…Decries the untapped resources of the State
…Says Action Alliance only party that can liberate the Masses from their Suffering
The Ebonyi gubernatorial candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) Engineer Chukwuma Nwandugo has decried that the State has not harnessed its enormous God given resources to becoming the great State it ought to be.
He stated this on Tuesday during an interaction with journalists at his residence in Abakaliki.
He bemoaned that with the resources endowned in the State, 10% of it has not been harnessed to improve the well being of the people. Nwadogu maintained that with the establishment of NIGERCEM as the first cement factory in the country, Ebonyi State would have become one of the leading cement producers in the country but the reverse seems the case, as the cement industry has remained moribound for years.
The Guber Candidate disclosed that Action Alliance is the only way out from the economic stagnation, he described the party as the only political party that can liberate the masses from suffering and deliver democratic dividence to all.
He further explained: “Like when we say ‘Action Alliance,’ we respond ‘lead the masses to live, because our interest is for the masses to live; for the masses to have a good school, live well, eat well, for them to have what it takes to enjoy democracy.”
He added: “The masses have suffered, they have suffered so much and Action Alliance is coming to make sure we put their sufferings to a stop.
“We believe so much well that if we are given the mandate, we have a list of things we want to do to enable Ebonyi people to enjoy themselves again. I can assure you that nothing has been harvested in this state.
“Nothing at all! Not even water. While I was Commissioner for Works, we had a very big project, one among them was a water scheme, which was supposed to be the biggest in the South-East zone. That water scheme is supposed to produce 100 million gallons per day.
“That water scheme was completed because the engineering work was completed, and there was reticulation, all the way from Oferekpe in Ikwo Local Government Area, down to Abakaliki town, it turned on with the pipeline and water was commissioned. We drank from it. I think by now this water would have gone to three, four or five more local government areas.”
The former Commissioner for Works said he is prepared to serve as the governor of Ebonyi State, maintaining that he knew what it would take to do the job perfectly well.
He said his party, Action Alliance has been judiciously following the processes allowed by the new electoral law, to avoid any mistake as INEC opened its portal.
According to him, “Action Alliance as a party, we are trying to put our house in order, to ensure that we cross out ‘ts’ and dot our ‘is’. The truth is that the INEC portal has opened and we are supposed to be uploading the names, details and credentials of all our candidates starting from the governor, deputy governor and all the houses of assemblies. This happened to be our priority right now.
“I can assure you that we are prepared for the job, and we know what it takes to do a good job. For now, there is something I have noticed, and that’s in Ebony State, that the polity is heated when it is supposed not to be heated. We are not supposed to be running hectares Skeeter because of politics.
“But I’m so shocked that right now everywhere is been heated. There are billboards, and posters, meanwhile, it’s not yet time for the campaign. It’s a time for primaries, putting the party in order, and doing a necessary consultation, which is supposed to be done quietly but everywhere is seemingly to be on fire right now.
“However, that is how we see it, but we as Action Alliance may not go through that root. We have our strategy, it’s going to be very calm, and we are going to send the message to the real people. Action Alliance is a party whose major agenda is for the masses.”
The gubernatorial candidate expressed shock that the water scheme built by the immediate past administration was never operated till this moment as in his words, “ordinary water cannot be harvested now, talking about the chains of mineral resources which God has used to bless Ebonyi state.”
He, however, declared that “Ebonyi State needs a man who will be able to live inward and see what God Himself has given to us that we don’t need to go to Akwa Ibom, Kano, Rivers States, to look for it.
“We have here ‘Lead’, and our ‘Lead’ alone if properly harvested, organized is sufficient to feed the entire state, and we are sure that this will be one of those things we want to do.
“Our cement – it’s because NIGERCEM was supposed to be our first cement factory in this country, but the NIGERCEM is now dead, and there is no reason, we can wake it up because the raw materials are here and the major thing to the industry is nearest to raw material.
“Since we have the raw materials, we only need to bring in the workers, we harvest the limestone, then jobs will be created, the economy will boom, and advanced structures will become quantifiable.”
He noted that there is a lot of fertile land in the state for agricultural use, especially in cultivating rice, cassava, yam, onions and vegetables, which only demands a political will to industrialize the system.
For the establishment of industry in the state, he noted that, “there are a lot of processing industries, taking cassava alone, we have many by-products of cassava, because from cassava – you get starch, garri, flour, alcohol, cakes, etc.
“And these can be established because it’s not hard, it’s a question of programming it and getting the people who can do it.
“I believe that Ebonyi at this moment needs a human being who will bring out all these so that the masses will stop suffering, but rather begin enjoying good education, quality health care and treatment, among other dividends of democracy.” He stated.
