The gubernatorial candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Jormem Alia, has declared that his main mission in partisan politics was primarily motivated by the compelling and urgent need to liberate the State from incompetent leadership, unconscionable looting of public funds, poverty and economic backwardness.
In a statement made available to LEADERSHIP on Monday, by his media adviser, Ado Mohammed, the APC gubernatorial candidate lamented that despite State’s natural endowment as the food basket of the nation, it has remained largely “economically handicapped, humanly underdeveloped and socially sterile with the majority of the population ravaged by poverty.”
He noted that most of the successive ruling elites in the state have maintained blatant
disregard to the plight of the governed and failed to harness the enormous natural and human resources of the State for the benefit of the citizenry.
He said, “We have put together a bold and strategic comprehensive plan of action, aimed at reinvigorating key areas of the state’s local economy, to spur economic growth, generate productivity and prosperity and improve the standard of living for ordinary Benue citizens.”
According to him, the APC manifesto and development blueprint would be unveiled immediately the stipulated time for electioneering campaigns by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) comes.
His words “I have always believed that a sustained comprehensive growth and technological advancement of the nation is partly hinged on equitable distribution of prosperity and improved standard of living of the people.”
Rev. Fr. Alia identified the key ingredients of economic development and national transformation as agricultural transformation and food security, education, communication technology, industrialisation and commerce, rural development, human and social development, security, tourism and environmental management.
The APC gubernatorial candidate lamented that as the global leader with 70% share of global production of Yam and Cassava, Nigeria was yet to be recognised as an exporter of the products but rather trails behind Ghana which is responsible for 75% of all Yam exports from Africa.
“Of the 60 million tonnes of Yam produced annually by Nigeria which comes majorly from Benue State, only 200 tonnes are exported and 30 per cent of this meagre figure rots in transit due to poor
preservation.
“At the end of the day, both farmers and exporters count their losses rather than gains at the end of each farming season,” he stated.
