By Clifford Ndujihe
What is your assessment of the current state of affairs in Imo State?
Imo today is in economic dire-straits with no new meaningful private sector investments to speak of in the last three years; heavy debt overhang estimated to be in the N100 billion region, dwindling federal allocations owing to strangulating first-line charges on various loan repayment schedules; over 800,000 unemployed youths (by a recent National Employment Survey estimate); rampant poverty; rising wave of crime and creeping insecurity; scandalous decline in education quality with 11 faculties in the state university and the Polytechnic in Umuagwo unaccredited and the worst ever student performance in NECO and WAEC results recorded in its history a few months ago.
Worse still, there appears to be no coherent plan or programme to arrest this state of anomie as the government of the day is busy executing white elephant projects such as street gates, roundabouts, squares, new government offices, quarters and inaugurating vigilante squads to the detriment of the productive sectors of the local economy which have been completely neglected.
What would you do differently, if elected?
I will immediately re-order priorities to squarely face the existential threat of poverty in the land. We will funnel resources away from non-regenerative and cosmetic schemes to agro-based industrialisation drive using the industrial cluster model that will be spread across the three zones of the state.
We will run a transparent and accountable, value-for-money administration with zero tolerance for corruption, ineptitude and cronyism. This alone will free up huge resources that will be applied to harnessing our virtually limitless agricultural potentials. I will invest in high-yield fertilizers and introduce organic, high-yield seedling varieties to not only shore up food security in the state but to also create the capacity required for the agro-industrial transformation of the state. I will bring back the Farm Settlements of the Michael Okpara era.
I will revamp our near-comatose educational system with improved funding, better learning tools and training and re-training of teachers. I will additionally attract grants for our tertiary institutions and enrol them in offshore support programmes, exchanges and linkages that will promote skills and knowledge transfer with institutions of international repute.
What are your chances of in the election?
Excellent! You know our party APGA, arguably, has the best track record in internal democracy among all the parties in the country and that is the first guarantee we have that the most acceptable aspirant with the best prospects of leading the party to victory will emerge. In my own particular case, my aspiration is quickly crystallizing into a mass movement not only within the rank and file of the party but also among the general Imo populace where we have a near-cult following among the youths and women groups, the key demographic strata that decide all elections.
The simple reason is my age, personality, professional pedigree and track-record which most Imolites agree all add up to the profile of the leader they look up to reinvent Imo in 2015.
Do you think APGA has a chance in Imo against the APC Peoples Democratic Party, PDP?
All students of modern political history in Nigeria know that APGA always wins in Imo because the cockerel is the symbol that is intrinsically enshrined in the hearts of every Imolite. Forget all the propaganda; APC is like the proverbial seed that falls on parched ground and is scorched almost immediately it germinates. The Imo ebig menf in PDP, more often than not have APGA sympathies and pedigree.
VANGUARD
A
governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Grand
Alliance (APGA) in Imo State, Okey Ezeh, who is entrepreneur and CEO of
Savvycorp Limited, a leading investment advisory and management
consultancy firm as well as the Executive Chairman of Okechukwu Theodore
Ezeh Foundation (OTEF), in this interview speaks among others on how
APGA will reclaim Imo from the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015.
By Clifford Ndujihe
What is your assessment of the current state of affairs in Imo State?
Imo today is in economic dire-straits with no new meaningful private sector investments to speak of in the last three years; heavy debt overhang estimated to be in the N100 billion region, dwindling federal allocations owing to strangulating first-line charges on various loan repayment schedules; over 800,000 unemployed youths (by a recent National Employment Survey estimate); rampant poverty; rising wave of crime and creeping insecurity; scandalous decline in education quality with 11 faculties in the state university and the Polytechnic in Umuagwo unaccredited and the worst ever student performance in NECO and WAEC results recorded in its history a few months ago.
Worse still, there appears to be no coherent plan or programme to arrest this state of anomie as the government of the day is busy executing white elephant projects such as street gates, roundabouts, squares, new government offices, quarters and inaugurating vigilante squads to the detriment of the productive sectors of the local economy which have been completely neglected.
What would you do differently, if elected?
I will immediately re-order priorities to squarely face the existential threat of poverty in the land. We will funnel resources away from non-regenerative and cosmetic schemes to agro-based industrialisation drive using the industrial cluster model that will be spread across the three zones of the state.
We will run a transparent and accountable, value-for-money administration with zero tolerance for corruption, ineptitude and cronyism. This alone will free up huge resources that will be applied to harnessing our virtually limitless agricultural potentials. I will invest in high-yield fertilizers and introduce organic, high-yield seedling varieties to not only shore up food security in the state but to also create the capacity required for the agro-industrial transformation of the state. I will bring back the Farm Settlements of the Michael Okpara era.
