From Ada Bosa
The deputy governorship candidate for All progressive Grand Alliance, Dr Nkem Okeke today admitted that the reason Anambra State has not exceeded its current levels in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is because people are printing receipts and sabotaging the revenue generation.
Okeke spoke in a forum where his All Progressive Congress (APC) counterpart promised to take the revenue base of the state generated revenue to a minimum of N1bn per month working with his governorship candidate when elected on November 16, 2013.
The two were responding to a question on how each of the candidates of the candidate will raise the revenue base of the state for development purposes, outside the funds allocated from the federation account.
Said Okeke ‘In a situation where people are printing receipts and there are leakages at the expense of the state, such funds are bound to disappear, but the government of Willie Obiano will improve upon what is on ground.
Dr. Nkem who claimed that more money could be made by automating the market system however stopped short of answering the question from the panelist which specifically requested him to state the current revenue profile of the state from IGR and go ahead to say where his government will take the revenue base to.
Ralph Okeke of the APC however said that when his governorship candidate came in 2003 in his first coming as governor, he raised the profile from N50 M TO n400m and that in the next coming after November 16, 2013, ‘we shall drive the revenue up by covering more markets in Onitsha and elsewhere in the state and blocking all leakages’
Said he: ‘Nothing short of N1billion will be acceptable as a revenue profile’.
On infrastructure and road profile, Dr Okeke’s claim to fine network of 800km in roads was debunked by one of the panelists who stated asked the deputy governorship candidate to explain if the bad roads encountered by herself and her colleagues since arriving Anambra State form part of the good roads
On Job creation, APC candidate Hon Ralph Okeke promised that an APC government will alter the curriculum of schools to incline towards technical education, so that many young school leavers can employ themselves in craft and technical work rather than queing up for white collar jobs.’
He also said that with security topmost on the agenda of the APC platform, lives and properties will be secured in the state as Ngige did in his first coming to enable investors have a stake in the economic profile of the state and enhance job creation.
He also promise that his administration will focus on the establishment of an independent Power Project to enable the development of rural areas and the powering of small scale industries.
APGA deputy candidate agreed on industrialization, stating however, that his government will establish what he called ‘industrial parks’ to enhance job creation. He however disagreed on the need to prioritize Independent Power Project base on cost as according to him’ it is not something that a state government can fund’. Rather, he proposed to bring in more transformers.
Addressing the 70 percent capacity hall of audience, APC candidate promised to set up a monorail connecting the major towns in Anambra State with stations in the rural areas to promote transportation of goods and services across the state.
In the APGA candidate surprisingly delved to free education which does not form part of its published manifesto, drawing instant crowd reaction despite the strict debate rules forbidding audience reaction f, but APC deputy governorship candidate explained that an APC government will emplace, free, qualitative and compulsory education at the primary and secondary school level and enforce a 50 percent reduction in school fees at tertiary level’.
Apart from APC and APGA, two other parties, action Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) Alliance for Democracy participated in the first session of debate for the day. ACPN surprisingly spent a large chunk of their time endorsing the incumbent APGA programs, while AD promised to use waste recycling for both job creation and energy supply.
