Edo PRP: Candidate Promises To Prioritise Human Capital Development

RThe People’s Redemption Party, PRP candidate for the Sept. 21 Edo governorship election, has promised to place priority on human capital development.

Madam Patience Key said this when she spoke with Newsmen on Sunday in Abuja.

Key, also the President, Nigerians in Diaspora Chamber of Commerce, said that both Christianity and Islam placed high premium on human development.

“The thing I want to do is to develop human capital because that’s the greatest asset we have.

“If we are able to build our present and our future generation, that will speak for growth and development and for sustainability for the nation.

“Why do we talk of infrastructural development, building roads, giving accessible and affordable healthcare? Why do we talk about education, literacy?

“Why do we talk about giving employment? Why do we talk about all those things? Because we want human beings to enjoy them, right? So, everything I’m doing is centred on human being,’’ she said.

Develop the state

Key, a former PRP presidential aspirant, pledged to introduce a model governance where the public and private sectors would work together to develop the state.

She also promised to embark of infrastructure development, by reconstructing both state and federal roads, which had turned into dangeons and dead traps.

The former chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisations in the U.S, faulted claims by past leaders of the state claiming to have developed it.

“As an indigene, who grew up in the state, completed my primary and secondary schools in Benin City, went to Ambros Ali University, before travelling abroad, I know much about the state.

“There is nothing like development in Edo. The people are suffering. You see rickety cars. You see taxis ready to collapse.

But the good thing is that the people are tenacious. They’re resilient. They want to work. They want to do stuff. But they don’t have that enabling environment.

“So I’m implementing a model government where the public sector will work very closely with the private sector so that we will be able to move our state forward,”she said.

Compassion and understanding

Key promised to lead the state with empathy, compassion and understanding of the law of leadership, if given the mandate in the Sept.21 poll.

“This is what I’ve done all my life, managing people and managing resources, and by God’s grace, I’ve stood out,’’ she said.

Key also pledged to empower young person with skills to drive development.
“Skills drive development and breeds wealth.’’

She promised to tackle the security challenge in the state, by addressing unemployment, poverty, hunger, neglect of the people and marginalisation among others.
“We need the people to eat. We need to bring together modern day agricultural processes, mechanized farming, and hydroponics, so that we can be able to feed ourselves before we export.

“I believe I have to feed my people before I export food outside the country,’’ she said.

Key also pledged to would create an enabling environment through policies that would enable the private sector, especially businesses -big or small, to thrive and create employments.

“The government don’t employ people. All we do is create an enabling environment for jobs to be created.

“We want the Edo indigenous in the diaspora, who have businesses in Kano, in Lagos, let them come also to establish businesses back in Edo so that people can be impacted.

“I want a situation where I will see a close gap between the rural and the urban areas.

Because when people tell you about development, you see them tie some tiny roads in Benin City, but in Igwebe, Ovia, Uromi, Irua, Ewoimi, they are all dungeons. We need health care facilities in those places,” she said.
Key added:“We need the lives of our people to thrive. So insecurity has a cause. So when we create that enabling environment, we feed our people. We make sure no one is hungry.”

She said in her administration, after two years and people remain poor, it is by choice, because Edo has the talent and Edo has the resources to be able to make it a great state.

NAN/Victoria Ibanga