I will revamp our near-comatose educational system with improved funding, better learning tools and training and re-training of teachers. I will additionally attract grants for our tertiary institutions and enrol them in offshore support programmes, exchanges and linkages that will promote skills and knowledge transfer with institutions of international repute.
What are your chances of in the election?
Excellent! You know our party APGA, arguably, has the best track record in internal democracy among all the parties in the country and that is the first guarantee we have that the most acceptable aspirant with the best prospects of leading the party to victory will emerge. In my own particular case, my aspiration is quickly crystallizing into a mass movement not only within the rank and file of the party but also among the general Imo populace where we have a near-cult following among the youths and women groups, the key demographic strata that decide all elections.
The simple reason is my age, personality, professional pedigree and track-record which most Imolites agree all add up to the profile of the leader they look up to reinvent Imo in 2015.
Do you think APGA has a chance in Imo against the APC Peoples Democratic Party, PDP?
All students of modern political history in Nigeria know that APGA always wins in Imo because the cockerel is the symbol that is intrinsically enshrined in the hearts of every Imolite. Forget all the propaganda; APC is like the proverbial seed that falls on parched ground and is scorched almost immediately it germinates. The Imo ebig menf in PDP, more often than not have APGA sympathies and pedigree.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/imo-2015-apc-pdp-match-apga-ezeh-guber-aspirant/#sthash.P0ZSgN63.dpuf
By Clifford Ndujihe
What is your assessment of the current state of affairs in Imo State?
Imo today is in economic dire-straits with no new meaningful private sector investments to speak of in the last three years; heavy debt overhang estimated to be in the N100 billion region, dwindling federal allocations owing to strangulating first-line charges on various loan repayment schedules; over 800,000 unemployed youths (by a recent National Employment Survey estimate); rampant poverty; rising wave of crime and creeping insecurity; scandalous decline in education quality with 11 faculties in the state university and the Polytechnic in Umuagwo unaccredited and the worst ever student performance in NECO and WAEC results recorded in its history a few months ago.
Worse still, there appears to be no coherent plan or programme to arrest this state of anomie as the government of the day is busy executing white elephant projects such as street gates, roundabouts, squares, new government offices, quarters and inaugurating vigilante squads to the detriment of the productive sectors of the local economy which have been completely neglected.
What would you do differently, if elected?
I will immediately re-order priorities to squarely face the existential threat of poverty in the land. We will funnel resources away from non-regenerative and cosmetic schemes to agro-based industrialisation drive using the industrial cluster model that will be spread across the three zones of the state.
We will run a transparent and accountable, value-for-money administration with zero tolerance for corruption, ineptitude and cronyism. This alone will free up huge resources that will be applied to harnessing our virtually limitless agricultural potentials. I will invest in high-yield fertilizers and introduce organic, high-yield seedling varieties to not only shore up food security in the state but to also create the capacity required for the agro-industrial transformation of the state. I will bring back the Farm Settlements of the Michael Okpara era.
I will revamp our near-comatose educational system with improved funding, better learning tools and training and re-training of teachers. I will additionally attract grants for our tertiary institutions and enrol them in offshore support programmes, exchanges and linkages that will promote skills and knowledge transfer with institutions of international repute.
What are your chances of in the election?
Excellent! You know our party APGA, arguably, has the best track record in internal democracy among all the parties in the country and that is the first guarantee we have that the most acceptable aspirant with the best prospects of leading the party to victory will emerge. In my own particular case, my aspiration is quickly crystallizing into a mass movement not only within the rank and file of the party but also among the general Imo populace where we have a near-cult following among the youths and women groups, the key demographic strata that decide all elections.
The simple reason is my age, personality, professional pedigree and track-record which most Imolites agree all add up to the profile of the leader they look up to reinvent Imo in 2015.
Do you think APGA has a chance in Imo against the APC Peoples Democratic Party, PDP?
All students of modern political history in Nigeria know that APGA always wins in Imo because the cockerel is the symbol that is intrinsically enshrined in the hearts of every Imolite. Forget all the propaganda; APC is like the proverbial seed that falls on parched ground and is scorched almost immediately it germinates. The Imo ebig menf in PDP, more often than not have APGA sympathies and pedigree.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/imo-2015-apc-pdp-match-apga-ezeh-guber-aspirant/#sthash.P0ZSgN63.dpuf
No comments:
Post a Comment