… banish percentage salary payment and build a virile and united state
…revamp education
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the November governorship election in Kogi State, Dino Melaye, has promised to turn around the current economic misfortune of the around by appropriately harnessing the agriculture and solid mineral potentials of the state.
The senator also emphasized the tourism potential of the state which he said in addition to other economic activities in the state could bring the internally generated revenue (IGR) of the state to about N100 billion from the current N18 billion annually.
He also promised to cancel the percentage salary scheme of the current administration that has impoverished the workers of the state.
Senator Dino Melaye said he would also make efforts to reconcile the people of the state, stating that the state has never witnessed the current division along ethnic lines before.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate who spoke on Channels Television’s program Politics Today said one of his plans is to recruit graduates to boost the state’s agricultural sector.
“We are going to work on agriculture. We are going to work on mechanised agriculture. We are going to go into plantation agriculture. We are going to have farmhouses. We are going to recruit our graduates into agriculture,” he said.
While lamenting the state of education in the Confluence State, Melaye promised to revamp the sector if he wins the November 11 election.
“After working on our economy, we are going to work on our education. As I speak with you today, apart from Ekiti State, we have the highest number of professors in this country yet our universities are like glorified secondary schools. Today, there is no functional primary school in Kogi State – no teachers,” Melaye maintained.
“Education is the bane of our development as a people. We are going to work on it. We are going to introduce ICT. We are going to work on the curriculum from primary school to our universities.”
‘First Responsibility’
He also pledged to unite the people.
“My first responsibility would be to unite our people and that is why the slogan of my campaign is: One Kogi, One Destiny,” the former lawmaker added.
The PDP candidate also accused Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State of running a proxy third term via the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Ahmed Ododo.
“Don’t be deceived that Yahaya Bello is not on the ballot. Ododo is physically on the ballot but Yahaya Bello is the one seeking a third term through a proxy [Ododo].
“I will not want this debate to be about Yahaya Bello, rather I would like to market my political party and market what we have for Kogi State,” he said.
The former lawmaker representing Kogi West in the Senate said he was confident of unseating the ruling APC because it had happened before in 2003 when the PDP unseated Abubakar Audu.
He added that even though Yahaya Bello was the governor in 2019, he still won his senatorial election under the PDP.
Melaye said the Kogi West and Central Leaders Forum accessed the three contestants from the zone after which he was endorsed as the choice of the zones.
While acknowledging that all the candidates from the Kogi West and Central are qualified to govern the state, Melaye insisted that he is the most qualified, saying that he is the most educated, most exposed, and most experienced of all the candidates.
“It’s not debatable. I was a member of the House of Reps and I was voted twice as senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Leke Abejide is a member of the House of Reps but I was in the House of Reps 17 years ago.
“And the governorship of Kogi State is not a learning ground. It’s a place you need people who definitely must have managed human and material resources over the years,” Melaye argued.
The PDP candidate said with the enormous resources in Kogi State, he will have no business running to Abuja for allocation which he claimed is what the current administration of Yahaya Bello is doing.