What I believe

The grassroots political renaissance

Despite our current teething problems, I believe democracy has come to stay in Nigeria. The agenda of our party, the PDP, and the manifestos of its various candidates is adequate in addressing the problems confronting Nigeria as a nation and in improving the lives of Nigerians. However, the problem seems to lie in the caliber of the servants we elect to bring about the desired changes. The candidates we chose must be knowledgeable, competent, qualified, have a track record of achieving set goals within specified time frames and last but not least, be in tune with the needs and aspirations of our people. I am an embodiment of these qualities. Our candidates need to be strong enough to dispel any myths the opposition presents, we must present workable knowledge based policies and road maps to implement those policies; we must deviate from the hitherto accepted norm of making campaign promises and reneging on those promises as soon as the candidate is elected. This is a new dawn and we must do things differently if we are to see different results. I seek an opportunity to serve our great people, to give our party, the PDP, a means to reach the grassroots with our vision and our mission of bettering our motherland, to initiate and sustain activities that promote national development and to join other progressive minded Nigerians in this long overdue task of turning our nation around. I believe that our goals will met through active grassroots participation and our common problems will only be resolved as far as those problems are tackled at the grassroots and Nigerians in our rural and urban communities can directly benefit from the implementation of our policies. It is for this reason that I am running for the House of Representatives.

Service

An elected public servant is exactly that – a servant, elected to attend to issues that affect his/her electorate, elected to live a life of service , totally committed to doing the bidding of the populace, absolutely adhering to the principle of ‘all’ before ‘self’ because in reality, the ‘self’ only exists within the framework of ‘all’. An elected public servant should be transparent, accountable and responsible for his mandate. I believe the era in which elected public servants lord over their electorate should come to an end and this is what I intend to do. I am running for the House of Representatives to serve my people, to champion and facilitate good development, primarily in my constituency and generally in the nation. Simply, integrity first, service before self and excellence in all I do (Pope AFB)

Sacrifice

To lead is to follow. It is hypocritical to live in affluence, amidst people living in destitution. It is extremely selfih and wrong to live in opulence amidst the poor who find it impossible to afford the most basic necessities. It increasingly seems wicked to continue to live the great life that USA can provide and still continue to complain about our system without making any effort to change the fortunes of our nation. I do not belittle the impact of passive voices in bringing about desired change but I am convinced that active involvement in steering the ship of our nation is the real deal clincher. The real giving is out of little and not the giving out of abundance. The real sacrifice is in the measuring of how much of our personal lives we are willing to invest for the liberation of our people from the shackles of despondency, how much of our own resources are we able to expend to better humanity, especially those in our immediate environment, how much of a risk we are willing to take in improving the lot of our people. I am willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, I am willing to work for my people so that when all is said and done, when posterity makes its reckoning, I will go down in the annals of history as one who sacrificed all in solidarity with his people to protest and correct under representation and misrepresentation of my constituency in particular and the country in general.

Information Technology Driven Governance

Governance entails creation of an environment that enables the participants in all aspects of the economy to easily evolve, learn and adapt while being publicly and openly accountable. Citizens usually expect the government to be responsive, accessible, transparent, responsible, efficient, effective and participatory. However what many of us get from our government is far less than we should. Scholars have proposed measuring the quality of governance by six indices: voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption. If these indices are positive, it can lead to a more positive context for development. Factors such as good governance, political stability, economic stability, peace, an equitable distribution of power, and national resources and an environment conducive to investment and trade, favor social and economic development. One reason for this is that where there are effective governance mechanisms, the economic environment can be equally and freely accessed by all participants. Our constituencies are shockingly deficient in most of the above indices.

