TEXT OF A PRESS CONFERENCE DELIVERED BY PROF. BENARD I. ODOH (EBONYI STATE GOVERNORSHIP ASPIRANT) IN ABAKALIKI

TEXT OF A PRESS CONFERENCE DELIVERED BY PROF. BENARD I. ODOH pEBONYI STATE GOVERNORSHIP ASPIRANT) IN ABAKALIKI ON THURSDAY THE 7TH OF APRIL, 2022

Over the past 18 months or so, the political fever across Nigeria has reached a hysterical crescendo. The dust of political activities has risen to the atmosphere, blanketing us all with roaring noise, rumours, innuendos, blackmail, intrigues, plotting, scheming and betrayals. Such is the universal nature of politics. It is par for the course, provided that violence and bloodbaths are avoided at all costs.

But here in Ebonyi State, however, we have watched as events have unfolded and political machinations are threatening to bring the state dangerously close to anarchy.

The political space cannot and must not be surrendered to political manipulators or to dangerous clashes of ambitions. As we witness the paralysis that has overcome the process of governance, Ebonyi people must be given hope for a better future and better prospects for themselves and their families.

And that is exactly what I am presenting to us – I represent that positive alternative; a generational forward-match that will take us, as a people, into the immense developmental opportunities of the 21st century.

This state of paralysis today is dramatically typified by the comical spectacle whereby two-thirds of the State House of Assembly is judicially sacked and the remaining one-quarter has arbitrarily been suspended or allegedly resigned, leaving a lacuna in governance that is both intolerable and dangerous in a democratic setting. This would have been laughable under normal conditions but we live in dangerous and anguished times and, therefore, cannot afford any aspect of our full complement of governance to be in abeyance or crippled by crisis, no matter the circumstances.

The primary purpose of this media interaction, ladies and gentlemen, is to publicly announce to the long suffering Ebonyi people that an alternative, a credible and competent alternative, to the current way of doing things will now be provided under the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

As I pointed out earlier, this is a season of heightened political rumours and speculations. I had deliberately chosen to bide my time, lay the necessary structural foundations alongside my political partners and collaborators, set up outreach network of historical dimensions before venturing into the field again. And only when I was satisfied that everything was in place to execute a challenging task such as running for governorship election, that I decided to let the world know my intentions and aspirations.

You are all aware that I have done this before. I have learned a considerable amount of lessons from my 2019 experience as a gubernatorial aspirant under the banner of the All Progressives Alliance (APC). Building from that experience, we are confident that our mobilization of the youths of Ebonyi State who will in turn create a massive and unassailable movement of all citizens who are eager to see the return of power to those who will care for the essential ingredients of their existence and general welfare.

In the course of the coming 10 to 11 months, we will demonstrate that Ebonyi people are yearning for a humane, protective and caring leadership genuinely anchored on extant human conscience, the fear and guidance of God Almighty. We will unleash a degree of political energy and momentum, driven by the young men and women of Ebonyi State that will set a landmark on our political landscape and history as a people.

This moment calls for decisive leadership and unwavering dedication to the real aspirations and yearning of the citizens.

The Nigerian space has been turned crimson with the blood of innocent citizens, as insecurity has remained at the top of the many challenges that confront us as a country. Kidnapping, banditry and various acts of terror have become woven into the fabric of our daily lives. Here at home, virtually every community in Ebonyi State is grappling with one degree of violent crisis or another. What used to be the safest and most tranquil state in the country is now one of the most troubled and insecure.

Poverty is at a previously unimaginable level. It is a tragic statistic that Nigeria overtook India as the poverty capital of the world a couple of years ago and here in Ebonyi, we are ranked as the third poorest state in the Nigerian federation.

The healthcare system is still glittering in propaganda but actual healthcare delivery to suffering patients, whether in our rural communities or urban areas, remains a mirage.

Our teachers at all levels languish in neglect and the pupils and students are paying a terrible price in ignorance and skills deprivation. Parents are left with a hopeless sense of despair when they watch the very pillars of their dreams crumble like a pillar of dust.

Our rural communities, urban and semi-urban areas still languish in infrastructure deficits, lack of electricity, total lack of access to clean water (howsoever supplied or delivered) and general absence of any form of modern development. It is indeed a pitiful state of affairs.

A state that would otherwise be a breadbasket not just in terms of self-sufficiency but in terms of delivering sufficient produce to the entire southeast has seen its agricultural potentialities turned into sickening instrument of propaganda and a vehicle of narrow-minded patronage.

