The great people of Kogi, I am grateful. I am grateful to you all. I have recently concluded a state-wide tour of Kogi. I have travelled round our beautiful state, visiting almost every Local Government and as many communities as possible. I have met with many of you; our citizens, our traditional rulers and those with the best interest of Kogi at heart, and I am thankful to you all.I am thankful for your patronage. I thank you for your support. I thank you for your goodwill. I thank you for the well wishes we received throughout Kogi.
Truly speaking, the reception you gave us was overwhelming. From the depths of my heart I am humbled. It was overwhelming to see the people, our people,wholeheartedly take to our message and embrace the vision we have for Kogi.It was comforting to see that this journey I have embarked on is not in vain. This fight I am fighting for the sake of Kogi is not my fight alone, for I have you by my side. By the grace of God Almighty we shall reclaim our state. We shall take back Kogi.
We came to you not just to offer Kogi a new deal, a deviation from the economic/socio-political challenges we face today, but to listen to you the people. We came to you to hear you out. To listen to the challenges specific to all our different environments, and we have heard what you have to say. We have listened to your demands and assure you they shall not fall on deaf ears. We are properly driven, inspired and competent enough to meet your needs and surpass your expectations.
Our problems are not novel. The challenges we face are nothing new to our landscape, but they have been intensified by the leadership vacuum we are suffocating from. The overarching problem of Kogi, today, is lack of good governance. Whether this has come about due to the current administrations ineptitude to lead or by their sheer negligence in the execution of their duties is beside the point, for the gist of the matter is they have failed us.Thus, we must not fail ourselves at the polls.
We have identified key areas significantly lacking in adequate Government policy, and which should be the crux of any serious administration. Economic Development, Educational Reform, Fiscal Responsibility, Security, Health Care and Government Transparency & Accountability. Under these areas we have met with key stakeholders and brainstormed with the best of the best to tailor our vision to Kogi’s specifications.We have come up with policy that shall alleviate our suffering in the short term while simultaneously addressing the root of these problems in the long run. We have come up with an ambitiously robust framework to meet Kogi’s needs, laying down a blueprint mapping out the next 20 years of prosperity for us.
One of our major goals is to usher in an infrastructural revolution in Kogi, positioning us as the industrial hub of the nation. An unprecedented capital-intensive overhaul to bridge the gaps in our transportation networks, healthcare and educational systems. As things stand the divide between where we are and where we want to be is enormous, and only a significant boost in infrastructure can change this. Projects like the Ajaokuta Steel Mill must be made priorities. From its inception in 1979, Ajaokuta has been aptly tagged as the bedrock of Nigeria’s industrialisation. It has been touted to directly employ 10,000 people once commissioned, and another 500,000 nationwide indirectly. Our vision is, through the guise of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Kogi and the Federal Government, to set up a Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) to go into the business of a partnership with the behemoths of the mining and steel industry, especially in areas where they have a comparative advantage, to fund the completion of the plant which more than 90% has already been built.
Outside the above, we must look to the private sector to be a driving factor in our revolution, for it is not feasible without them. Our role would be to create a conducive environment for the private sector to thrive. Through state-wide tax incentives and the creation of an Export processing zones (EPZ), for factories, our Kogi would look to attract both Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI).
The EPZ is particularly exciting to me because it is a major indicator of our unwavering desire to build our great state into the industrial hub of not just Nigeria, but Sub-Saharan Africa. We shall create the Kogi State Industrial Zone, an EPZ, that will concentrate major industries in one area in order for them to mutually benefit from the world class infrastructure we shall situate there, creating a spirit of cooperation and synergy amongst various sectors to boost both productivity and profitability. Which shall in turn lead to higher IGR for Kogi and boost the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of our nation. It will be an industrial version of our very own Silicon Valley, making Kogi the Industrial hub of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Another pertinent area of focus is remedying fiscal irresponsibility in Kogi, and blocking the leakages. Resources are limited, state governments must utilise Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) and Federation account allocation committee (FAAC) allocation sagaciously. It is my aim to curb the excessive spending of Government and utilise the money saved to carry out real projects. In the year 2018, alone, this current administration budgeted N8.14 billion for Government House expenses. This is more money spent on the Government House than on our Ministry of Education, Science & Technology, Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Culture & Tourism combined. This sort of wasteful spending and misplaced priorities are reasons why the current administration is both unpopular and under-performing. Their blatant failure to channel our finite resources into much needed areas is costing us our future.
We have a government that, in 2017, spent almost N300m on the cleaning and fumigation of the Kogi State Government house. That is N300,000,000.00 in a single year just to clean and fumigate, while simultaneously owing our hardworking civil servants several months’ worth of salaries. Impropriety of this nature is truly embarrassing and must come to an end.
Thus, I urge you, my people, to continue to indulge us with your unwavering support. For our dream for Kogi, our dream for a better Kogi, cannot survive without you. Without your backing, without your patronage and without your assistance this dream of ours cannot subsist.So, help us keep it alive. A dream of prosperity, a dream for the economic emancipation of the people of Kogi. Our liberation from the shackles of the political elite. Our freedom from vested interests and the servitude of economic slavery and impropriety. We must be matured enough to dispose with sentiment and access things with utmost sincerity. I task you to think profoundly about the future you want for Kogi, your own future and that of your children. I task you to question the trajectory in which our state is currently going and whether it is in line with what you envision. We simply cannot carry on this way.
In light of the above, I am delighted to announce my purchase of the Gubernatorial nomination form for the great state of Kogi under the flag of the PDP, an institution I greatly revere and have faith would give us the necessary platform to rebuild Kogi. The current Government has failed us, come November we mustn’t fail ourselves.
We can, we will.
– Aminu Abubakar Suleiman (AAS)
Governorship Aspirant, PDP.
