Edo 2024: Through development partners, I will increase Edo IGR for more prosperity

By David Lawani, Abuja

The Governorship Aspirant for the Edo State Governorship election, Gen. Charles Airhiavbere has promised to use development partners to haten the development of the state when he becomes the governor on September 2024.

Arhiavbere made this declaration in a briefing at the All Progressives Congress media centre after submitting his Expression of Interest and Nomination forms at the national secretariat of the party noting that no state can lay claims to any form of development without inviting development partners.

He informed that he will deploy artificial intelligence and robots to drive home his intelligence gathering so as to tackle insecurity in the state.

He said: ” But i will take you into the insight of what i will do differently, because there is no nation not even state that can develop on his own without inviting development partners. No state in Nigeria today can say internally generated revenue can rise without bringing development partners.

” We have the opportunity to make Edo state safe, peaceful, using the security apparatus available to us, using internal democracy, believe in people, believe in ourselves, collaborating effectively with the federal government to ensure peace reigns

in Edo state.

” Is not through vigilante, putting

arms in the hands of untrained people. I think we can do it differently, you have robotics, you have cameras, today we have drones, and artificial intelligence that can bring security to the people.

” There are some countries, they have operational rooms, anything happening anywhere it is known, these are the new technology that i will introduce that will make the people comfortable.

” There are so many of our children in

Diaspora who want to come home,

i also have some of my children when i served in Washington, and they turn to ask me every day that is Nigeria safe enough for us to come back home and i said yes come home”, he state.

He however advise Nigerians to stopped painting and presenting the nation in a negative way adding he will push for a bill through state house of assembly to establish infrastructural development commission which will be in charge of ensuring infrastructures in the state are maintained to high standards for the good of residents.

He noted: ” That negative presentation of this country and in our state, we have a lot of people in Diaspora who want to come home to invest, so that takes me to the next pillar of my agenda, which is the infrastructure development of my state.

” You can’t but encourage people by giving it a legal backing and on that note, i intend to take through the state House of Assembly pass a bill to approve the new state infrastructure development commission.

” This commission will be empowered to go into agreement with development partners, those who are interested in satellite towns, those who are interested in moving people out of the railroad.

” Those who are interested in toying road, there’s no reason why you are in the states and you’re still afraid or governor will start a road in four, five years and cannot complete it.

” But the commission now different from the powers of the ministry, will accomplish it in terms of schools, in terms of vocational training centers, hospitals, these are infrastructural development platforms that our foreign partners are interested in.

 ” In 2012 one of the things i was very interested in is bridging the River Niger from Idah to Agenebode this project is still very fresh because as of 2017, I wanted to partner with Kogi to develop this bridge though we couldn’t raise funding, we didn’t have the necessary muscles to make it work, this is are some of the things i intend to do in Edo state.

” Infrastructure will give you money, if well arranged and there is no what i can call political will to work. Let’s now go to the economic prosperity that has to do with the people of Edo state , one of the things we have most and best in Edo state is capital, human capital.

” And how do we develop them ICT driven, Edo states is a transit state if you’re going to the east you must stop. So, this is one of the things we must do, all our children going out of school for lack of money, i think we have the capacity to make sure our children they have vocation it is not all the time you’ve done from school and get employed.

” I just left NDDC as it’s Executive Director of Finance and Administration and i discovered that we in the Niger Delta still have a lot to do of which Edo state is one of them.

” So, i think with what i have seen on ground, we can change the unemployment level, we can change the unemployment figures, we can also change and multiply the economic prosperity of women, even the development goals to fight for this.

” How do you assess them if you don’t have your counterpart funding? And these are areas i intend to concentrate on, to make sure that the economic prosperity of Edo people rises from my first day of taking over the leadership of the state”, he stated.

Gen. Charles Airhiavbere added he Joined the Nigerian Army as a boy soldier after passing the entrance exam in 1968. He said he started his career in January 1969 and  by 2008, he was promoted Major General after navigating through the process of going to the ranks, different appointments, moved from Apapa as head of different sessions, walked in the Nigerian defense Academy as Director of Finance, walked in an embassy in Washington as Deputy Defense Attache.