Janet Samuel, Abuja
A Governorship aspirants for the Edo State gubernatorial election, Gen. Charles Airhiavbere has promised to pass a bill to approve state infrastructure development commission to handle projects in the state that would not be completed within the four year of a serving governor.
Arhiavbere made this promise when he submitted his nomination and expression of interest forms at the party secretariat, in Abuja.
He explained that, “the 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.”
He said, “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”.
He promised to deploy artificial intelligence and robots to drive home his intelligence gathering so as to tackle insecurity in the state.
“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”.
“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 are some of the things i intend to do in Edo state”.
Speaking on the economic prosperity of the state, the Arhiavbere said, “one of the things we have most and best in Edo state is capital, human capital. And how do we develop them into 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 have vocation it is not all the time you are done from school and get employed”.
“I just left NDDC as it’s Executive Director of Finance and Administration 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”.
