Imo Governorship 2019: Nick Opara-Ndudu declares, assures ‘Imo will rise again’

ITREALMS:

The former bank boss, Chief Nick Opara-Ndudu, has declared his intention to run for the governorship of Imo State, assuring that ‘Imo will rise again’ reports ITRealms.

Opara-Ndudu in a epistle to Imolites made available to ITRealms, lamented the condition of things in Imo State, including decrepit infrastructure across the state and in particular, in the rural areas.

“We must rise to the challenge of ensuring that government is held accountable for providing quality, durable roads; good hospitals, conducive environment for learning in our schools, etc,” he said.

Also, he said, that the current razzmatazz of ‘urban renewal’ which has seen the Governor Rochas Okorocha's   administration expand a few roads within Owerri metropolis must yield to a more orderly, structured and professionally managed infrastructure provision framework for the people.

“With the scourge of unemployment taking its toll on our teeming population of young people, we must begin to address the challenge of providing jobs and sundry forms of productive engagements for our citizens as veritable instruments for preventing them from engaging in crimes and varied forms of negative behavior,” he said.

Maintaining that the agricultural sector in Imo State, must be revamped and repositioned to unleash its latent capacity and create, at least, 200,000 jobs in a space of three years.

“In the same vein, we must rise to the challenge of providing a conducive environment for the industrial sector to create at least 50,000 jobs over a period of five years,” he said.

The Imo economy and its people, he said, have a capacity to attain these goals and more, provided we have the right leadership.

Opara-Ndudu, who is a staunch Catholic, further decried that most of Imo pensioners have been continually denied their benefits and rights as senior citizens, “we must rise to the challenge of redeeming our collective humanity by ensuring that their entitlements are paid Otherwise, posterity and the judgment of history shall be unkind to us all.”

Opera-Ndudu, who is a 1983 Accounting graduate from University of Nigeria, Nsukka, expressed dismay over the Imo state’s debt profile, which according to him, stood at an all time high in excess of N100billion.

“We must now address the urgent need of diversifying of our state’s economy and revenue base to cope with the challenges created by this needless and avoidable debt overhang. Governing Imo State is not going to be a tea party and we must collectively seek a new development template driven by new approaches and alternative revenue sources. Continuing reliance on existing revenue streams would only spell doom for our future development efforts,” he said.

  

For him, Imolites are indeed facing trying times that must be collectively resolve to change the status quo among others.

“Addressing the above challenges require a new skills set and a shift in our leadership paradigm. Imo State is in dire need of a governor who has capacity to provide the consequential leadership to face these challenges and surmount them for our collective good. That governor must be mature, experienced, and knowledgeable as well as accomplished in his field and above all God fearing and truly compassionate in his dealings with people,” the chartered accountant cum aspirant said.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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