As the campaign train of the governorship candidate of the Peoples Progressive Alliance,PPA,  made a stop at Mopamuro Local Government Area, the governorship candidate of the party, Mr. Emmanueli Ozigi pledged to work with traditional rulers to ensure rapid grassroots development.

Ozigi disclosed this at the palace of the Elulu of Mopa and Chairman, Mopamuro Traditional Council, His Royal Highness, Oba Julius Joledo.

Speaking to Vanguard at the end of the tour, the PPA Chairman in Mopamuro LGA, Mr. Ade Akogun said the people of Mopamuro are prepared to ensure the emergence of Ozigi as the next governor of the state.

He said the PPA standard bearer is the most competent of all the candidates.

As the campaign train of the governorship candidate of the Peoples Progressive Congress hit Mopamuro Local Government Area, Wednesday, the governorship candidate of the party, Mr. Emmanuel Enesi Ozigi pledged to work with traditional rulers in the state to ensure rapid grassroots development.
Ozigi disclosed this at the palace of the Elulu of Mopa and Chairman, Mopamuro Traditional Council, HRH Oba Julius Joledo. Ozigi said the traditional rulers will be veritable partners in his desire to make life meaningful in the rural areas if given the mandate to govern the state.
Ozigi said: "Your Royal Highness, I thank you immensely for welcoming us to Mopamuro. My government will work with royal fathers to ensure peace and security in their domains, which is a basic precondition for development.
"Our dear state is in dire need of visionary leadership at this critical juncture. Poverty is ravaging rural dwellers as their roads are bad and they have to suffer to get water and healthcare. This is unacceptable in this century. As a patriot, we cannot watch our people continue to suffer amidst the many opportunities in the land.
"I am determined to get our agricultural policies on track. We need to help our rural farmers go into commercial farming. Mopamuro Local Government Area is blessed with arable land and we shall massively invest in that.
"I am not going to be a governor that will disregard the traditional institution. I will bank on your royal advice to move the ship of the state forward".
Ozigi was received at Amuro by hundreds of youths who pledged to support the governorship candidate of the PPA.
The property guru later paid courtesy visits to political leaders in the Local Government Area, wooing them to support his governorship aspiration.
Speaking to Vanguard at the end of the tour, the PPA chairman in Mopamuro LGA, Mr. Ade Akogun said the people of Mopamuro are prepared to ensure the emergence of Ozigi as the next governor of the state. He said the PPA flagbearer is the most competent of all the candidates to move Kogi State forward.

The Media Committee of Ozigi Campaign Organization has rubbished media reports that some governorship candidates have stepped down for the duo of Capt Idris Wada of the PDP and Prince Abubakar Audu of the APC, saying the reports were concocted to make the November 21 governorship election looks like a two-horse race.
According to a communique by the committee , next week's election is going to be a battle between the oppressed and the oppressor, the poor and the rich, insisting that neither Wada nor Audu was the Messiah of the Kogi people.
The organization said Enesi Ozigi is the best qualified among the contestants to take Kogi to the promise land.
"We urge members of the public to switch off from media hype that some candidates have stepped down for either Capt Idris Wada and Prince Abubakar Audu. The idea was to create an erroneous impression that the election is a two horse race.
"As far as we are concerned, Emmanuel Enesi Ozigi is the third force in the governorship election and the game changer. The supposedly big masquerades have missed their steps and should leave the stage for genuine leaders with positive intent to take over and shape the destiny of our dear state.
"We are sending our messages directly to the voters and both Wada and Audu will be shocked by our result on November 21.
"Ozigi is in this race to win. He believes he has the will and the requisite experience to lead Kogi to prosperity, empowerment and national respect. With his agenda for education, agricultural revolution, healthcare delivery, infrastructural development and empowerment, Ozigi has remained the toast of Kogi voters".
The Ozigi Campaign Organization urged the people of Kogi State to reject politicians who are out to procure their votes and "plunge the state to another hiatus for another four years".

Candidate of the Peoples Progressive Alliance, Emmanuel Enesi Ozigi has challenged other governorship candidates to a debate, noting that such is needed to enable the people know their plans.

A statement by his campaign organisation, said it is imperative to engage the leading candidates in the race on their manifesto and timeline for implementation.

The statement reads: “We are at a crossroads in the political history of our state. We are having a political and socio-economic situation where only the best should be saddled with the responsibility of paddling the ship of our state.

“Many of the candidates parading themselves as leaders today are bereft of the ideas to power the affairs of our state and create possibilities for our people. It is high time we created a platform to showcase the capacity of the candidates to proactively fit into modern challenges of governance.

