18th February, 2011
Labour Party, LP, governorship candidate in Kogi State, Joseph Folorunsho Dada, has lamented the turn of events in the state, adding that it can be repositioned if the people vote for him in the forthcoming April elections.
According to him, “when Kogi State was created in August 1991, there were high hopes. The Okun Yoruba people, Ebira from Kwara State and the Igala/Bassa people from Benue State, thought that there would be a new lease of life for them.
“Despite the abundant human and local resources in Kogi State, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN rated Kogi State as the third poorest in Nigeria in January, 2007. not much as changed socio-economically since then, there is abject poverty and mass unemployment amongst the citizenry,†he lamented.
His agenda for the development of the state, according to him, is encapsulated in his 35-point development initiative which includes industrial and agricultural revolution, free education, free medical services, women empowerment and rural development.
He said aquatic farming will also be aggressively pursued so that within two years of his government, while 100,000 jobs will be created through the agricultural revolution.
Dada observed that Kogi state has consistently been identified as one of the states with the highest cases of examination malpractices, adding that the trend will be reversed with the introduction of free and compulsory education from primary to secondary school level.