An aspirant of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State governorship race, Prof. Patrick Utomi, said his intent to run for office was to rescue the people living in the current state “worse than death”
Utomi, who was once a presidential aspirant in 2011 under the African Democratic Congress, is a renowned business and economy scholar. He is also the president of the popular Lagos Business School.
“If you have a conscience and you watch a people live a fate worse than death, then your spirit must verge on being broken. However, I stand today to say that all hope is not lost,” Utomi said in his declaration speech after submitting election forms at APC’s secretariat in Abuja.
“Being a witness to crushing poverty lived by people across a small pond from oil production platforms, and being a witness and also a recipient of complaints from various quarters that family members continue to die untimely due to accidents triggered by the hardly motorable state of Delta roads leaves me with a feeling of despondency.”
He said the feedback he received encouraged him to embark on “journey to rescue Delta State from state capture that has impoverished the majority of our people and made the state a huge joke”.
Utomi, while lamenting the level of developments in the state despite being an oil-rich area, said his government will focus on growing the state economy, infrastructure. Education, health care, youth and women empowerment if elected governor.
“Delta State receives very huge allocations from the federation account, yet extreme poverty exists in the State. Little of these fiscal transfers from the federation account that enter the state circulate in the state,”
“In Delta State, my conscience kills me some more with the death from avoidable causes of every man, woman or child, due partly to poor healthcare in the State,”
He assured people of promoting and instituting good governance, fighting against corruption and run an inclusive government.
“Studies show that the monies enter state coffers and bolt out. If the velocity of the money is such that it touches a few more people even briefly, prosperity will visit many presently poor and it will consolidate with the thriving few,”
“Our youths are not the leaders of tomorrow, but of today, and they are our future. They will be appointed to play key roles in our administration.
He noted that his motivation to join this race to rescue Delta State “from the rot” was not for personal interest but for the masses.
The renowned scholar, who urged the APC to create a level playing ground for all aspirants, called for debates on television programmes, town hall meetings in the three senatorial districts, campuses and markets among aspirants to state their vision and policies to improve the state.
