Stemming from the soaring popularity and acceptance of Pastor Umo Eno, the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) Gubernatorial Candidate, Connect Initiative, a socio-political group in Akwa Ibom State has commenced a series of Town Hall meetings for the candidate tagged “Umo Eno Town Hall Series”.
According to Connect, the event was conceptualised due to the heightened desire by large sections of the electorates to elicit direct responses from the candidate to their pertinent questions especially regarding how their economic wellbeing will be better in the next four years.
The body believes that the interest of the people will be better served at a one-on-one forum as against a multi-candidate setting.
The Town Hall Series, they stated, will afford the people and electorates ample time to ask no-holds-barred questions and elicit more targeted responses to the different areas of interest.
More importantly, the Town Hall Series will also afford the candidate an opportunity to engage directly with people as well as lay out his multi-faceted ARISE Agenda in a convivial environment devoid of distractions.
Speaking at the maiden edition, the governorship hopeful offered more insight into his economic blueprint for the state, noting that “Our theme is, ‘Connecting the Dots, Furthering peace and Prosperity.’ We have a blueprint that seeks to consolidate on the economic gains of previous administrations and expand on them. We envision to build a vibrant, inclusive diversified, and highly industrialised economy using the available resources that Akwa Ibom has,”
The candidate went further to state that “We have challenges that we must face and move our state to the next level. This is why some of us stepped up to run as governor of our state. Issues to deal with include poverty reduction and job creation.
Poverty reduction for us is key, because if you get to the rural areas, you’d see that our there people need as much support as possisble.
He revealed that rural development was high on his agenda.
According to Pastor Eno, he will make the rural areas conducive with good primary healthcare, roads etc so as to stem rural-urban migration.
He continued “When you talk about poverty reduction, you have to talk about job creation. We know that by statistics, the rate of unemployment in this state is growing and we have plans in our Agenda that will reverse the trend.
Speaking further Pastor Eno told his audience that “In tackling job creation, we want to develop the right skills. We want to ensure that they have the skill set that would make them take advantage of the new industries that would come up,” he said. “And also, around us in our state, we need to ensure that our youths have work to do.
He also revealed that he will big on entrepreneurship as youths, women and budding creatives will be supported to start small and grow big.
He urged all present to vote for him and mobilize others to do same because he is the only candidate with capacity, competence, character and compassiona and thus, best suited for the job of Governor
The Town Hall Series was well-attended by notable professional bodies and stakeholders in the state among which were: Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Nigerian Institute of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), the local indigenous communities of Igbos, Hausas and other ethnic nationalities in the State among others.
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