“The beauty of democracy is the power of the voters. We can not lose track of this perspective as we prepare for the  November 21  poll.

“Having seen the performances of Captain Idris Wada in the last four years and the tenure of Prince Abubakar Audu, I want to introduce new dimensions into the governance of the state. They have failed and should leave the stage for new, big and workable ideas.

President Muhammadu Buhari had on Friday called for the removal of his pictures from all the campaign and promotional materials of the APC Kogi Governorship candidate, Prince Audu Abubakar.

It was not clear why the president gave such directive but it would not be unconnected to the recent meeting with the APC stakeholders where the president backed out of the National campaign committee of Prince Abubakar Audu based on the integrity of the candidate and his unconvinced answer to the allegation of 11 billion naira by the EFCC.

In a statement issued by the Presidential Spokesperson, Mr. Femi Adesina, he said “The attention of the president has been drawn to the pictures and news flying around that President Muhammadu Buhari has adopted the candidature of Prince Audu Abubakar. Let it be known that the President has not endorsed the candidature of both the APC Bayelsa and Kogi candidates; he is yet to do the official endorsement pending when all the conditions of His Excellency are met.

“His Excellency, Muhammadu Buhari has therefore ordered the removal of his pictures from the campaign materials of Prince Audu Abubakar and has directed the Director General Prince Audu Abubakar Campaign Organization to comply with this directive effective immediately,” the statement stated.

It would be recalled that Vice President Yemi Osibanjo was said to head the National Campaign Committee for the coming Kogi governorship election for APC but he opted out at the last minute of the inauguration of the committee in Abuja.

A source close to the presidency confirmed that the Vice President opted out on the directive of Mr. President.

“The Presidency wants to distance itself from the candidature of Prince Audu Abubakar for the mean time till they are fully convinced” said Alhaji Jibrin Mahmud, a source close to the presidency.

The APC Chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, therefore appointed Governor Abubakar Bello off Niger State as the chairman of the campaign committee to replace the Vice President.

Prince Audu Abubakar is a Kogi governorship candidate on the platform of APC and he was a former governor of Kogi state from 1999-2003.

He was indicted by the EFCC and has been arraigned for embezzlement of public funds in the tune of 11 billion Nigerian Naira. He has since given some answers and has denied the allegation by the EFCC.

https://www.informationng.com/2015/10/kogi-governorship-election-buhari-orders-audu-to-remove-his-photos-from-campaign-materials.html

Again, democracy in Nigeria is up for trial as we approach gubernatorial elections in both Kogi and Bayelsa states respectively. Nerves are flaring as intrigues and counter intrigues are being planned more in the negative direction by the so called “big political parties”.
Focusing on the Kogi State Governorship Election which comes earlier as it’s already slated for 21st of November, accusations are already being thrown around by the unpopular duo of Abubakar Audu the All Progressive Congress (APC) flag-bearer, a personality that’s unfortunately battling with past records of mismanagement of the state fund, this same state he robbed but now claiming to be coming to rescue. While the present incumbent governor Idris Wada, an accidental governor whose emergence was a historical misnomer; a phenomena that can only happen in a backward state having a governor that cannot pass sanity test, yet this duo are already at war with each other risking the already frail or labile security situation.
In a recent release by the media aide to Emperor Abubarka Audu, Tom Ohikere alleged that the incumbent governor, Idris Wada had planned to bomb the ex-governor’s house in Lokoja in order to execute him and his followers. Even though this assertion seems to the mundane mind a mere fallacy, one cannot under estimate the desperation of a governor whose scorecard reads negative in the sense that he is owing the people working in the essential services like school teachers several months of salaries, and when eventually some are being paid, a fraction of what is due is paid. Yet this same man has his first son celebrating a parting at Summerset hotel with his ex-governor, his rogue godfathers Ibro’s son having joined the billionaire thieves.
Also part of the accusation being thrown from Audu to Wada is that he is currently deploying so many strategies to manipulate the election. They plot to buy PVC, and armed thugs to disrupt the election. Indeed, this can easily be corroborated to be true because in recent time, Wada appointed world class thugs as local government administrators across board from one to three per LGA using state money to pay them millions and to sponsor their intended activities to conform the police having known that they have lost power at the centre and may not be able to maneuver the security operatives.
The accusations between the two are endless and we will make sure that their evil plans are exposed in this new changed Nigeria. Still another great revelation is that PDP or Wada’s agents have also recently uncover reliably the plan by the Chief rigger of election in Nigeria to deploy funds from Local Government Councils in Lagos State to the tune of N200million each as a support for APC’s choosing James Faleke, a member of the House of Representatives, representing Ikeja-Lagos Federal Constituency, as running mate to Prince Audu, even when the state APC has people who have toiled to build the party within the state and are qualified. Indeed, this two time chairman of Ojodu Council can out-rightly be said to have purchased this deputy governor seat in preparation by his Godfather who wants to control the Nigerian politics by proxy to have him succeeding Audu in 2019 if Audu himself succeeds now. God forbid!
Reluctantly, these Lagos councils were further tasked to fund the Kogi Election following the refusal by the tagged greedy APC governors who were the first point of call to raise funds for the campaign. The contribution is already ongoing and to be completed before October 31. These are the situations where greed has actually worked in favour of the people because deploying people’s resource from one point to another is criminal and anti-people.
This episode of searchlight on governorship elections in Nigeria is concluded by telling the electorates to be aware that money or thuggery politics is fading from Nigeria as demonstrated by PMB’s decimal financial status before being elected. No wonder “he is for everybody and nobody”.
In the coming elections, we are sure that there are credible alternative to the aforementioned monsters. PMB’s election was special as it was the personality that mattered, not the party. Therefore, loyalty should be to the individual with records of corruption free, integrity, compassion, mental youthfulness that will uplift the state. I am sure that if one looks critically, one can find one among the gullible contestants. History is also waiting to be made in Kogi like it was made in Nigeria where David defeated Goliath, time only time shall tell when the people will decide.

