By Our reporter
A PDP governorship aspirant Dr Sunday Opoke has pledged to diversify Ebonyi economy through wealth creation and employment opportunities if elected as governor of the state.
Opoke who stated this in Abakaliki while briefing journalists said that his administration would ensure economic empowerment for the people of the state.
Opoke who is the former General Manager of Ebonyi State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency also pledged to industrialized the State and address the incessant communal clashes.
"If I came on board as governor of Ebonyi State, I will use what we have to create wealth. I will industrialize the state. When I said industrialization, just like a lot of politicians are promising to industrialize this state, we should ask them what type of industrialisation are they talking about? I'm talking about production, processing, and packaging. It's a type of industrialisation I'm talking about"
"In production, every local government should have a product of its own produces only by itself in Nigeria. So that people can come from far and near for the product. If every local government has two or three factories which it specialises on, even if it's within the South East region of Nigeria, it's still a very big business".
"For instance, in Ebonyi State as an Earth scientist, we have a lot of solid minerals, like lead, zinc, limestone, and many more. If we have an electronic company or battery producing company in Ebonyi State, it's going to be a good business because the battery is produced from lead, and we have enough of these resources, we have the industry domesticated in Ebonyi State".
"My idea is that if we bring in the industries that can access local materials and with that unemployment will be a thing of the past".
"For me, when I say, wealth creation, we should think of building a system where people don't need government. The government should be run by those who have no opportunity in other sectors. In developed nations, people that work for the government are those who have no opportunity in other sectors. But we have industries and factories where you work and generate wealth by yourself. There will be no need for seeking a government-paid job. It's only the poor people who work for the government but in this place, everything is centred on the government. We are going to be decentralised by doing a lot of things to make sure people don't depend on the government alone".
"Why people especially the youths are manipulated into thuggery and a lot of vices is because they depend on the government. Any economy that is government based is poor. The economy people propose for now is PPP - Private Public Partnership Driven Economy - where private people are allowed to operate, with the government (public) and then the legislation will be directing everybody. This is because the government has no business in doing business, but to direct according to the legislation".
"What do I mean, that government has no business in doing business? If the government wants to dig boreholes and build this and that, we should be able to know that government is not good at management".
"Production - this's the aspect of industrialisation we are talking about. When we talk about processing and packaging, we have agricultural products and we know 80 or 90 per cent of farms in Ebonyi. We have raw materials - agricultural products should be well processed and packaged for exportation. Or we bring such companies that focus on processing and packaging, it's going be a very big industry so that those who are into farming and other different aspects of the agricultural business will benefit".
"Other areas, we are going to look at are the communal clashes, that are happening here and there. It has truncated our peace. What are we going to do, to make people live peacefully? Do you know the causes of the communal clashes? When people are ideal, not well engaged in handling boundaries not well defined, when people are not allowed to exercise their cultural rights, and there are interferences. We are going to look at this area because any moment a communal clash breaks out, you will not know whom it will affect".
"There are so many areas we have a lot of things to do but we have a big plan to ensure the lifestyles of people in Ebonyi will change under my watch. We are going to share the people into three lifestyles. People will live within day lifestyle, some in night lifestyle and others live the mixed lifestyle".
"We are going to have industries working here the day and night, if anybody came from China, Morocco or Singapore, to establish a company, we must tell the person, it must be day and night. If you can't run your factory day and night, please don't come to Ebonyi, because there will be traffic both during the day and night hours".
"So, why I said, I will look at the youths and know how they can generate wealth and money for themselves. I have a template. When I came back from England, in England I contested an election, I won as president of the international students over the years. People came to see me as a black man, being a president, because no black man, has tasted the seat. When I was contesting the election, everything works against me - poverty, colour, country, if say Nigeria, if you say Igboman, no! no! and every other thing I had, worked against me, but I designed a strategy and later, I won the position. The people came and saw a black man who is a president for over 100years. After my tenure, my friend in Dubai said that he knew our people are poor, that if I have anybody to send to Dubai, because he has a big company, on their arrival at the airport, he would come to pick them up for jobs."
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