The UDP Governorship candidate speaking with journalists.
The Governorship Candidate of the United Democratic Party in Kwara State, Mr. Adetunji Oyabambi, has promised to pay workers in the state the new national minimum wage if elected into office in the 2019 governorship election.
Mr. Oyabambi while giving the assurance at the weekend in an interview with journalists at the Ilorin International Airport, said his government would take the plight of workers paramount, while programmes that would improve their well-being such as housing scheme, soft loans, training and retraining of the entire state workforce would top his agenda.
He said ” New minimum wage is possible. First of all, we are going to ensure that our workers are well paid and ensure that retirees get their money as at when due because they worked for it and it is their entitlements. I believe Kwara state generates IGR from taxes and levies, this must be adequately utilized to improve the well-being of tax payers and improve on the infrastructure of the state”.
The Governorship hopeful noted that his programmes would be based on his party’s ideology, while attention would be focused on security, health, Agriculture, power and Education.
Mr. Oyabambi, who explained that his government would be driven by the youth as they constituted larger percentage of the state’s population, cautioned the youths not to be allowed to be used by desperate politicians as agents of destruction or as political thugs.
The Ijagbo-born politician also warned against vote buying, rigging and other forms of electoral fraud, stressing the need for the electoral umpire to conduct a fraud free general polls next year.
While speaking on the moribund industries in the state, Mr. Oyabambi vowed to resuscitate the industries, saying that ” My goals is to bring back all our industries back to Kwara state. Past 25 years ago, we still have industries like Tate and Lyle, Kwara textile, Okin Biscuits, but everything has folded up now. By the grace of God if we are empowered, we can bring them back”.
” Poverty is a state of mind, that is the worst part. Poverty of the mind is the worst. When your mind is not stable, you will be thinking of a lot of things. Like for instance, we walk through the state capital and see poverty everywhere. But we will try as much as possible to curb it by reducing it to the bearest minimum. We will try to empower youth. Our traders, our widows we will try to ensure everybody has something to be doing”.
According to him, everybody deserves water. It is our right and we must provide it. Education is paramount, hence the need to restore the lost glory of that sector. It is not everybody that will go to school. But we will encourage people to go to school. If you are a student of Kwara state, you will be entitled to a lot of things. Our government will try to ensure everything is put in place.
He however promised to restore the lost glory of public education in the state and ensure that the state owned tertiary institutions are well positioned and in good financial status so as to achieve the key mandate of teaching, learning and research.
Mr. Oyabambi therefore called for the support of the people of the state by voting enmass for him and his party in the general elections towards liberating the state and ensuring growth and development in all the sectors of the economy.
Also speaking with journalists, the State Party Chairman of United Democratic Party, Mr. Oladele Oluwaseun Sunday, while speaking on the party’s ideology tagged ” SHAPE”, said ” the issue of SHAPE is that of the party. The issue of SHAPE is about security; it is about housing; it is about agriculture. We are talking about energy. When we talk about UDP, it is about paradigm shift. We are here to change the political table in Kwara state. We can no longer continue to be in servitude. As it is now, we want to take Kwara state to another level. That we are not ready to continue depending on allocation from federal government. We will generate even within the state”
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