Kogi State Governor, Captain Idris Wada has said that because the Peoples Democratic Party is solidly on ground in the state, the party will retain the governorship seat in the next election.
Wada said this during an interactive session with journalists in Lagos. He said “The PDP is on ground, it is a solid party and has added value to the lives of the people. We have structure in every local government, we have structure in every ward and we are confident we will win by the grace of God.”
On the issue of economic stability in Kogi state, Wada explained that his administration is focusing on agriculture, exploration of mineral resources and internally generated revenue.
He said The Federal Government by the provisions of the constitution takes control of the mineral resources. The state government has limited role to play in terms of what it does in exploring the mineral resources.
“That is why the states are seeking the necessary permission and licences from the Federal Government to exploit the mineral resources within the state. Again, the security situation in the country has made it quite difficult to attract the type of investors who have financial capacity to exploit solid mineral resources in the state.
That is why we have focused on agriculture, which is a straight forward fact in terms of development and economic opportunities. We have created the enabling environment which promotes agricultural development in our state.
“The people have invested in farming than it used to be. We are working with the Federal Government, World Bank and Agriculture Development Bank to establish the farms in the state. We have acquired hectare of lands running into 30,000. We are now a rice growing state in Nigeria. We have got a lot of young people to invest in farming.
“We have equally made effort to improve on our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). We have increase it from about N150 million a month, to about N550 million. Remember that Kogi is a civil service state. We have invested in the Obajana Cement and there are smaller industries that are coming up as well. This we have done through our industrial promotion drive efforts. All these will eventually bring income to the state and would be able to pay its workers and meet up other social responsibilities.
“There are other economic benefits that will accrue to the state in due course given our efforts. We are promoting small and medium scale industries, creating conducive environment for enterprises in the state. We have reformed our land allocation and administration policy in the state. This is meant to promote the establishment of agriculture and encourage investors in the state. The reforms will take care of land allocation and the bureaucracy associated with it.”