PPA promises revolution in education Meanwhile, the governorship candidate of Progressive
Peoples Alliance, PPA, Enesi Ozigi, has assured the people of Kogi West of his commitment to infrastructure development in the state. Ozigi gave the assurance while addressing a zonal rally in Kabba on Saturday, saying the time for real transformation was now. He said: “It is not going to come in 2019.

It will come now when men and women of goodwill decide to salvage our dear state from underdevelopment. “I thank all the women, youths and artisans who have taken possession of this campaign. “Our message to all Kogites is that we represent the hope of a better and brighter Kogi State. Education is key to development and that is why we are making it the driver of our development goal. “Teachers will be paid well under my administration and we will improve school infrastructures to create a conducive environment for learning. “Health and social security will also be a major concern for our government.
With the poverty level in the state today, there is no way our rural women and children can have access
to quality healthcare without government intervention. “I stand before you today to pledge that the satanic joint
account between the state and Local Government areas will be abolished by our government. A vote for PPA on November 21 is a vote for credible leadership and development.”

PPA promises revolution in education Meanwhile, the governorship candidate of Progressive
Peoples Alliance, PPA, Enesi Ozigi, has assured the people of
Kogi West of his commitment to infrastructure development in
the state. Ozigi gave the assurance while addressing a zonal rally in
Kabba on Saturday, saying the time for real transformation
was now. He said: “It is not going to come in 2019. It will come now
when men and women of goodwill decide to salvage our dear
state from underdevelopment. “I thank all the women, youths and artisans who have taken
possession of this campaign. “Our message to all Kogites is that we represent the hope of a
better and brighter Kogi State. Education is key to
development and that is why we are making it the driver of
our development goal. “Teachers will be paid well under my administration and we
will improve school infrastructures to create a conducive
environment for learning. “Health and social security will also be a major concern for
our government. With the poverty level in the state today,
there is no way our rural women and children can have access
to quality healthcare without government intervention. “I stand before you today to pledge that the satanic joint
account between the state and Local Government areas will
be abolished by our government. A vote for PPA on November
21 is a vote for credible leadership and development.”

GOVERNORSHIP Candidate of the Progressive Peoples
Alliance, Mr. Emmanuel Enesi Ozigi, has promised to ensure the defeat of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and All Progressives Congress, APC in the November 21 governorship election in Kogi State by leading his party to victory. Ozigi said PPA has built a team of volunteers who see the future of the state as being more important than party affiliations, saying November 21 will herald a new era in the political history of the state. He said: “Everyday, we are faced with new reasons to liberate
our state from bad governance.
Everywhere I have been, I see hundreds of young men and women who have volunteered to help build a new Kogi where the people will take the centre stage of development and where opportunities abound for
true transformation. Ozigi “The people of Kogi have accepted our determination to lead our state into prosperity through quality education, world class healthcare delivery, commercial agriculture, massive
industrialization, youth and women empowerment, tourism revolution and security. “Our message is simple: Both PDP and APC are putting forward people who had and still have been given the opportunity to fix this state. Yet, the current realities indicate their failure. It is high time we embraced tested and committed hands to move this state forward. “The massive support we have received from all over the state shows that ethnic politics has given way to the desire for credible leadership.
We have put time lines on our promises and we can be trusted to deliver”. The Financial Consultant said dwindling allocation from the Federation Account was no excuse for the abysmal performance of the PDP-led government. He said Kogi should have no business with federal allocation. “As an operator in the organized private sector, I am sufficiently enlightened about the opportunities that abound in Kogi State. Tourism and agriculture alone are capable of delivering over N200 billion annually to our treasury. With that, we can fund
our education, human-capital development and comfortably pay salaries. “With the abundant mineral resources in the state, a lot of investors could be brought into the state, thereby generating thousands of jobs for our unemployed youth. It is time we stopped paying lip service to youth empowerment if we are
serious about human development.”

