okpebholo’s tenure.
The commissioner said the Edo Government remained open to independent assessments but urged that the 2026 pSPI be viewed within the limits of its methodology, assessment period and constitutional context.
“Governance should be judged not merely by inherited circumstances but by the vision, leadership and measurable progress achieved in transforming them,” Afegbua said, adding that the government was confident that future assessments covering the full tenure of the administration would provide a more complete evaluation of its impact on Edo State.
