MY AGENDA FOR
SENATOR IKE
EKWEREMADU, PhD, CFR
An opportunity to use my experiences and
network to transform Enugu State.AP ia
TO A NEW
LNOGY
STATE
Enugu State gave me huge opportunities to
serve as pioneer Council Chairman of Aninri
Local Government Area, Chief of Staff to the
Governor, Secretary to the State Government,
five-term Senator, three-term Deputy President
of the Senate, Deputy Speaker and Speaker of
ECOWAS Parliament. | have served on a number
of important committees and in several global
positions.
In the course of this journey, | have met world
leaders, business leaders, and made friends in
both the private and public sectors of the
national and global economies. | have had the
opportunity to understand how states and
nations are transformed. A good example is a city
like Dubai, the UAE, which was a desert, but has
now become the world most digitalised city and
a global investment hub. | have an insight into
the economic transformation taking place in
Rwanda and Ghana.
As a Senator, | worked hard to put forward
necessary bills and motions on constitutional
amendments, security, education, economy,
health and electoral reform, that have impacted
01and are still impacting positively on the well-
being of our people. | have initiated and
completed many life-changing projects in our
communities, beyond my constituency, in the
very important areas of water, road, educational
infrastructure, health, power, and many more,
| always wish | could do more. | have the will, but
the means are limited. | am limited to what |
could mobilise as a legislator in developmental
projects and programmes. At this point,
therefore, | believe it is time to focus on Enugu
State and Enugu people without whom | would
not be who and what | am today. The
governorship of Enugu State will offer me a good
platform to serve our dear state more and better.
If elected Governor, | will utilise all the
experience, friendship, partnership, and global
contact acquired over the years to transform
Enugu State to a model state. | will implement
this vision through the following agenda:GOOD
GOVERNANCE
Restoration of the people's faith in the
government will be achieved through open
door government, delivering on our
manifesto and promises to the people.
We will transform our civil service, judiciary,
and parliament, making them technology-
driven.
We will improve welfare, efficiency, and
respectability of our public service.
We will fight corruption in a creative and
effective manner. We will enthrone justice,
equity and liberty to all citizens and
residents of Enugu State.
Government services will be available 24/7
through a well-designed e-government.
Our revenue collection will be fair, reliable
and devoid of leaks and waste.
03Our revenues will be spent in the best
interest of the people. We will consult
periodically with our stakeholders —
religious leaders, political leaders, and the
business community, etc.
We will end practices that require citizens
to induce anyone before receiving
government services, employment,
benefits or opportunities.
We look forward to running a government
that sees all citizens as equals before the
Law.
We will restore the hope of the people in
the judiciary as the last hope of the
common man and create an atmosphere of
respectability for judicial officers.
We will reposition the Enugu State Judiciary
in terms of human capital, infrastructure,
and welfare. Pensions and other benefits of
judicial officers in Enugu State will be
prioritised. We will initiate post-service
housing for not only Enugu State judicial
officers, but also federal judicial officers of
Enugu State origin. We will provide an
estate specifically for them; and this will
essentially keep them away from political
influence and encourage networking
among their colleagues. We will emphasise
training and retraining to sustain quality
performance.
We pledge not to interfere with local
government funds.
04We appreciate the hardship that our people have
had to live with over the years due to perennial
problem of water scarcity in Enugu. But we are
poised to restore pipe borne water to ensure that
this becomes a thing of the past. We will build
dams and rehabilitate existing water sources,
pipelines.
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We consider every good road as an economic
corridor and a pathway to new opportunities.
Consequently, | devoted ample part of my years
in the Senate to attracting new roads and
rehabilitating existing ones across the three
senatorial zones of the Enugu State and beyond.
We will transform every road leading in and out
of Enugu State into a well lit multiple carriage
road and super highways. We will embark on
massive rural roads construction and
reconstruction of urban roads. The Enugu State
Ministry of Works and its Departments and
Agencies will be repositioned and empowered
with the resources to ensure their effectiveness.
We understand the challenge posed by resource
scarcity, but we have the social capital to attract
local and foreign funding as well as the integrity
to keep our words.
06There are already many educational institutions
in Enugu State. Our focus will be on improving
the quality of infrastructure and human capital to
deliver on a modern education. Our target at the
primary and secondary school levels will be to
merge schools and make them more sustainable,
retrain teachers and rebuild schools to standards
that we can be proud of. We will train and retrain
our teachers and improve their welfare to attract
the best brains to the Enugu State educational
system.
Our Higher institutions will be repositioned to
produce better and more employable graduates
that meet the 21st Century needs of our society.
We will welcome private sector investment in our
higher institutions to improve and maintain
satisfactory standard, produce quality graduates,
and maintain a well-trained and well-paid
lecturers. The Institute of Management and
Technology (IMT), Enugu will be upgraded to a
degree-awarding institution that will deliver an
Ivy League university education.
Our scholarship system will be reformed to
become a merit-based scholarship system and
ensuring that no child is denied access to quality
education on financial grounds.
We are also aware that public and private sectors
of today require relevant ICT and digital
technology knowledge for efficiency. We will
create a well-resourced Knowledge City where
we will prepare our future leaders, train and
retrain civil servants and policymakers. Our
Knowledge City will also double as research
ground for administrative, management,
economic and scientific policies and
programmes.