GOVERNORSHIP Candidate of the Progressive Peoples
Alliance, Mr. Emmanuel Enesi Ozigi, has promised to ensure the defeat of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and All Progressives Congress, APC in the November 21 governorship election in Kogi State by leading his party to victory. Ozigi said PPA has built a team of volunteers who see the future of the state as being more important than party affiliations, saying November 21 will herald a new era in the political history of the state. He said: “Everyday, we are faced with new reasons to liberate
our state from bad governance.
Everywhere I have been, I see hundreds of young men and women who have volunteered to help build a new Kogi where the people will take the centre stage of development and where opportunities abound for
true transformation. Ozigi “The people of Kogi have accepted our determination to lead our state into prosperity through quality education, world class healthcare delivery, commercial agriculture, massive
industrialization, youth and women empowerment, tourism revolution and security. “Our message is simple: Both PDP and APC are putting forward people who had and still have been given the opportunity to fix this state. Yet, the current realities indicate their failure. It is high time we embraced tested and committed hands to move this state forward. “The massive support we have received from all over the state shows that ethnic politics has given way to the desire for credible leadership.
We have put time lines on our promises and we can be trusted to deliver”. The Financial Consultant said dwindling allocation from the Federation Account was no excuse for the abysmal performance of the PDP-led government. He said Kogi should have no business with federal allocation. “As an operator in the organized private sector, I am sufficiently enlightened about the opportunities that abound in Kogi State. Tourism and agriculture alone are capable of delivering over N200 billion annually to our treasury. With that, we can fund
our education, human-capital development and comfortably pay salaries. “With the abundant mineral resources in the state, a lot of investors could be brought into the state, thereby generating thousands of jobs for our unemployed youth. It is time we stopped paying lip service to youth empowerment if we are
serious about human development.”

Two groups from the Kogi Central Senatorial District have endorsed Enesi Ozigi of the Progressive People Alliance (PPA) and Dr. Phillip Salawu of the Labour Party (LP) as their governorship candidates ahead of the November 21 poll.

The groups, Citizen Change Entrepreneurs (CCE) and the Ebira Youth Congress (EYC), based their support on the need to actualise power shift in the state.

The CCE said its support for Ozigi followed the inability of the Central and West senatorial districts to come up with a consensus candidate in their quest for power shift.

The group, in a statement by Prince Abdulkareem Omolori Okene and Sani Abdul, president-general and secretary general, said: “It has become necessary to support an amiable, reliable, suitable, capable and dependable candidate in the person of Ozigi, who will actualise the dream of the founding fathers of the state through innovative programmes that will have impact on the lives of the people.

1. Audu and Wada are grossly corrupt and indolent
2. Audu and Wada are tribalistic despots, which are antithesis of development
3. Wada failed woefully to settle workers salaries for many months, which led to destruction of many families and their ties.
4. Audu is a fraud. He allegedly, which his party has now confessed as the truth, connived with his former Commissioner of Rural Development to defraud the state in the whooping sum of N11 billion.
5. The only secondary school in Wada's home town is seriously in bad shape and students read under the tree.
6. Audu and Wada spent 10 years as Governors but every public infrastructures in Kogi East, Kogi Central and Kogi West are seriously in shambles and a disgrace to a state that once served as capital of Nigeria.
7. Always Using Deceitful Utterances (AUDU) and Worsening All Developmental Apparatus (WADA).
8. Audu and Wada are the architects of divide and rule tactics that have brought about ill feelings among the three geo-political zones of the state.
9. Wada of PDP and Audu of APC are purely birds of a feather in both learning and character. This is why Kogi state is in miasma of hopelessness
10. Both Audu and Wada used hard earned resources of the state to advance selfish interests.
Character dies hard. Audu will remain Audu and Wada will also remain Wada any time and any day. If either of them is voted and returned, what the people are facing today will be a child's play because the persons that form the habit of casting stones never lack stone in their hands.
Vote out Audu and Wada. Go for change because your future is in your hands. Vote out corruption so that tomorrow shall be better for the state.

