By Favour Goodness
Chief Ben Etiaba, Frontline Anambra state governorship candidate of Action Alliance (AA), says he is contesting to rewrite the wrongs of frustration on the people over the poor leaderdhip of present administration in the state, if elected.
Loading ...Etiaba who was speaking on a programme anchored by Channel TV, said the problem of development in the state was leadership failure and has offered himself to change the situation with his years of administrative experiences.
“I am in the race to see if it pleases God to take Anambra state out of darkness and into light
“I am running for the office because I am frustrated I am sure you are frustrated too. I am frustrated with the way things are going in the south east of Nigeria and somehow in Africa.
“I believe that all the ill feelings at this point, boil down to one, issue of leadership failure, and with every sense of humility I have something to offer, different thinking, moving to a different direction, noticing what the problem is and solving them.
“Not looking at the wrong things and attacking the wrong issues. Taking Anambra literally out of darkness to light, not only political, everything is going wrong with security, in education, health and agriculture sectors.
“We don’t have a single world class hospital in the state, in the 60s we are able to feed our people using agriculture to industrialize our region, it is not happening anymore.
“Infrastructure everywhere is dilapidated, I don’t know the last time you were in Anambra, we have the best network of roads than other states in Nigeria, but all these roads are now filled with potholes.
“They have all failed apart, but a few and we are again lining up for another 4 years in the state in the same way and expecting to see a different result. No, I am frustrated, I think we can do better.
“I don’t have big head enough to do better than any other person, but I am confidence enough to tell you that I think differently that I will take the state to a different direction, that is the only way we can achieve the best result we seek,” Etiaba said.
The astute accountant and politician said the past leaderships failed to take advantage of the state with 4844 kilometres of landmass, the smallest space, expect Lagos to develop various sectors.
According to him, the internally generated revenue of the state every month with many markets and other areas hardly go into government coffers.
“The process of collecting taxes or levies is bedeviled with archaic method instead of using modern technology to block leakages, I will the idea, if elected,” Etiaba said.
On why he left APC, he said that ” I did not leave the party, I think the right thing is that the party left me. No, no, it left me.
“I joined APC two and half years ago and the idea was to be part of the primaries and hopefully emerged as the candidate of the party and win the election if it pleases God, but what happen, happened and I left.
“I was listening to the senator earlier who thought the party could do what they wanted and choose whoever they wanted, and basically that happened. I wasn’t going to fight the party.
“I was serious about contesting to see if I can save my state from administration. I am not sure if I want to come here to allege that because the is sub judice at the moment before the law court.
“I haven’t gone to court, it was going to worth my while to go to court, others have, but I think the judgment date is Dec. 20 after the election,” he said.
On his thought of winning the the election, Etiaba said “if I didn’t think so, I won’t be here, it is not about having the financial muscle, not about money.
“Money is one of the factors, but it is not the only one. I believe that if I am able to harness the supports of the frustrated youths youths of Anambra state that we can effect change pretty more than Barrak Obama did in US a few years ago.”
