Spread the love
Mallam Sanni Habib Ikunaiye hails from Bariki ward in Okene local government area of Kogi state. A well trained industrial chemist, entrepreneur and business developer with over 10years of uninterrupted service in the Nigerian pharmaceutical industry. Presently, he is the Senior Medical Rand Regulatory of Elbe Pharma Nigeria Limited, Lagos-Nigeria.
Ikunaiye is one of those eying the chairmanship of Okene Local Government Area. In this Interview with our correspondent, he spoke on how to handle insecurity in the area and his developmental plans for the council if elected.
Excerpts.
Insecurity is one of the major challenges facing your council area. If elected, how do you want to bring the situation under control?
One of the major things that cause insecurity is unemployment. There is a popular saying that an idle mind is the devils workshop. We thank God for the Governor of Kogi State for the giant step he has taken on security. I will complement the effort of His Excellency, Alh. Yahaya Bello by ensuring that I form a community of clans in Okene, including our brothers and sisters in other local governments resident in Okene, to checkmate crises as it arise at the earliest period, reporting to my office and security units for immediate resolutions. The security agencies are doing a lot currently, I will therefore provide the necessary support for them so that we can reduce crimes to the barest minimum. We will also set in motion actions that will lead to massive employment for our youths. That is, engaging them productively through various empowerment programmes.
One of the major issues that cause crises in Okene is the clannish consideration. I intend to give recognition to such and ensure that we tackle it by recognizing each clan and positively use it to our advantage.
I shall ensure that the downtrodden which are ordinarily recruited in thuggery are employed in productive programmes like sanitation officials, revenue collectors, etc.
All these has to do with resources. This brings us to the next question. What are you going to do to improve your revenue base?
On the revenue drive of Okene local government, I give God the glory for giving us a God-fearing person as the Governor. This is a Governor that releases Local Government share of the allocation to them 100%. If elected as the Chairman insha’allah, I shall utilize what comes from the Federation account to create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive as you can only effectively tax citizens based on facilities enjoyed from Government.
Areas that needs restructuring are; roads, garages, markets, abattoirs and other businesses that will be taxed effectively for facilities that myself and my team will provide.
What are you going to do different as council chairman?
If I am elected as the Chairman of the most populous, productive and leading local government in Kogi Central (God willing), my key areas of development are agriculture and education.
On Agriculture, I will actively encourage the full exploitation of all farm settlement agricultural potentials, working closely with the stakeholders. I will focus on programmes that will boost food production to meet the present need of planting melon, sesame seed, maize and cassava, our major farm product.
On education, I shall immediately take census of all the schools in my domain, categorize them into local, state and FG schools. We shall immediately fix those school belong to the Local Government by making it conducive for learning and not only bring others to the notice of other governments but pressure them to act.
Still on education, my government shall engage in due diligence of students to identify those students with financial challenges. I meant the indigent students and find a way of financing their education while equally making payments of our teachers and staff of educational sector a top priority.
We shall launch a programme code-named “Education for all” where we will bring issues affecting the educational system of my local government to indigenes that are blessed in various endeavor and stakeholders in education to assist.
I have presented myself to serve and has put forward my trust in you. I pledge to uphold our collective believe and will be subservient to what we share.
I call upon Our people to rally behind my vision of a United, non-clan incline, democratic and prosperous Okene Local Government.
Spread the love