Enesi Ozigi is a financial consultant and real estate developer based in Abuja and the governorship candidate of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) in the November 5 governorship election in Kogi state. In this interview Ozigi who emerged as a consensus candidate after his two opponents withdrew from the contest spoke about his ambition and mission for Kogi state.

You were in PDP. Why did you move to another platform?

Moving away is not the issue. The issue is the platform on which it is convenient for you to run an election. I look at the election not on the basis of party, but on the candidacy of individual. That is what matters and not the platform. Actually I used to be a card carrying member of PDP in Kogi state specifically from Okene and because of the call for a change in the governance system of my state, it was highly impossible for me to get a ticket under the PDP and that informed my movement to PPA.

You will be contest with two heavyweights, Abubakar Audu of APC and Idris Wada of PDP who is the incumbent governor. Both of them are from Kogi east which has the numerical strength. In the light of the incumbency and  ethnicity factor, what are your chances?

As I said from the beginning, there is a yearning for change even in the eastern part of Kogi state. There is a desire for change in the governance and the way things are been done. The fact that both flag bearers are from that particular area doesn’t give the platform for a success. Like I said, it is the desire for the whole state not just because I am from central.  My ticket is not a singular desire but a collective desire.

By its location, Kogi State serves as a gateway to the many parts of the country. The present status of the state in terms of infrastructure isn’t encouraging. How do you hope to improve the condition of the town especially Lokoja, the state capital?

Like you rightly said, Kogi is a central point like a convergence point either to the south, east, to the north even to the western part. I am not here to condemn anybody but the issue is that it is obvious that there are governance issues in the state. There are lots of issues that happened. With my experience, there are things that I can bring to bear that will elevate the state. Firstly; the poverty level of the state. Secondly the decay in the infrastructure of Kogi. Thirdly, you look at the potentials of Kogi which hasn’t been tapped, not in terms of human resource I am talking in terms of natural resources, terms of tourism, in terms of education, all other sectors that we can galvanize to turn around the economy of the state. When you look at all these indices, you will ask have they been present in the state? Yes. They might be present but it is possible that they are not the priority of whoever is governing the state. So, that is why I said I

don’t criticise because I don’t know how they run their programmes but my own programme will be basically citizen-driven. At the same time, we want to open up the economy of the state to the wider world. Generally, I think Kogi needs urgent attention as we speak.

Have you considered the place of money in the project, knowing full well that politics apart from being a game of numbers, also involves money?

As you rightly said, this is a game that we are all going into and it is a collective issue. You see, we are going away from the politics of money gradually. I am not saying that you are not going to spend but it is not like before. It is now politics of ideology, your plan, what exactly are you bringing to the table, the credibility, the integrity at stake. These are what actually matter now and in my acceptance speech in Lokoja after winning the primaries, I told them that I will be held accountable for every penny of the state. The reason being that it is going to be a bottom-up approach we are going to use and if you are going to have that as part of your campaign plan; that the decision to govern the state must lie in the citizens, that means you are citizen friendly with your programme then the citizens that have been yearning for change from poverty, lack of opportunity, unemployment, lack of basic infrastructure and amenities that make life

meaningful, I think that people will have a rethink whether to risk their votes again. So, that is our strong point. If you notice, the west part of the state and centre have been yearning for a change and there have been alliances, independent assessment of who and who should come up and who should run first and even within the eastern part that has been ruling the state, they want a change because they have been asking themselves ‘we have been having our people rule for the last 16 years and we can’t see any meaningful change, let’s try other areas and see whether we will benefit from this’. The state is a bit sensitive in the sense that we are not looking at religion or where you come from but who will deliver exactly what will suit the citizen of the state and that is the strong point we have. We might not have the finances to confront all these issues at once but the issue is that people will not vote wrongly this time around again and we

are out of the era where people smuggle ballot boxes. Card readers are there for you to be able to evaluate. I am not saying it is full proof but to a large extent. You can see in the air if you travel to Lokoja from the feeling and yearning of the people; they need a change.

So, how do you intend to fund the campaign since you are downplaying the relevance of money and why the choose of PPA?

