How do you think your experience as former chairman of the Nigeria-Belgium Business Forum and the current chairman Nigeria-RUSSIA Business Forum will rub off on your running Anambra State should you be elected governor?

It surely will. One of our cardinal focuses is attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Anambra State. To attract FDI to Anambra, you need to put in place a government that has integrity and credibility. Certainly, my background and relationship with RUSSIA and past relationships with countries with credible, long term investors will be a blessing to Anambra State and the South-East as a whole. RUSSIA is desirous of competing for economic opportunities in Nigeria and with someone like me, who they trust; Anambra will be a launch pad for them. RUSSIA is coming with huge investments in infrastructure. They are interested in investing in roads, rail, power, manufacturing, agro-allied chain and technology transfer. We are looking at investments worth about $5 billion which can come into Anambra, not too long after swearing-in. What really matters to RUSSIA is who is governor of Anambra State. Is he someone they (RUSSIANS) can do business with? What foreign investors are looking for is a corruption-free government, a team that knows what takes to make a state peaceful and investor-friendly. What we offer the Anambra people is a team with a leader that has courage, a leader who will be accountable to the people, a leader who comes with strong sense of prudence and the efficiency of the private sector. These qualities have been lacking in government. This explains why you see a person in the private sector start a business with small capital, yet he will grow the business and pay people millions as salaries with perks of office. Why is it that people borrow money from the bank to start a business and they manage these businesses providing employment, while those in government borrow much more along with federal allocation and you have governors negotiating for N17, 500 as minimum wage? Some can’t even pay the minimum wage, while those who pay this figure beat their chests….government should be able to use all its resources to pay its workers and create the right atmosphere for the private sector to create jobs. When you have an individual who has succeeded in the private sector, he will be able to bridge the gap between managing government effectively and making businesses grow, so they can employ people as well as pay tax. For me, this is the best way to create wealth in the state. Today, what we have in Anambra for generating revenue for government is people flogging old women front and back to collect the little they have. They eventually keep a huge percentage of what collected from the women in the market to themselves and give peanuts to government. We can do better than this in Anambra.

Political watchers say you have a good chance of picking the PDP ticket despite the long list of aspirants. How do you intend to defeat APGA which has been in power for a long time in your state?

Yes, APGA has been in power for a long time. You cannot take the party for granted. But for me and other Anambrarians, APGA is that tree that doesn’t produce good fruit anymore. The bible says of such a tree, that you cut it down. I amend it to be that you uproot it. APGA can be uprooted. Where APGA draws its strength from has been cut off because I am in the race, with me in the race APGA is in trouble. The only strategy they are left with is to stop me from me picking the PDP ticket. So, all the hullaballoo about zoning is being championed by APGA. This long list of aspirants in the PDP is being orchestrated by APGA, to create confusion. So I am APGA’s only nightmare. They believe that they are better off with any other candidate from PDP than me.

Read more @: https://frontlinenews.com.ng/anambra-2021-ill-attract-5bn-foreign-investment-if-elected-governor-obiora-okonwko/

Sometimes I feel south east should just forget Nigeria and build their steel plants

This people don start again

That one na lie !!! If you could you wouldn't be struggling to be governor