Anambra State Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) governorship candidate Mr. Godwin Ezeemo has reiterated his resolve to transform the state. Unfolding his five-point agenda in Awka, the state capital, the politician said that he would fulfil his promise, if elected as governor on November 16.
Ezeemo said the five-point agenda tagged ‘Shape Anambra’is an acronym for ‘Security, Health, Agriculture, Power and Education’. The manifestos, he said, was premised on the expectation of the people.
Reiterating his determination to restore security, the PPA flag bearer said: “It will be practically impossible for any serious economic activity to thrive in any environment that is unsecure as we have witnessed recently in the Southeast and Anambra State, in particularly. We will through the availability of constant power supply deploy the state of the art and security equipment in all the nooks and crannies of Anambra state that will help each and every one of us monitor our individual collective security”.
Ezeemo also promised to defend the health sector, saying that health is wealth. He said the hospitals will not be staved of funds, personnel and facilities. He added: “The health of the nation is the wealth of the nation. This is a very popular saying and what we have planned to do is to take Anambra to the level where everybody will have access to the basic primary health care.
“What we call hospital is not the edifice, rather the equipment and medical personnel that will man the equipment and take care of patients. We will not condone a situation where the whole of Anambra State has only 21 medical doctors overseeing 21 local governments and 326 wards. “As a point of priority we shall ensure that each and every person living in Anambra state will have free access to a medical doctor each time the person has a health condition”.
Ezeemo promised to promote agriculture and gainfully employ the jobless youths in agro-business ventures. He said that, as a prelude to taking the youths out of the streets, a sound foundation would be laid for agricultural and industrial revolution to solve the twin problems of unemployment and hunger, which in most cases, predispose the youths to crime.
He stressed: “ Through massive agricultural and industrial development, we will not only feed the state, but also gainfully and meaningfully employ our youths. Presently, I am personally involved in farming and without sounding immodest, my farm, Orient Farms Ltd, has in its payroll over 1, 000 youths, who eke out a meaningful living out farming activities. My team will therefore, make agricultural development a focal point of our administration”.
Lamenting the power outage in Anambra State, the politician said that it is a negative incentive to investment. However, hos he intends to resolve the matter is not clear because power is on the Exclusive List.
Ezeemo said: “It is now common knowledge that electricity supply is the first condition for a successful industrial revolution. Over the years industries built in the Southeast and other parts of Nigeria by our founding fathers our industries have all died off while the ones that are surviving are comatose, due to the intractable problem of power supply.
“Our private businessmen, including myself, are all groaning under the heavy weight on running our plants on diesel and this makes cost of locally manufactured goods higher than the imported ones. Every economic activity hinges on power even our comfortable existence e as human beings cannot be realized without constant power supply.
“My administration will first and foremost ensure that we achieve steady power supply as a basis for every other economic activity to thrive in Anambra. As far as we are concerned, steady power supply is not negotiable in our scheme of things”.
Ezeemo promised to boost education by introducing novel welfare packages for the teachers and motivating parents to send their wards to the public schools.
Describing education as a right and not a privilege, he said his administration will developvocational and technical education to enable the students to acquire technical skills, which will make them to be self-reliant.
Ezeemo said: “An uneducated generation is a wasted generation so goes the saying. I recall with nostalgia how as a youth I had uninterrupted flow of education and teachers were dedicated because their welfare was paramount to government.
“What we have now is a different story where teachers are owed for months unpaid and students spend an average of seven years to acquire a four year degree programme. Beyond taking care of teachers we will also ensure that our students do not roam the streets when they should be in school studying.
“We will ensure that any child of age in Anambra state does and should acquire universal basic education. It is a right and not a privilege. We will also incorporate technical and vocational studies in our school curriculum so that our children will become useful to themselves as technicians after their secondary education.
“Most of the people that come from abroad that we call engineers are actually technicians and artisans. They did not go to universities but they are trained on the job and they are experts on it. When they come here, people call them engineers.
