From Wilson Okereke, Afikpo
Governorship candidate of the Labour Party(LP) in Ebonyi State in next year’s polls, Dr Edward Nkwegu, popularly known as EDON, has assured of creating employment opportunities capable of engaging 150,000 persons within his first two years in office, if elected governor.
Nkwegu who was also the party’s standard bearer in the state in 2015, said he will use job and wealth creation to erase the unenviable poverty status of the state.
You’re so concerned about job creation, why did you choose that sector as your priority area?
If you can remember, Ebonyi has been rated as one of the ten poorest states in Nigeria, going by the National Bureau of Statistics. In their data, it is clearly stated that 76.7 percent of Ebonyi people are languishing in poverty because of high rate of unemployment; on this note, one can see that the human development index is very essential as a lot of people are jobless. To solve the problem of poverty, it requires creation of micro, small and medium enterprises as an engine room of progress and prosperity.
Since the state is already blessed with arable land and enormous mineral deposits, may we know your plan pertaining to agriculture?
We also have challenges in the area of unimproved agricultural practices, though Ebonyi is blessed with a lot of mineral deposits but the process is in crude method and that calls for improvement to harness the natural endowment that we have; we have a lot of potential in the state and first of all, we have the people who are known for their peaceful disposition, honest, hardworking and guest-friendliness; for me, it is one of the greatest assets which we need to use as an advantage.
So, in a nutshell, what’s your agenda for Ebonyi?
In my 4-point development agenda, I have economic development as number one, followed by improving agriculture in the state. In this sector, as I earlier said, we are still carrying out farming activities with hoes and cutlasses, the same tools which were used by our great grandfathers and as at that time, the population was very small but surprisingly now that the population has increased to about 4 million persons, we are still using the same primitive tools as our major implements. My coming into power will change the system into mechanisation.
In the area of infrastructure, I will focus on pipe borne water because presently, it cannot be found in the state without considering the fact that the substance is not optional. If we are hoping on the bottle water, I will then ask, how many persons can afford it; when you talk about the sachet water, how many persons can afford it too, what about the water that people do use for cooking? People rely solely on borehole even when it is not potable water because of a lot of mineral deposits in the soil such as lead, zinc, granite etc which are not compatible to health.
In the course of sinking borehole, some mineral deposits will contaminate the water and such water is not good in our health system, thus, one of my major focuse is to reticulate water and to create small, medium, micro enterprises. These will surely create employment and improve internally generated revenue in the state. As someone who has been in the private sector since my life, I have been able to understand the needs of the people.
In education, we will consolidate on the access, quality and relevance; the accessibility will cover having access to educational infrastructure, ensure that we have conducive learning environments; it will also cover curricular reformation. The system will be reformed in such a way that what people study shall reflect in present day situation.
The people shall be imparted with various skills because no matter the quantum of general knowledge that one may acquire, known as scholastic education, it will be difficult to change the environment with it unlike when one has acquired specialized knowledge or specialized education involving some skills; that is what can change the person’s environment and add value to the society. By then, the pupils, in their first 9 years in education must have learnt what will make them to be more relevant to their immediate environment; additionally, the youth, sports, the indigent and the vulnerable persons in the state are top priorities in our agenda; another is good governance and on this note, there will be transparency, accountability and rule of law.
We will develop our markets because based on our research, we have discovered that 90 percent of the people buy their things in the open markets but unfortunately, the same places lack access roads while it is only few persons that can buy their things in the supermarkets and shopping centres.
We will create access roads to the markets and develop their surroundings; in the process of doing these, we shall equally plan for the future by identifying the areas for forest reserve and find out the areas to be linked up with the markets, thus, I am calling on like minds to join hands to make the project work.
What would be your programme for security?
As we all know that poverty is the remote cause of insecurity, the problem is as a result of something that was not done well in the past and for me, instead of battling with the effect, we will first of all tackle its source; we will also tackle hunger and unemployment because once the causes are treated, there will be peace everywhere.
Any appeal to your supporters?
I thank God that I am already in the race and I want everyone to support the project; the project of saving both the country and the state, I have understood that leadership is all about coming to solve problems and if one says that we do not have problems in Ebonyi State, the person is only being economical with the truth because there is poverty in the land.