- Agba promised to tap into both the natural and human resources of Edo state for its growth
Former Minister of State, Budget and National Planning and contender for the All Progressives Congress ticket for Edo state governorship election, Clem Agba, submitted his form on Wednesday.
Agba told journalists that given what he called the decay in the South-South state, only an individual with a background in both public and private sectors could turn around the fortunes of the people.
He promised to tap into both the natural and human resources of Edo state for its growth.
He said: “Abraham Maslow talks about the hierarchy of needs. So a man cannot be talking about self-actualization or self-esteem when he has not put food in his stomach. He cannot talk about self-actualization or self-esteem when he has no shelter. For me, what I’m bringing to the table is what I call the Trust Initiative.
“Some people call it the Trust Agenda, but whatever you want to call it, we want to transform our rural-urban spaces together. That’s what Trust means to me. If you’re developing the urban areas, you should simultaneously be developing the rural areas. You should be providing access roads, especially around the agro corridors so that 60% of that goes to waste, which is a low-hanging fruit will be recovered not mechanization, I hear people talking about tractorization. You buy more tractors, you get more improved yields, you increase the acreage and the result will be that you are increasing the percentage of harvest losses.
“Until we deal with the issue of access to market for this produce which has to do with ensuring that there are roads, either for the farmer to get to the market or the market to come to the farmer and ensuring that there is power. I’m not talking about the national grid. I’m talking about captive power. So once you have captive power available, you’ll find that cottage industries begin to develop around these farm settlements. What will happen is people will set up storage facilities, and others will begin to set up processing facilities.
“The National Development Plan also talked about the micro. That’s micro small and medium enterprises currently in Nigeria they employ 70% of our people. But they are the most marginalized because there are so many binding constraints. The state government will tax, and the federal government would tax. We have a multiplicity of taxes.
“So what it ends up doing is killing the small-scale industries. It is also going to be a major area of target for us to deal with when I become the governor of Edo State. “
Asked about his position on minimum wage, the aspirant said he would not make any commitment until he gets to office.
“I have to see the books to make a commitment. I can not just say because I want to be a governor I stand here and tell you that the minimum wage is going to be a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand. For now, I can not have a recommendation. Until I see the books. “
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