By Akombo Aondona, Abuja
A governorship aspirant on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo state, Dr. Ernest Afolabi Umakhihe, on Tuesday 6 February 2024 said he would bring his experience in government to develop Edo state.
Dr. Umakhine stated this while addressing APC correspondents at the APC media center after submitting his governorship nomination form at the party National Secretariat Abuja.
He said: “I have come this afternoon to submit my filled nomination form which you have just witnessed and I have submitted it to the office of the deputy national organizing secretary of APC.
“My resolve to govern Edo state is borne out of the need and desire of my people to experience real governance that will touch every Edolite
“I am one who has served at the top echelon of the federal civil service. I have served as a director in several ministries from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to the National Sports Commission now Federal Ministry of Sport, to Ministry of Defence, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In foreign affairs in particular, I have had extensive diplomatic interaction because my oversight then covered over 116 diplomatic missions as at the time i was serving there.
“And i have had engagements in that diplomatic circle, having visited over half of those numbers.
“In all this I have worked at the top echelon ranging from infrastructural development to administration to finance to agriculture, and I know what my people back in Edo states are lacking.
“I didn’t just concentrate in the administration at the center alone. I have been involved in interventions across Nigeria.
“In particular reference to my state where I have had the infrastructure intervention ranging from roads, drainage, water treatment plants, boreholes, solar street lights, schools, I have had extensive infrastructure intervention in the three senatorial districts.”
Dr. Umakhine continued: “So Ihave toutched the life of the ordinary person, i have had philanthropic organizations that are still existing and have had, and have touched the vulnerable groups and the less-privileged and had rescued several Edolites.
“So having retired from the federal civil service, I said now is the time for me to have a better opportunity that will concentrate solely on Edo state and my slogan has always been if I could do this without making any electoral promise, now I want to make I want to make electoral promises which I must fulfill.
“If I didn’t promise and I fulfilled, now I’m promising I think I would discharge more productively.
“I have looked at it and see that people need to leverage on what Edo state has, the abundance resources, so that we mobilize these resources, harness potential and move those things forward.
“As we speak, Edo state has 1.6 million hectares of arable land. This is me, somebody who has worked in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture for over three years, and I believe that I can revolutionize agriculture in that state.
“For sure, what you hear in my place about farming is rainy season and that is the only time they farm. But I tell you my big concept I have is all-year round farming. There will be no dry season or rainy season farming it will be all year round.
“Rice for example, you can cultivate three times in a year, i want to be able to get irrigation scheme across the length and breadth of those arable regions and ensure that we farm all year round and it doesn’t stop there.
“I ‘m also going to mechanize agriculture, provide satellite data centres, across the 18 local government areas where people can just hire the tractors and develop, protect their lands.
“I have seen that some farmers, over 50% of their cost is on land preparation, while that is off the rest is very easy and my focus is on agriculture.
“But first we must also tackle the insecurity in the system. I have elucidated here how I would tackle security. Because security itself is of serious concern, my strategy is of intelligence gathering and involving the traditional institutions in security matters.
“And of course empowering the neighborhood watch so that together we can have the security situation nipped in the bud and every Edolite can sleep with their two eyes closed.
“I have also taught of education. We have some infrastructure in some of the schools, some are dilapidated, but then we also believe that we can innovate, rehabilitate all of those structures.
“And the original problem is having personnel to teach in those schools, the schools are lacking teachers. Attention will be paid to have the qualified teachers in those schools and also training and retraining will be essential for those teachers so that they can impact on our students.
“I have also itemized what I will do. My focus will be on primary health care, I have also optimized issue of women empowerment, youth empowerment.
“But I want to tell you that as it stands, I am the best man for this job. I have a bachelor’s degree in accountancy. I am a chartered accountant. I have a Masters in Business Administration and I have a PhD in security and strategy.
“I’m a chartered business developer, and I am a taxation expert. I come as a technocrat and bureaucrat with a lot of experience and I am an arbitrator.”
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