Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City
A governorship aspirant under the platform of Labour Party (LP) in the 2024 election, Mr. Ogbemidia Bassey Osagie, has promised to tap on the Edo diaspora community to provide security and create jobs if elected as governor of the state.
Osagie, who presently resides in Canada, gave the promise yesterday, when he formally declared his intentions to contest the governorship election under the LP.
He explained that with Edo State having the largest diaspora people overseas, he would use them to attract a lot factories and investments that will create jobs for the people.
“We have to understand that Edo State has the largest diaspora people abroad and those people have a lot of factories and investments overseas, but because of insecurity, they are afraid to come and invest.
“So the first thing I will is to pull these our brothers and sisters abroad to the state to invest by establishing factories here.
“The manufacturing sector in Edo State is dead. The only way we can grow our economy is to bring foreign investments to the state. Therefore, I will set up a Diaspora Commission (DC) in the state where I will bring all the Edo diaspora to the table for them to invest in the state.
“Secondly, because of insecurity, these our diaspora people are afraid to come home to establish their businesses. In view of this, I am going to create a 24/7 security team to ensure their investments are protected. Nobody will come to the state and invest if their investments are not protected as you have over there,” he added.
Furthermore, the governorship aspirant promised to set up business enterprise especially for the women to keep them afloat and at the same time grow the economy of the state.
He said he would embark on this through the establishment of training and vocational institutions to educate the people on proper business management
Osagie added: “Even if you bring 20 factories to Edo state today, there will not be a competent staff to do it, you know why? It is because we have not invested in training institutions and vocational studies.
“If we have modern schools that have curriculum vital to the job markets, we need to educate our young people not just in the university but in other training institutions like plumbing, carpentry, painting and others that would drive the middle class and the economy.
“In doing this, you cannot do it well without adequate security. Our father and family are afraid to go to the farms because of high rate of insecurity coming from the herdsmen.”
He also promised infrastructure development.
