Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, immediate past Minister of State for Budget and National Planning in the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, has indicated interest in contesting the governorship of Edo State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The governorship hopeful told the State Working Committee of the APC today, December 14, that if he is given the opportunity to be the candidate of the party and he eventually gets elected, he would adopt an agenda aimed at stopping rural-urban drift through sustained rural development.
Prince Agba, who was at the party secretariat in Benin City to intimate party officials of his intention to contest the election, said that he had already prepared a master plan with an acronym: “Transforming Our Rural and Urban Spaces Together (TRUST),” to actualise the mission of rural development.
Agba told the working committee which was led by secretary to the state chapter of the party, Lawrence Okah, that transforming rural areas will reduce drift to cities, which in turn would provide food security and reduce insecurities across the state.
He noted that the total neglect of rural areas put pressure on cities, opining that villages produced large percentage of food consumed in the cities, but that much of the produce was lost to bad road network and insecurity.
He said that he had diagnosed the state’s problems, and solutions prepared through TRUST.
“We are out to change the narrative of rural areas disappearing, especially in Edo South, everywhere is now cities.”
He said that as Minister of Budget and National Planning, who studied multidimensional poverty in the country, he realised that deprivation is a major form of poverty.
He said that every ward in the state ordinarily is supposed to house a primary healthcare centre with nurses and medical doctors’ quarters attached.
This, he said, he would work towards if elected governor.
Enumerating some of the projects he embarked on as Commissioner for Environment in the state, Agba said urban renewal was the focal point of the tenure of Governor Adams Oshiomhole administration.
He said that watersheds, which were 70% completed as of when he left office, had since been abandoned.
He said that they were built across the state to retain water whenever it rained.
He informed the party leaders that roads, including drainages, with street lights were also built.
According to him, a 5-star water fountain was built to cater to the masses, especially the poor who did not have access to such facility.
He lamented that all these legacies of his tenure were no longer there as the succeeding government had neglected all that.
He recalled that as Budget and National Planning minister, he was in charge of the nation’s budget and could not do much.
According to him, he partnered some international agencies to help finance projects in the state and that through this, he was able to attract about 250 projects across the state.
The projects include intensive Care Unit, Molecular Laboratories at the University of Benin Teaching and Communicable Disease Centre at Irrua Specialist Hospital, among other projects.
On the Abuja – Okene -Auchi Road, he said that there was budgetary allocation for the rehabilitation through his office.
He said he also attracted projects to Uromi and Ewatto in Esanland, among others.
On Ewotubu Upper Ekenwan Road, he said Governor Godwin Obaseki stopped the project when he made attempt to include it in the budget.
He said that the governor insisted he had already awarded the road to a contractor.
