As the Governorship election approaches in Edo State, a gubernatorial aspirant in the state, Mr. Darlington John Iyoha, said he would unseat governor Godwin Obaseki in the much awaited poll.
Iyoha, who had unveiled his intention to contest on the platform of the People’s Party of Nigeria(PPN), said this in a statement made available to newsmen in Ado Ekiti on Friday.
According to him, his decision to oust Obaseki was borne out of the passion to usher in good governance that would bring democratic dividends to the suffering masses of Edo State.
Darlington John Iyoha, who hails from Uromi in the central part of Edo State, noted that good governance had eluded the state since the advent of democracy in 1999, bemoaning that, in spite of huge resources available, Edo state citizens had been made to suffer due to lack of commitment and innovations by the past and present chief executives.
While promising to change the face of governance in Edo State and rewrite the history by correcting the mistakes of the past, the gubernatorial aspirant said he had decided to plunge into the race to pioneer all-inclusive governance that would bring about beneficial government to the people.
Iyoha promised to bring radical change in the area of standard and affordable education from primary to university level, introduce commercial agriculture, building the tourism potential of the state, civil service restructuring and decentralise development to halt the rural—urban drift syndrome.
“Aside from the foregoing, youth unemployment will be one of our focal points. Available statistics indicated that Edo State has one of the highest indices of youth unemployment in the country. This is not a good story to narrate.
“In every advanced country , the security of lives and property remains the best impetus to investment drives. We are going to provide enabling environment for investors to partner the state to be able to tap into the state’s human and environmental resources .
“During the highly rewarding period of the old Western region,Edo was renowned as the hub of palm oil production in the country. We are going to return to that era by ensuring that we produce palm oil that can sustain our local economy and ignite foreign earnings for our state.
“Most disturbing was the rate at which many state’s investment were either moribund or allowed to decay. Under my watch , all the dead and ailing public industries will be revamped and this we will accomplish via pubic-private partnership that was in vogue all over the world.
“We are not also oblivious of the fact that infrastructural development is a catalyst to investment drive. All the intra and inter state roads will be given attention to attract people of means to our dear state.
“We know that education remains the best weapon to combat the monster called poverty and bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. We are going to reshape the sector in a manner that will ensure that there won’t be any impediment for the children of the poor to drop out of schools on account of paucity of funds.
“We are also determined to banish the culture of brigandage and desperation from our politics. In the last few days, we could all see the ding dongs resonating across the state as a result of struggle for power. We are going to redirect the psyches of our people to believe in civility while seeking power.
“All these and many are in the pipelines for our people, which we are going to sell in the course of our electioneering campaigns across the state”, he stated.
According to Iyoha, he is coming into the state with a lot of energy and innovations to change the landscape to an arena of opportunities, if given the opportunity to serve.
