Umahi, Elechi not comparable – Senator Onwe.

Ebonyi State Commissioner for Information and State Orientation, Senator Emmanuel Onwe, has opened up on the strategies being adopted by the Ebonyi State Government towards uplifting the state. Onwe said prudent management of the state’s resources and zero tolerance for corruption, have been responsible for the successes recorded by the administration of Governor Dave Umahi.

Among other issues, Onwe declared that there is no basis for comparison between the immediate past governor of the state, Chief Martins Elechi and Umahi.

Ebonyi State government targets 54,000 hectares for the 2016/2017 dry season farming. How is the state going about this?
Steadily and successfully! Every local government is expected to identify at least, 15,000 hectares of land to be put on the rice production. This is the only way in which the government would attain its target of producing at least, 10 percent of the total rice requirement in Nigeria.

The current consumption is six million metric tonnes of rice and Nigeria spent about $5 billion importing it. Ebonyi saw this as an opportunity. Producing 600,000 which represent 10 percent of the figures we are looking at would require at least 195,000 square hectares of land. So, the target is attainable. The step-by-step approach is probably what the Commissioner for Agriculture is talking about because this year, Ebonyi has successfully put about, 30,000 hectares of land under rice production and that is bound to step up next year and until we meet our target. And the current effort is to saturate Ebonyi so that we have domestic self sufficiency in rice production and then, expand outwards to identify other markets within the country.

•During your media tour, you spoke about silos for grain storage
which you said the Federal Government should allow the state to use. Have you made any move in that direction?

The governor has made direct request to the Minister of Agriculture and I am quite certain that the governor is highly respected within those quarters and I also know that the Minister of Agriculture is truly an honourable man. So, I think that would be sorted because it doesn’t serve anybody any purpose to have such fantastic, strategic facilities that lie in waste.

•Ebonyi is also known for salt production. What is the government doing about that?

There is the Uburu Salt Lake, there is the Enyigba Salt Mine; there are strategies in place to make sure that every natural resource that exists in Ebonyi, is properly exploited. That is going to be a strategic step-by-step process. You can’t put all your fingers in your mouth at the same time.

•Primary and secondary schools in Ebonyi are free and the country is in an economic recession. How are you able to fund it?

That is the prudence I have talked about. The governor is a very prudent manager of resources. You see, probably between Ekiti and Ebonyi, they vie for the last position on a monthly basis as to who comes last in federal allocations. The average allocation that goes to Ebonyi is about N2.1 billion, and that is in a good month. There were months it was not quite up to that. I remember that either in April or March, we received about N1,450,000,000 in allocation. But the elimination of waste and of course, the total and absolute zero tolerance for corruption has meant that every kobo that goes to Ebonyi is well utilized. That is why Ebonyi is still able to maintain school feeding, free education at primary and secondary levels, subvention to the university which is the highest in the whole of the South East, subvention to a college of education, subvention to all the 13 General hospitals and has consistently paid the 13th month to all the workers in Ebonyi State. And a couple of months ago, the workers’ salaries in Ebonyi state were increased by five percent. You can’t beat that.

•How about the Internally Generated Revenue?

Very low! Less than N100 million a month! But with our efforts
Read http://wisdomkosi..com.ng/2017/01/governor-umahi-elechi-not-comparable.html?m=1

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After being a senator, you now took mere commissioner job? Trully recession dey town.