07¢
We will run an inclusive youth and gender-
friendly government that will mainstream and
empower our young men and women
economically and politically.
We believe that we need to encourage the youth
and women in governance. Our Executive,
Legislative, and Judicial arms of government will,
as a matter of deliberate policy, be sufficiently
populated with young men and women with
knowledge and focus. Their future is now.
STA eee tr 08By our Constitution, the primary purpose of
government is the security and welfare of the
people. Thus, security and public safety will be a
top priority of our government. We shall create a
state-funded and controlled security system that
will compliment the federal security agencies.
Security and Public Safety coordination Centre
will be created to manage all issues of security
and public safety in Enugu State. They will also
serve as interface with the Federal security
agencies. Our community security outfits will be
strengthened, retrained and refocused to
address emerging challenges. As the gateway
state between the South East and the Northern
Nigeria, we will implement an innovative boarder
security plan. Every individual and businesses in
Enugu State will be properly documented in
Enugu State Identification Database, ESID, to
enable us to fight crime, and protect lives and
properties with technology. Our plan is to make
Enugu the safest state in Nigeria, one that will be
attractive to investors and visitors.
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Our dream healthcare system is a holistic,
interconnected, world-class system. The Primary,
Secondary and Tertiary health system will be
seamlessly connected and equipped for
optimum delivery of quality and affordable
healthcare services. Every local government and
every community will have an efficient
healthcare facility. We will partner with the
private sector to create world-class, yet
affordable, medical and diagnostic centres. Our
Healthcare City will attract the best and top-line
medical experts from around the world. The
government and her partners will invest in the
healthcare infrastructure such as buildings,
equipment, roads, water, ICT infrastructure,
ambulances and basic management staff and
invite the private sector healthcare professionals
to lease spaces and run their practices in line with
approved guidelines. We hope to see medical
tourism inflow into Enugu State.We will have-adeliberate policy to
constructively engage the Federal
Government and its agencies for
opportunities for our people. We
will create a Unit in the Governor's
Office for this purpose. We will seek
out opportunities within and
outside Nigeria and push our
people into them as our
ambassadors. We will engage other
state governments in the country to
accommodate Enugu State
indigenes in their various states in
their government and in the
economy of their respective states.
We will, through this policy,
increase the number of Enugu State
people as Chief Executive Officers
of Federal Government parastatals
and enthrone more of our people in
the headship of various security
agencies, etc.
OSTA Tet iThe unemployment rate in Nigeria is most
depressing and is largely accountable for the
insecurity and restiveness in the region.
Therefore, if elected, job creation will be at the
heart of our government. We shall achieve this
through Tourism, Sports, Agricultural revolution,
ICT, and Industrialisation.
We shall harness and expand the tourism
potentials of Enugu State. The hospitality
industry will be enhanced to cater to the
expected influx of tourists. We will set up a Film
City to harness the potentials of our people in the
film, music, and related talents enterprises. We
will institute festivals and trade fairs that will
bring the world to Enugu as well as construct
state-of-the-art convention centres and sports
stadia in different parts of the state that will make
Enugu a preferred destination for group and
international events. We will invest in sports and
sports development to enhance sports careers of
our people.
We will reform the entire agricultural sector in
line with global best practices. Areas of our
comparative advantage in agriculture will receive
the attention, incentives, and investment they
deserve. We shall create Agric-Cities dedicated
to modern, integrated agricultural practices,
side-by-side with value chains, industrial cities
12and hubs that will utilise the produce from the
Agric-Cities.
The government strategy will be to create an
enabling environment and pursue policies that
will attract both local and foreign investors to
establish manufacturing plants in Enugu State.
We will seek beneficial public private
partnerships in areas that will result in significant
job creation and ripple positive economic effects
in the interest of our people.
We will embark on massive industrialisation,
setting up at least two industries per LGA within
four years of our administration.
We will create economic hubs such as ICT City,
Film/Media City, Auto City, Knowledge City, and
Health City, Sports City, and Agricultural Cities.
Our ICT hub will run modern Call Centres,
develop various applications, and generally
incubate our state as a centre of excellence in
science and technology.
. Our Film/Media City will be a centre of film
and music production.
. Our Knowledge City will be a training and
research centre for contemporary
governance.
. Our Auto City will produce quality vehicles.
Our people will be encouraged to use such
vehicles as private, commercial, and official
vehicles.
. Our Health City will be a one-stop shop for
acomprehensive healthcare.
. Our Sports City will cater for sports
activities and enhance the growth of sports
as a career in our state.
* Our Agric Cities will be dedicated to
modern and integrated agricultural
practices with recreational and health
facilities to make them attractive to our
farmers, especially the young ones.
13We understand the place of power in the socio-
economic transformation of Enugu State.
Therefore, we will work to ensure statewide
electricity coverage. We will extend electricity
supply to every possible home and restore
vandalised lines. We will embark on large-scale
renewable energy and provide mini grids for our
remote communities and secure our electricity
lines and infrastructure going forward
STOR ae aaa ivWe will embark on urban renewal and affordable
housing for all. We will upgrade our rural
communities to reverse the rural-urban
migration that congest the cities.
15“If I am asked to summarise my type of politics,
I would say that I play polities of development
because that is the whole essence of being
in politics
- Senator Ike EXweremadu (2016)