The cost of living has soared to the point whereby the average salary (whatever it turns out to be at the end of each month) is grossly insufficient to meet the needs of an average family. The simple concept of food, shelter and clothing is now in the realms of ostentatious luxury, affordable only by the affluent or those who have corruptly enriched themselves. A situation where wage earners spend 80 per cent of their earnings just on food alone is one that can only be described as a state of emergency. No society can survive and thrive under such burdensome cost of living.

The chasm between the rich and the poor has grown so wide and so deep and shameful that our society is now practically divided between the haves and the beggars. Reducing the majority of a population to beggarly status is a shame to humanity and a mockery of God in Heaven who has endowed us with so much but which we have ruined with our ignorance, foolishness and wickedness.

Youth unemployment has become immeasurable in our State. The yardstick to measure it no longer exists because, if graduates at all levels are achieving less than 10 percent employment rate in all sectors, then statistics becomes useless. In the military, the principle which says that if you lose 10 percent of your fighting force you can never win the war applies here. We have lost at least two generations of our youths to unemployment and desperation. It will require drastic, thoughtful and calculated measures to recover from this calamity. I believe that I am the man who can do this.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have not come to deliver a litany of woes or tragedies, even though it would obviously be hypocritical of me to be seeking to govern a state like our own without setting out a brief summary of its obvious and manifest challenges.

I will be the first to readily admit that it is always too easy to point out the problems of maladministration. The challenge of proffering realistic, enumerated, costed, effective and precisely targeted solutions to the identified problems is the proper crux of the matter. Anyone can point out problems but only few can articulate and apply solutions.

That is why I have appeared before you today armed with my gubernatorial manifesto, setting out the general outlines of the policy directions, actions and solutions that my government will bring to bear on these summarized challenges and numerous other problems that confront Ebonyi State today.

Solving the security challenges we face here at home, with a committed and advanced partnership with our existing conventional security apparatus in the State, will be our absolute priority. The less I say now the better because we already have a comprehensively articulated blueprint of action in this regard.

To the leaders and followers of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), our strongly held view is that we will not shun them or cast them out into the wilderness. Any Igbo man or woman who pretends that the grievances of IPOB adherents are irrelevant or that Ebonyi is an isolated island unconcerned about those central issues is what Igbo people call efulefu or ohu. An avenue of dialogue must not just be created but remain open, genuine and altruistic until the case is solved and closed.

The express route to dealing with poverty and unemployment is heart and soul commitment to a small-scale and medium-scale mass industrialisation, ranging from scaled agricultural value-chain, complex manufacturing, converting raw natural resources to finished products (exploiting, for example, our abundance of sharp sand along the Afikpo-Ikwo-Izzi Cross River belt to set up glass manufacturing industries) to the revival of our existing but abandoned industries in the poultry, cement and pvc sectors.

Ebonyi State civil service has been on a lockdown for the past seven years. Hardworking staff have been denied their due promotions and privileges that accrue to their services. Pensioners and retirees who poured their energy and sweat to the service of our dear State are owed their benefits, and made to undergo worst of huddles to access what is rightfully theirs. This is totally unacceptable. Under my stewardship as your governor, regular and full payment of pensions and gratuities; regular payment of predictable-figure salaries, leave allowances and other entitlements such as monetised regular promotions and training allowances will be restored to the civil servants without negotiations or intimidation.

The empty structures that harbour wild birds and reptiles that are spread across our local government areas in the name of rural general hospitals will be fully equipped and operational through a well-structured PPP programme.

Our women will be empowered. They will cease to be mere spectators in the polity but, equal participants in the course of governance and in every decision making intended to move Ebonyi forward.

Water will run in Abakaliki within 3 months – for the first time since March 2015.

Ladies and gentlemen, copies of our manifesto will be handed out to all of you. The correlation between this brief statement and the contents of the manifesto is there for you to make your assessments and judge us both presently and in the future.

I alone cannot achieve this without the help and full participation of every Ebonyian. Hence, this is our collective chance to shun mediocrity and set our State on the path of development. We need each other to win this fight against backwardness, and the most important weapon we need is our permanent voters card. I call on all young people of Ebonyi State to rise and seize this moment.

The 2023 general election will be unique.
Stand up to be counted. Take advantage of the new electoral act recently passed into law and the historic Anambra election that produced Prof. C.C. Soludo as a motivation to alter the cause of history.

Register to vote! Your vote will be counted and will count in shaping the future we desire.

Now is that moment you’ve waited too long for!

Time is on the side of all oppressed today, it’s against the oppressor. The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but, the silence over that by the good people.

Finally, I hereby present myself for consideration by the great and wise people of Ebonyi State as a gubernatorial aspirant under the platform of APGA.

Thank you for your kind attention.