May 25, (THEWILL) – A frontline People’s Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial aspirant in Ebonyi State, Evang (Dr.) Engr Opoke Sunday Andrew, has said that his administration would create a paradigm shift from providing the people with electricity, water, road and hospital to creating wealth from natural resources in the state.
Opoke, who is a health scientist and a consultant on water engineering, recalled in an interview in Abakaliki, that the creation of Ebonyi State was a divine intervention and noted that though, previous administration had done well, but posited that a lot of things need to be corrected.
According to him, if he comes on board, Ebonyi will move higher. He stressed that he would look into wealth creation and connect God to His people and the people to God.
He said, “As a professional, I am a consultant. The one and only consultant in water engineering in Ebonyi State. I consult for the Federal government of Gambia, the Federal Republic of Uganda, federal Republic of Ethiopia and for the Federal Republic of Kenya. These countries, even if they changed their president, they will still invite me.
“I used to be the general manager of Ebonyi State rural water supply and sanitation agency, where I resigned my appointment. So, in this dimension of water, environment and health science, I am a professional. So that is who I am.
“Well, I want to remind the press, Ebonyians and Nigerians and remind the world that Ebonyi State was created out of divine intervention. A lot of people were agitated, we know a lot of people like Akanu Ibiam, Martin Elechi, Offia Nwali and the rest of them. They did their best for Ebonyi State to be created. Unfortunately, their agitation could not create Ebonyi State. Already, there was a Muslim man, who was the director of one Muslim school at Uwana, Afikpo. He used to be a friend of late General Abacha. Abacha has been here several times before he became the president of Nigeria.
“Fortunately, the issue of agitation came during his time. When the agitation of the state came, Ebonyi couldn’t make it. Ebonyi was listed among the agitated states, but because he was here to see his friend, he said ‘where is Ebonyi?’ . He said Ebonyi is among the agitated states, so he signed his signature on it. He said Ebonyi must be created, that was how it came to be. There is no other state that has that divine intervention, except Ebonyi State.
“So because we came under that platform of divine intervention, we are very happy that God is very interested in us. And the leadership of the state has always witnessed, at least to a certain level, some degree of quality leadership. What we have is not good enough. We can still do much more. And a lot of things that are actually going on in a time like this that we can correct.
“And then, those of us who have travelled far and wide, understand that there are systems that are working elsewhere that are not working in this part of the world. And we have some capacity, strength and some natural resources that can make it work.
“Let me start with why I came on board or what I think if we do it in a time like this, Ebonyi will move higher. First of all, we will look at wealth creation. If I come on board as a governor, I have two major assignments. One is to create wealth for the people and the second one is to connect God to his people and people to God himself. If I do this, my job is finished.
“But in wealth creation how am I going to do it? In wealth creation, I look first at urban-rural migration. What I call urban-rural migration is that whatever is happening in the urban area should happen around communities. Why I do not like to do a local content campaign like road, water, electricity and hospital. It is a local content campaign because at the end of the 21st century, we are still talking about things like that. Those things are the rights of the people.
“Though, they are non-judicial rights. But they are the rights of the people. When you give people their rights, it does not mean that anything wonderful has been done. Governance is welfare and security. Welfare-the people should be happy. When they have a good road, they should be happy. Like I said, they are the rights of the people. You do not deny people their rights. Like I said, any person coming on board at the end of the 21st century shouting about roads and electricity and people are clapping, it is a local content campaign.
“If I ever come onboard as a governor, I will use what we have to create wealth. When we say industrialisation, what type of industrialisation are we talking about? I am talking about production, I am talking of processing and I am talking of packaging. These are the aspects of industrialisation I am talking about.
“In production, every local government should have something they produce, at least only them produce it in Nigeria. So that people can come from far and near to come for that product. If every local government has two, three, four factories that are doing something, which only they are doing in the southeast, it is a big business.
“Let’s say for instance, in Ebonyi State as a health scientist, we have a lot of solid minerals like lead, zinc, chipson, limestone and the rest of it. Now if we have electronic companies or batteries producing companies in Ebonyi State, it is going to be a very good business because batteries are produced from lead.
“Since we have all these resources, we can have these companies domesticated in Ebonyi State. My idea is that if you can develop these companies that have local materials, they can do very well and with that unemployment will be a thing of the past”, he boasted.
