From Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
Candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for the 2023 Governorship election in Ebonyi State, Professor Benard Ifeanyi Odoh, has disclosed that his administration has mapped out practical plans and solutions that would lift the people of Ebonyi state from its manifest poverty situation.
Speaking in Abakaliki while addressing members of the Ebonyi State International Market Youth Forum and other union leaders in the state, he said his first step towards changing the poverty cycle in Ebonyi will be to grow the state economy and create jobs while harnessing the potentials in Agriculture.
“For example, we are going to prepare extensive land for palm plantation and we will create oil mill there. One hectare of palm plantation after oil processing yields N42m, if we have ten thousand hectares, you could imagine how much we will be making and the place will employ not less than 10,000 people who will work day and night to earn their living.
“We will invite our people and foreigners to Ebonyi to build universities. Government will give them land and this will create direct and indirect employment for our people. Last year, Nigeria exported 522,000 metric tons of ginger that was sold $12m. As a State, if we process ginger and extract the oil and export it, we will make over N1.4bn. We are going to invest in large farm of ginger and install a processing plant. There is no industry here; all we have are hotels and fuel stations. This is not where we supposed to be.” He lamented.
Odoh said something was fundamentally wrong in the governance of Ebonyi for the state in Igbo land to be ranked in Nigeria as the third most poorest state after Sokoto and Jigawa.
“How can a State in Igbo land be listed among the poorest in the country? Something is wrong. So, our situation is a tearful one
Our people are suffering; and if you go to other cities, our people are the ones hawking in those areas. I will not be your Governor and watch our people go through that kind of situation. Our mothers here will agree with me that it’s now less costly to make a pot of soup in Enugu than Ebonyi. Food is now more expensive in Ebonyi than in other South-East States.
“When we were growing up in this town, it was not like that, because our people went to farm and there was support to farmers. When I was in government, money was provided for farmers but it didn’t get to them.
“Today, more than 70% of rice being milled in Abakaliki rice mill comes from the North. They bring rice from the North, mill here, and write it, Abakaliki rice; is it not deceit? Who is fooling who? We are not growing anything again. As a State, we are not competing in anything, except in poverty and that is what our administration must change while in office” he reassured.