By Beverly Ehia, Abakaliki
The flag bearer of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for the 2023 governorship election in Ebonyi State, Professor Benard Odoh, weekend pledged to support intelligent youths in the state.
This was even as he promised to activate sporting activities in the state by creating opportunities for the best footballers to practice outside the country.
Odoh disclosed this while responding to questions from young Ebonyians at a National Civic & Political Summit themed: “Civil Intelligence and Political Re-engineering for Nation Building”, held at Women Development Center, Abakaliki.
He said he would run a transparent administration that would show and live with empathy, in handling the affairs of the people.
The former Secretary to Ebonyi State government said his administration would prioritize excellence by creating a system that would hunt for those who are best in what they do.
He said, “We have people who have talents in all kinds of things. If we don’t incubate these talents, they decay and die off.
“This is an opportunity for us to know what we need to know as a people. As a young person in this state, if you make a first-class today, nobody is interested.
“There is nobody on scholarship in this state. If you are the best in football, nobody cares. I addressed young people at the stadium the other day, and I said, under us as a government, annually, we must see to the exit of 20 players who will go to Europe for trial and if they succeed, they hire them.
“The cost of doing that is minimal. What Ronaldo earns in a season is more than the State’s budget for eight years.
“We have people who have talent in music. We have people who have talents in all kinds of things. If we don’t incubate these talents, they decay and die off.
“So, under us, we will show and live with empathy. We will be transparent to our people. We will take our people to where other states will respect us.
“Currently, we are looked down upon everywhere, as poor people and people who don’t know anything.”
On why Ebonyi State is riddled with communal crises, Odoh told the participants at the summit that undue political interferences were to be blamed for the menace, just as he also linked it to the high rate of poverty in the state.
He said, “I speak with facts and they are verifiable. Anywhere you see a crisis going -on, that crisis is instigated. A hungry man is an angry man and there is extreme poverty in this state. This narrative has to change.”
While pledging to ensure respect for citizens’ rights, Odoh said, “I will run a state where every citizen will have freedom. As your Governor.
“I won’t have any business in putting the chairman of a town union in your village or chairman of a rice mill or Abakpa market; I have no business with that.
“I have to pursue policies that will bring resources here. That’s the job of a governor. So, I’m prepared for this assignment and I know the issues.
“And we have painstakingly recruited the best brain for this assignment. My running mate, Dr. Nkata Chuku, is one of the best Medical economists in this country today.
“He is from Okposi. Working with him, we will attract global funding available for health exploration, for education, for food security, and sustain a growth plan that will see Ebonyi out of poverty in the next 6 years,” he added.
Odoh who told the participants at the leadership summit that there was a need to take urgent action to liberate Ebonyi as a people, said: “If you go to Enugu now, if you count 20 hawkers at Ogbete main market, about 10 are from Ebonyi State; go to Abia, Aba, Onitsha, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Lagos, it’s the same trend.
“There is something we can do. So, we are in a situation that requires urgent action and the only thing that is required is action.
“The action we need to take is to get our PVCs to ensure you participate in the next election. Some said votes do not count, but it counts, because if it doesn’t count, why are they buying the votes?”