|
|||
Former Presidential spokesman and Director, Communications and Media Strategy of the Delta All Progressives Congress, APC, Campaign Council, Olorogun Ima Niboro, has predicted that an overwhelming number of Deltans will vote Senator Ovie Omo-Agege as governor in the 2023 general elections.
Niboro made the assertion on Sunday in Lagos while speaking to newsmen on the progress of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege’s governorship campaign.
He said the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa-led People’s Democratic Party, PDP, administration in the state has “effectively alienated and sidelined the majority of the people, treating them as outcasts in their own state.”
Niboro further stated that “the government’s policies and open avarice have created severe hardship and swept the people into deprivation and despair.”
Niboro, a former Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to ex-President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, described the level of poverty among the generality of the people in Delta state as “staggering and unacceptable,” declaring that Deltans never had it so bad.
“For a state that has received well over N3.5 trillion in the last seven and a half years,” Niboro continued, “and has inexplicably gone ahead to borrow another N400 billion, the level of poverty, lack of development, decrepit infrastructure, hunger and deprivation are unimaginable.
“In Delta, poverty and despair, hunger and disease swagger down unpaved roads unchecked and unchallenged. Anger flares into violence routinely, because a hungry man is an angry man.
“But the people are tired and eager to make tangible and irreversible changes in governance by kicking out the PDP and the coming elections provide the perfect opportunity. More than ever before, Deltans are reflecting on their objective conditions and making clear headed decisions about their future.
“I can tell you that the people are desperate for change. Change that is meaningful, change that brings progress and jobs, the type that makes local economies boom again and puts food on the table for families. Deltans yearn for change that is tangible and enduring, change that creates security and enduring peace, change that brings employment and empowerment, change that makes a long suffering people smile again.
“This is the promise of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and the APC. Our candidate’s EDGE agenda captures the most urgent needs of our people. EDGE is an acronym for Employment and Empowerment, Development, Good Governance, and Enduring Peace and Security. Upon these four pillars rest Delta APC’s governance strategy post 2023.
“We shall be prioritizing Employment and Empowerment for our people. Deltans who inhabit the second richest state in Nigeria have been victims of vacuous leadership, leading to alarming poverty and deprivation. So the first and most urgent task is to put money in people’s pockets, and food on their tables. The way to do this is by empowerment of various means, with employment as only one of several strategies.
“Developing our state has taken on an urgency that was once only a distant dream. We have the resources, we have the people. What we have lacked, and which Senator Omo-Agege brings to the table, are vision and willpower. The APC government will open up the state to investors, take it to the top of the Ease of Doing Business index, and break down red tape and excess government,”he said.
Explaining the inter-connectedness of the EDGE agenda, Niboro said: ”whatever your plans are, they must be backed by a governance structure. Therefore, good governance is central to our agenda, all of which will be backed by Enduring Peace and Security, without which you can achieve nothing “
The former Presidential Spokesman emphasized that Omo-Agege seeks to reset the economic parameters of the state. For instance, he said, the proposed Delta State Employment, Entrepreneurship and Empowerment Programme, DEEP, is geared towards swiftly turning around the unemployment scale as a way to pull people out of poverty.
According to him “our target is to create the right environment and support mechanisms, including structured state guarantees for escalation of employment and job opportunities.
“We also propose to create a one stop shop for investors, improve governance structures, adopt zero budgeting as a tool for effective financial management, while deploying our best brains for further critical thinking on how to sustain the momentum of growth and development.”
