Florence Uwaeme
Tonto Dikeh, the Deputy governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC in Rivers State, has said the state has the capacity to be the California of Africa with its vast resources.
She urged the electorates in the state not to make previous mistakes in electing blind leaders, urging them to vote overwhelmingly for her party on March 11.
She said: “As we advance towards the election season Across all States in Nigeria, I want to urge every Nigerian, especially my good people of Rivers State, not to make the mistake they made before by electing blind leaders into sensitive political offices, including governors.
“I say this because most of the leaders we have had before don’t understand that the fundamental responsibility of a governor, the Chief Executive Officer of the State, is to see first before managing the resources around him to achieve a set goal. But unfortunately, most of these state managers are either blind or have blurry vision. That is why a state like Rivers State, with the capacity and resources to be the California of Africa, still lags as the third largest economy in Nigeria.
“And we celebrate this mediocrity without shame when we could triple our state economy if only we had leaders who could see the riches and wealth lying latent in the different sectors and untapped industries apart from crude oil.
“If the state had good managers as leaders that can see, they would prioritize rightly, I mean, they would understand that human capacity building precedes some unnecessary infrastructures like the abandoned monorail projects and the fancy flyovers because the people who are expected to drive their cars through these pathways are still struggling to find their daily bread. People whose state revenue doesn’t reflect in their lives and bank accounts, that’s pathetic.
“You cannot talk about development in most advanced nations like America’s without mentioning the trillions of dollars the Information Technology & the entertainment industry contributes to the American economy. And millions of jobs are created through private establishments, like Facebook, Google, Mercedes, apple, and more, to reduce the stress of their government. But unfortunately, we still struggle with this because we don’t have State managers who do understand how to manage our human resources.”