I am not downplaying the fact that you don’t need to spend money but it is not going to be as heavy as it used to be. The fact that it used to make people scared even good people who don’t have enough doesn’t mean one can’t try. It is not everybody that is a thief. Money is not going to decide who wins the election. It is your integrity and competence. One of the key things is that you might be very intelligent and very strong capacity to do something but because you already know that from the beginning if I don’t have so, so amount of money, they will not even listen to me which has been the mentality. But our key driving now is vote for what will develop you, what your children’s children will enjoy because if I have to give you money now, it is like paying for the future. I will have to get the money back which is an investment. So, we are not going into business with the mindset that we are going to recoup; no! We are going to serve. We are

going to organise a fund raising for sure. We will raise funds externally; friends, family relations, even the party people will be ready to fund because it is not something I alone can bear. I must tell you the truth, I don’t have the financial strength to come out and say that I am going to fund it 100 percent but what I am saying are the basic things you must do. People are keying into the project and I am sure it is a viable project that they are willing to participate. Secondly you talked about the platform; the platform like I rightly said the platform might look virgin but it is not the platform that is the issue now it is who is on the driver’s seat. Is it someone we can count on, someone we can rely on, someone that has the credibility, someone that will not fail us? That is one and I can assure you that that is the wave in the country now. Every one of us in the old party the PDP has now shifted from PDP when they lost to APC. But all of

us can’t be in the same party that is why it is democracy and that PPA is not PDP or APC doesn’t mean it is not a registered party in country. Are you saying that people that have the same intentions like me shouldn’t run because they have lost out? They should still come out. That should be the more reason why they should come out and get these other parties.

Why is Kogi underdeveloped?

Kogi state is underdeveloped today because we have had a very poor governance system in the state and it is not because funds are not available. Funds are given to Kogi state like other states that receive funds from the federal government. The problem is how do you apply these resources into use? And one of the key things is when you see breakdown in terms of development is as a result of corruption, misappropriation, mismanagement of funds. Not only public funds, even the IGR that is been generated in the state can be used to do something good. You have 4 years in the first, you have 4 years to run your government. It is not compulsory that you must drag everything at the same time because, firstly, you don’t have the resources to do that. Secondly, you don’t have the time so you prioritize. If you are concentrating on health, education and something like road, water, electricity, you prioritize it. People would say yes when this person was there,

A, B, C was done and this is now the road map and the next person will take it from where you stopped and move on but the norm has been because it is APC or PDP or it is because it is this person, I am not going to go that way; no! When something is developmental, it is a stage by stage process and that is how developed countries came to where they are now. They passed through processes. Mr. A will come and do the bit they can do then the next person will come and take it from where Mr. A left off and it is a continuous process. But ours has been the opposite. The moment you are on a different platform you terminate it and the fund that has been spent is now lost and that is greed or corruption i must let you know because it is procurement and in that angle again you start issuing contract, people will start getting money from there again and you too will abandon it then you move on again. That is where you see this underdevelopment. I can bet you that

if the funds had been channelled properly right from the beginning of the state when funds had been coming in and development is prioritized, you will see that probably if they have taken on health, you would have seen something tangible. Now you would have said ‘oh even the state is like this but their health system is perfect’, ‘the state is like this but all their road networks are fantastic. These are things that we should be talking about.

Most states in the country today cannot generate their own revenue, but wait for hand outs from the federations account. When you become the governor. How do you intend to address this and what are you giving to the people differently from other candidates.

Funding is a big challenge globally now and not peculiar to Kogi state alone. If you noticed the revenue in the country has been dwindling and this has affected our expenses. One critical thing we need to look at instead of depending on releases from federal allocation is the potentials we have internally. What are the potentials we have that we can tap into internally? To achieve that,we must do an assessment of the revenue windows that we have in the state. Even though I have started doing that, I cannot reveal them to you now because that is part of the strategies. We need to look at the revenue windows that is available that the state can take advantage of. There are leakages in the system and these leakages can be blocked to a reasonable level that the IGR can take care of a lot of things through out the period you will be in office. But because there are leakages in the system which is often times deliberate, people capitalize on it. When you block

it, you have sufficient revenue to run the state. Another thing that is causing that in the revenue agencies is that it is not well intensified. Somebody is collecting revenue in your behalf and you are paying him peanuts. He is not even sure of his or her tomorrow; he is paying heavy school fees and does not even have an idea of what the future of the children are, he cannot afford proper medical care and is thinking of how to build a house and yet he is collecting money for you. When we were growing up, our parents could see the future. But when the future looks bleak, there is tendencies for corruption, there is tendencies for people to do what they are doing. Even governors that won elections, often times, people go there because they want to grab money because they don’t have an idea of what the future has in stock for them. But if you do things properly and the system is right, you don’t need to do things that endangers the future. So, there are leakages in the system and it is those leakages that is making the system not to work well.

fromnigeria:

j you like play o

Hi Himkers,
Does this look like play?

