By Archibong Jeremiah
In an exclusive interview with CrossRiverWatch, Fidel Egoro, 2015 governorship aspirant in Cross River State shared says he has been chosen by God to govern Cross River State.
Excerpt:
What are your chances of winning the election considering how far you have gone with your consultation?
I have the brightest chances. For every position there is only one man knowing that power comes from God, I know that I am the one God has chosen for governor 2015, I have no apologies but if anybody doubts me let’s wait and see.
What is your pedigree?
I have plenty of experience, what many Cross Riverians don’t know is that 24 years ago I was a Commissioner in this state. I was Commissioner for Special Duties, Water Resources and Rural Development, Works, Housing and Transport. I have been chairman of CROSPIL for 6 years, I have been in the party twice as Assistant Legal Adviser, I have been Chairman of Council, I have worked in the party and I am also a businessman.
As I talk to you there are 37 persons on my payroll, I am an entrepreneur, my pedigree is intimidating and I think there is no one among my about 22 co aspirants that has my experience and pedigree.
What will you do if you become governor?
There are three evil we will have to launch a relentless war against: poverty, unemployment and the third is that
Cross Riverians are not in control of their economy, we have to reverse or change that. There are so many tools to use to curb them, one is agriculture, Cross River is an agriculture state, we are going to mechanize agriculture, we will irrigate, we are not going to depend on the rain to do agriculture, and we are going to embark on research.
Agriculture has taken me to China, South Korea, Ghana and I’ve seen the way it is done, it is not as expensive as we think. We can’t allow non Cross Riverians to be building our houses, if I am elected as governor, I am going to ensure that we improve our standard of technical colleges and I will make sure each local government has a technical college; we will staff and equip them.
Cross Riverians are not in business, entrepreneurship will be another tool. Let me give you examples that will shock you, go to Garden street where we buy our raw materials from for building you don’t have Cross Riverians doing business there, go to Bedwell where we buy spare parts, they sell at their choice of price we don’t have Cross Riverians doing business there.
Thank God for UNICEM, the company is producing of 2.5 metric tons of cement a year, by 2016 they will be doing 5 million metric tons but it will shock you to know that we don’t have Cross Riverians there as major distributors, look at EPZ here, there are not less than 40 companies doing business there, look at the Chinese company that is manufacturing steel, the sole distributors all come from Aba, Onitsha, they take everything from us there and our people go there to bring them back to us, you can imagine the cost implications because these people are not doing charity they are doing business.
The stones are here in Akamkpa but are we really there? Apart from Chief Tony Ani that has a site that is not active there, no other Cross Riverian has a site there, there are more than 30 companies there. The trucks that haul the stones don’t belong to us, look at Cocoa, Cross River is number 2, I am giving you statistics you can verify, correct me if I am wrong. Cross River is number 2 in cocoa and the current helmsman is from Cross River State, apart from Hon. Daniel Asuquo there is no Cross Riverian that is exporting cocoa.
The economy is not grown by politics but by entrepreneurship and business which we must develop, we have EDC here right in our back yard, we have MEDA the state government set up, we need to leverage on these. I know I have been chosen by God for this, Cross River State needs Fidel Egoro for 2015. It’s not a dream, if you don’t believe wait and see.
What are you plans on roads in the state considering their terrible state?
The present government has done a lot for roads because you can’t do agriculture without good infrastructure particularly roads, federal roads are not property of state government, if I am elected, I am going to lobby at the federal level for good roads, but we will not take over the roads because we are part of the government.
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