Following the re-election of bid by the Governor of Kogi State, Captain Idris Wada, a group of civil society organisations in the state have passed vote of confidence on him as the rightful candidate that will deliver the expected democratic dividends in the state.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja, the leader of the 15 CSOs, Comrade Martins Ocholi, stated that the Wada has executed some notable projects and programmes that could be attested to by people in the state.
Ocholi said the Wada administration has been on the vanguard of making life meaningful for all sons and daughters of the state, and expressed optimism that the completed and ongoing projects and programmmes will be completed very soon and the people will benefit if they re-elect him.
Ocholi Said: “We are civil society organisations which have come together from the grassroots of Kogi State, to formally make a declaration about the state of affairs in Kogi, and we cut across all the three senatorial districts of the state, and over 30 CSOs are part of this declaration and not just this 15 here present.
“We are not paid nor sponsored by any person or organisation, but have deemed it necessary to make Nigerians and people of Kogi State understand the real position of things done in the state.
“We want to unequivocally state that Kogi State was lucky to have a governor such as Idris Wada at the point in time, and we have done our assessment on him and his administration of the state since he took over the mantle of leadership as Governor of the State, and we passed vote of confidence on him.
“Some people will ask why we are passing vote of confidence on the Governor, and the answer is not far-fetched. From our critical analysis as stakeholders of rural development, we have seen the execution of some vital projects at the rural areas, where a large chunk of Kogi people reside.”
Ocholi, who is also coordinator, Kogi Grassroots Monitor Initiative (KGMI), highlighted some achievements of Wada on various sectors of the State’s development.
“Governor Wada has been able to revolutionise the practice of agriculture since he became Governor of the Kogi State, and has unlocked the potentials of the sector with various provisions of modern agricultural equipment and accessories to farmers.
Today, many youth in the state are delving and engaging themselves in agriculture, and that alone has mopped up a huge number of unemployed youth in the state.
“With his robust policy and attention given to the agric sector, the Federal Government was attracted to establish a multimillion naira Staple Crop Processing Zone (SCPZ) project in Allape in Kogi State. As we speak Kogi State stands to be one of the high cassava producing states in the country, and it has also attracted more direct foreign investments to the state, and employment is being created by this alone for our youth.
“With our monitoring and evaluation through our network and structure in all the local government areas of the State on what the Governor is doing or has done we discovered that he has really focused on the youth, and has made effort to harness the hidden potential and skills of these youth who have no opportunity to explore what God has deposited in them.
“Even those who are in the opposition can attest to this fact that the Governor has established state of the act facility on skill acquisition to train and add value to the life of the youth at the grassroots, and we see it as a great achievement on youth empowerment.
On the area of industrialisation and creation of jobs for the teeming youth in Kogi State, Governor Wada’s influence and traction of investors has been tremendous and heartwarming.
“We as independent monitoring group on development state this because of the second ongoing gigantic cement factory project in the state, which is a massive avenue to employ youth in a very short-while.
“Already, economic activities are on the increase and more people from neighbouring states are trooping in to do business in the state. It is also important to state that the rural communities around the host community are having new economic values added to their standard of living.
And also he (Wada) has done well on road infrastructure, transforming Confluence Hotel to a Five Star Hotel, prompt payment of workers and pension, and has cleared the huge debt the state was owing, and other developmental strides we cannot exhaust here”, he stated.