Enesi Ozigi receiving blessings of The Ohinoyi of Ebiraland

I can't belive this, you mean we should elect them in and they come and steal our money again and pay us back?The funiest story of the century.

Enesi Ozigi is a financial consultant and real estate developer based in Abuja and the governorship candidate of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) in the November 5 governorship election in Kogi state. In this interview Ozigi who emerged as a consensus candidate after his two opponents withdrew from the contest spoke about his ambition and mission for Kogi state.

You were in PDP. Why did you move to another platform?

Moving away is not the issue. The issue is the platform on which it is convenient for you to run an election. I look at the election not on the basis of party, but on the candidacy of individual. That is what matters and not the platform. Actually I used to be a card carrying member of PDP in Kogi state specifically from Okene and because of the call for a change in the governance system of my state, it was highly impossible for me to get a ticket under the PDP and that informed my movement to PPA.

You will be contest with two heavyweights, Abubakar Audu of APC and Idris Wada of PDP who is the incumbent governor. Both of them are from Kogi east which has the numerical strength. In the light of the incumbency and  ethnicity factor, what are your chances?

As I said from the beginning, there is a yearning for change even in the eastern part of Kogi state. There is a desire for change in the governance and the way things are been done. The fact that both flag bearers are from that particular area doesn’t give the platform for a success. Like I said, it is the desire for the whole state not just because I am from central.  My ticket is not a singular desire but a collective desire.

By its location, Kogi State serves as a gateway to the many parts of the country. The present status of the state in terms of infrastructure isn’t encouraging. How do you hope to improve the condition of the town especially Lokoja, the state capital?

Like you rightly said, Kogi is a central point like a convergence point either to the south, east, to the north even to the western part. I am not here to condemn anybody but the issue is that it is obvious that there are governance issues in the state. There are lots of issues that happened. With my experience, there are things that I can bring to bear that will elevate the state. Firstly; the poverty level of the state. Secondly the decay in the infrastructure of Kogi. Thirdly, you look at the potentials of Kogi which hasn’t been tapped, not in terms of human resource I am talking in terms of natural resources, terms of tourism, in terms of education, all other sectors that we can galvanize to turn around the economy of the state. When you look at all these indices, you will ask have they been present in the state? Yes. They might be present but it is possible that they are not the priority of whoever is governing the state. So, that is why I said I

don’t criticise because I don’t know how they run their programmes but my own programme will be basically citizen-driven. At the same time, we want to open up the economy of the state to the wider world. Generally, I think Kogi needs urgent attention as we speak.

Have you considered the place of money in the project, knowing full well that politics apart from being a game of numbers, also involves money?

As you rightly said, this is a game that we are all going into and it is a collective issue. You see, we are going away from the politics of money gradually. I am not saying that you are not going to spend but it is not like before. It is now politics of ideology, your plan, what exactly are you bringing to the table, the credibility, the integrity at stake. These are what actually matter now and in my acceptance speech in Lokoja after winning the primaries, I told them that I will be held accountable for every penny of the state. The reason being that it is going to be a bottom-up approach we are going to use and if you are going to have that as part of your campaign plan; that the decision to govern the state must lie in the citizens, that means you are citizen friendly with your programme then the citizens that have been yearning for change from poverty, lack of opportunity, unemployment, lack of basic infrastructure and amenities that make life

meaningful, I think that people will have a rethink whether to risk their votes again. So, that is our strong point. If you notice, the west part of the state and centre have been yearning for a change and there have been alliances, independent assessment of who and who should come up and who should run first and even within the eastern part that has been ruling the state, they want a change because they have been asking themselves ‘we have been having our people rule for the last 16 years and we can’t see any meaningful change, let’s try other areas and see whether we will benefit from this’. The state is a bit sensitive in the sense that we are not looking at religion or where you come from but who will deliver exactly what will suit the citizen of the state and that is the strong point we have. We might not have the finances to confront all these issues at once but the issue is that people will not vote wrongly this time around again and we

are out of the era where people smuggle ballot boxes. Card readers are there for you to be able to evaluate. I am not saying it is full proof but to a large extent. You can see in the air if you travel to Lokoja from the feeling and yearning of the people; they need a change.

So, how do you intend to fund the campaign since you are downplaying the relevance of money and why the choose of PPA?

