BY NDUBUISI ORJI
Arc Edward Nkwegu is the Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate for Ebonyi State. An entrepreneur and key player in the private sector in country, Nkwegu says if elected, he will embark on the industrialisation of the state. In this interview, he gives an insight into his other programmes for the state and plan to make Afikpo, a well developed city .
Excerpts:
Why do you want to govern Ebonyi State?
I want to be governor because I have a lot to offer my people. At this point, we need rapid industrialisation of the state. I believe that Ebonyi has all the potentials for industrial development, especially in the area of agriculture. Yes, we have rice mills. But we need to do primary production in the area of rice processing to fill in the gap in the amount of rice required in Nigeria. You are aware that the consumption is about 6million metric tonnes per annum. And our our production capacity is about 2.7million metric tonnes leaving a gap of about 3-3million metric tonnes. I feel Ebonyi State is well positioned with arable soil, one of the longest river basins in Eastern Nigeria, to produce enough rice. That is the area I think I have enough experience to offer people opportunity to cultivate rice.
One of the reason, I think there is need for someone who has experience about industries to govern our state now. I equally embark on human capital development; giving skills to our people. If you look at the university that we have here, it is unfortunate that we don’t have basic faculties like the faculty pof environmental sciences, faculty of engineering. These are key areas in a young growing state like ours. I feel there is need to have the people to focus on having specialized knowledge. Specialize skills that will help to develop our state.
I equally feel that we should reinforce our infrastructure, making sure that maintenance culture is developed among our people. The present administration has done much in the area of infrastructure, build a water processing plant and if we don’t develop the culture of maintaining our infrastructure, it will be much more expensive to build new one. That is why I talk about capacity building in the area of specialization, so that we can maintain our roads, maintain some of the infrastructural base already laid by the previous administrations in the state.
I equally want to pursue gender equity, making sure that the women participate in governance, involving them in decision making. There is need for them to be involved in making decision that concerns them.
And our civil service, we have just about 13 000 workforce, apart from those in the health sector. That for me is very low compared to our population here. It is only when we create industries, modernise our agriculture that we can employ more people. So, we need to more about our agriculture and build industries to be able to employ more people.
If you check the percentage of those that are employed by government, you will see that it is very minute. That is why I think I have a lot to offer. I have been in the private sector all my life. And I have created employment opportunities, both here in Ebonyi and outside. That is an area that I have experience and I can offer my services to the state.
Apart from your general programmes for the state, what are you offering the people of Ebonyi South viz-a-viz the fact that it should be the turn of the zone to produce the next governor and you are coming from a section of the state that had already produced a governor. Specifically, what is your plan for Afikpo, which is the second city in the state.
For Afikpo town, what we need is a master plan. It is an ancient city, it is facing a lot of challenges in the area of development. It has ecological problems, and you can’t just say you want to build roads without doing a master plan.
So, the first thing I will do for Afikpo town, is to develop a master plan for Afikpo and be able to project a fifty years programme for the town. That is what i will do within my first one year in office, because it takes a minimum of one year to come up with a master plan. Afikpo needs a master plan, to drive the development of the area, so that you know where to put what. Right now it is difficult for you to know the number of houses we have there, the number of people that lives there. What it will be in the next 25 years or the next ten years.
Some people will just go there and promise, “I will build dual carriage way”, “I will do this”, what is the data. So that is what I plan to do. It is the next city to Abakaliki and it should be properly developed.
When you talk about zoning, we all supported that power should go to Ebonyi South. But not just to anybody. We need people that will see the state as their constituency. Someone that will come and focus on the needs of the people.
In terms of development of Afikpo zone, I am going to develop three industrial zones. One in the South, Central, One in the North. Industry is the key. That is a what we need now. Many of our brothers and sisters are unemployed. And this unemployment is what is causing insecurity in many places. And if there is no security, there is no peace, you can’t talk about development. So we need to create industries and get the youths employed. It is alarming the number of unemployed people that we have across the state.
With the fall in the price of crude oil and the attendant dwindling resources, how are you going to finance these developmental projects you talk about.
I developed some of the industries I have today from the scratch as an entrepreneur. They are running today and employing people. We wont say because oil price is failing , we will fold our hands without developing other sectors that will improve on our internally generated revenue. That is even more reason why we need to work harder. As governor, I will manage the meagre reasons the state have now very well to develop other sources of revenue.
If we don’t go into agriculture in Ebonyi now, it will get to a time, we will not be able to pay workers’ salaries if oil price continues to go down. So, we need diversification. We need to move away from oil. We have arable soil. We need to develop agriculture. That is the industry I am talking about.
Already, the present government have installed a big rice processing mill. What we don’t have is the raw material that the machines will process. If we don’t go into massive production of rice, those rice mills will be lying idle and people will not be employed to use them.
Without government support, our people are predominantly farmers. All we need to do is to mechanize agriculture practice , so that their yields per hectre can improve and the varieties improve. We will need to work harder now to develop our agriculture which I think is our strongest area now in Ebonyi State.
There are three other candidates vying for the governorship seat. Why do you think the people of Ebonyi should vote for you instead of your opponents.
They know me. I am known in Ebonyi State as the seed finger. I have employed many people in Ebonyi State as a private person. They know as a very peaceful person. They know I’m with them. The people of Ebonyi know all of us in the governorship race. They know that when I make promises I keep them. They know our background.
Even from the rallies we have had, I know that Labour Party is a mass movement. A movement against injustice, a movement against intolerance. It is a movement against exploitation. Because when you look at myself and the candidates of the other parties, the difference is clear.
I am coming from a background, they have seen me work. They have seen the results. And they know all of us. I believe that Ebonyi people have made their choice known and I am going to win the election.
THE SUN
Comments
Post a Comment