#EDO 2020: Making Edo Investors’ Attraction

0 106

I am compelled yet again to write this piece on our precarious economic situation which is evidently in the cold hands of malignant fate.

 

Investors have been increasingly worried and closely  watching our weak fiscal  position engendered by mediocrity and poor planning over the years.

 

Our team back in Europe made up of technocrats have also been worried about our state”s stagnant economy which has impacted abysmally  on the economic lives of our people.

 

The resultant effect of this has been unprecedented  increase in government borrowing, bout of political instability,  appalling credit growth which has  dampened  business sentiment and triggered a prolonged economic  slump. Our state debt overhang speaks volumes for this.

 

This ugly scenario  has killed the enthusiasm to invest in our state which gave it the infamous acronym CSS – ‘Civil Servant State’

 

Edo has the potentials to be another Turin, an industrial heartland in the eurozone  if proper and enabling economic policies are  formulated and implemented to attract local and foreign  investors.

 

As far back as my memory can take me on Edo economy which is pitiably in comatose many invigorating reforms were discussed extensively by our team of technocrats  at the historic 2018 Turin Declaration which bordered on monetary, fiscal and structural reform policies to achieve strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth.

 

We are not prophets of doom and should not be taken for one  but  genuine game changers  to lead our people towards economic prosperity in the coming years.

 

Our people have been brazenly  shortchaned and starved in the midst of plenty and this breaks our spirits which informed our interest and desire to throw our hats into the ring.

 

Part of our plans to resuscitate our ailing economy is to carry out massive fiscal reform to drive growth and reinstate  our state’s GDP  on a sustainable path.

 

My administration shall vigorously and resolutely  increase spending on education for a higher skilled workforce to increase productivity.

 

However, it needs no gainsaying that our state’s treasury has been serially raped over the years without contraceptive shealths and billions of Naira carted away.

 

Our state has times without number received financial aid from foreign governments which has not been put to proper or judicious use.

 

It is not only  heart-breaking but nerve-wrecking that such monies were diverted by our self-styled ‘perfect masters’ to give themselves a life of wealth and comfort in sprawling  financial empires and republics while the bulk of our people live in rodents-infested tents!

 

Against this background, our team of technocrats shall embark on structural reform policies.

 

No effort shall be spared to boost infrastructure, entrepreneurship, investment, job creation, innovation  geared towards productivity and potential  growth as part of our burning desire to give our people better lives.

 

These, I assure you, will be  painstakingly tailored, sequenced and prioritized.

 

We crave your active support to enable us implement to the last letter the resolutions of the historic 2018 Turin Declaration in Italy.

 

Iyoha John Darlington

Edo State Governorship Candidate  Designate

Peoples Party of Nigeria  (PPN)

Leave a Reply