I am not downplaying the fact that you don’t need to spend money but it is not going to be as heavy as it used to be. The fact that it used to make people scared even good people who don’t have enough doesn’t mean one can’t try. It is not everybody that is a thief. Money is not going to decide who wins the election. It is your integrity and competence. One of the key things is that you might be very intelligent and very strong capacity to do something but because you already know that from the beginning if I don’t have so, so amount of money, they will not even listen to me which has been the mentality. But our key driving now is vote for what will develop you, what your children’s children will enjoy because if I have to give you money now, it is like paying for the future. I will have to get the money back which is an investment. So, we are not going into business with the mindset that we are going to recoup; no! We are going to serve. We are

going to organise a fund raising for sure. We will raise funds externally; friends, family relations, even the party people will be ready to fund because it is not something I alone can bear. I must tell you the truth, I don’t have the financial strength to come out and say that I am going to fund it 100 percent but what I am saying are the basic things you must do. People are keying into the project and I am sure it is a viable project that they are willing to participate. Secondly you talked about the platform; the platform like I rightly said the platform might look virgin but it is not the platform that is the issue now it is who is on the driver’s seat. Is it someone we can count on, someone we can rely on, someone that has the credibility, someone that will not fail us? That is one and I can assure you that that is the wave in the country now. Every one of us in the old party the PDP has now shifted from PDP when they lost to APC. But all of

us can’t be in the same party that is why it is democracy and that PPA is not PDP or APC doesn’t mean it is not a registered party in country. Are you saying that people that have the same intentions like me shouldn’t run because they have lost out? They should still come out. That should be the more reason why they should come out and get these other parties.

Why is Kogi underdeveloped?

Kogi state is underdeveloped today because we have had a very poor governance system in the state and it is not because funds are not available. Funds are given to Kogi state like other states that receive funds from the federal government. The problem is how do you apply these resources into use? And one of the key things is when you see breakdown in terms of development is as a result of corruption, misappropriation, mismanagement of funds. Not only public funds, even the IGR that is been generated in the state can be used to do something good. You have 4 years in the first, you have 4 years to run your government. It is not compulsory that you must drag everything at the same time because, firstly, you don’t have the resources to do that. Secondly, you don’t have the time so you prioritize. If you are concentrating on health, education and something like road, water, electricity, you prioritize it. People would say yes when this person was there,

A, B, C was done and this is now the road map and the next person will take it from where you stopped and move on but the norm has been because it is APC or PDP or it is because it is this person, I am not going to go that way; no! When something is developmental, it is a stage by stage process and that is how developed countries came to where they are now. They passed through processes. Mr. A will come and do the bit they can do then the next person will come and take it from where Mr. A left off and it is a continuous process. But ours has been the opposite. The moment you are on a different platform you terminate it and the fund that has been spent is now lost and that is greed or corruption i must let you know because it is procurement and in that angle again you start issuing contract, people will start getting money from there again and you too will abandon it then you move on again. That is where you see this underdevelopment. I can bet you that

if the funds had been channelled properly right from the beginning of the state when funds had been coming in and development is prioritized, you will see that probably if they have taken on health, you would have seen something tangible. Now you would have said ‘oh even the state is like this but their health system is perfect’, ‘the state is like this but all their road networks are fantastic. These are things that we should be talking about.

Most states in the country today cannot generate their own revenue, but wait for hand outs from the federations account. When you become the governor. How do you intend to address this and what are you giving to the people differently from other candidates.

Funding is a big challenge globally now and not peculiar to Kogi state alone. If you noticed the revenue in the country has been dwindling and this has affected our expenses. One critical thing we need to look at instead of depending on releases from federal allocation is the potentials we have internally. What are the potentials we have that we can tap into internally? To achieve that,we must do an assessment of the revenue windows that we have in the state. Even though I have started doing that, I cannot reveal them to you now because that is part of the strategies. We need to look at the revenue windows that is available that the state can take advantage of. There are leakages in the system and these leakages can be blocked to a reasonable level that the IGR can take care of a lot of things through out the period you will be in office. But because there are leakages in the system which is often times deliberate, people capitalize on it. When you block

it, you have sufficient revenue to run the state. Another thing that is causing that in the revenue agencies is that it is not well intensified. Somebody is collecting revenue in your behalf and you are paying him peanuts. He is not even sure of his or her tomorrow; he is paying heavy school fees and does not even have an idea of what the future of the children are, he cannot afford proper medical care and is thinking of how to build a house and yet he is collecting money for you. When we were growing up, our parents could see the future. But when the future looks bleak, there is tendencies for corruption, there is tendencies for people to do what they are doing. Even governors that won elections, often times, people go there because they want to grab money because they don’t have an idea of what the future has in stock for them. But if you do things properly and the system is right, you don’t need to do things that endangers the future. So, there are leakages in the system and it is those leakages that is making the system not to work well.