Effective governance is a process of policy-making through active and cohesive discussion among policy makers who are interconnected through a broad range of networks. From all perspectives, the issues of transparency, participation and accountability are paramount to good governance. The Nigerian democracy is still a nascent stage and the issues of transparency and accountability still remain in contention. However, our governments are making conscientious efforts to address these issues and the capabilities of Information and Communication Technology ( ICT) should be exploited for this purpose. National development depends on policy reforms and ICT is a strategic tool for implementing organizational and institutional consolidation. The development of ICT has brought about change in the form of information transactions, which has led to systems that have increased the transparency of governance. The capability of ICT to process large quantities of information without limitations of time and distance can make the governmental process more open and democratic. ICT can also assist in information flows and provide for self-regulating communication networks for easier governance. The Internet specifically provides opportunities for online access to public databases and provides both a basis for constructive civil engagement and a platform for interaction and consensus among diverse interest groups. The Internet has given the ICT usage in government a new name, e-government, and has extended the use of ICT in public administration beyond routine internal applications to more complex processes of governance. ICT could help create a networked structure for interconnectivity, service delivery, efficiency and effectiveness, interactivity, decentralization, transparency, and accountability. ICT offers better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, easier access to information, and more efficient government management. The resulting benefits can be reduced levels of corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth and/or cost reductions. I am running for House of Representatives to apply my education, knowledge and experience in ICT to public administration and governance and improve conditions of living for people in my constituency and in Nigeria in general.

Vibrant Environment for all

While I am a capitalist in my political ideology, I also embrace social welfarism. I strongly believe that we need to find a balance in both ideologies for our nation to prosper and to better the life of our people. Our policy should not favor the selected few that enjoy government patronage. Our policy should indeed reward hard work. In as much as people should enjoy the wealth they accrue through hard work, a decent standard of living is a fundamental human right and should not be the sole preserve of the wealthy few. The masses should be able to live decently and in dignity. . Our policies should be geared towards the majority while providing an enabling environment for the wealthy minority to prosper. I am running for the House of Representatives to propose policies that will create a conducive environment for wealth creation and sustenance while addressing the needs of the underprivileged of our society.

Education for All

Statistics show that despite the astronomical increase in education investment in Nigeria over the past 20 years, the quality of education is decreasing at an alarming rate. We need a better understanding of educational financing. We need the promulgation and implementation of sound fiscal practice in the Nigerian educational system. We need adequate school laws that protect the teachers and empower the students. Academic freedom should be preserved and our knowledge system should be strengthened. Our academies should move from financial liabilities to financial assets and be self sustaining. Then these academic institutions would be able to fund research that is the backbone of science which translates to progress in any society. We cannot achieve our vision 2020 without a strong and well funded knowledge system. Education should be free and compulsory for all up to secondary level. Provision should be made for challenged students to complete trade school as an alternative to traditional schooling. We need consistent and sustained programs that do not fluctuate with changes in the ruling regime. Civic education, nationalism and patriotism should become an integral part of our curriculum and we should train our students on entrepreneurship. Without a solid educational system, no nation can be great, without research, no knowledge can be created and people perish for lack of knowledge. I am running for congress to champion compulsory free education up to secondary level, affordable university and tertiary education and development of a knowledge system that will promote actual progress in our nation.

Comprehensive, Affordable Healthcare

I don’t understand why we lack adequate diagnostic facilities in every village in our country. Our doctors are one of the best trained in the world, yet the privileged go overseas for medical attention while the underprivileged deal with doctorless hospitals and drugless pharmacies at home. This is a sorry scenario. Medical technology is accessible to most citizens of neighboring countries and it is a shame that the most populous black nation is in this sorry medical state. Since our resources are primarily from the center, federal government should formulate policies that will be binding on states regarding the delivery of quality healthcare. I am running for the House of Representatives to ensure that all Nigerians have access to affordable, world class healthcare services.

Abundant Food For All

We are a blessed nation, our soil is rich and thousands of hectares are still uncultivated. Although, we are not a hungry nation we might be getting close. We should be feeding at least the entire West African sub-region but we find that three square meals may be beyond the reach of a large proportion of our citizens. . There is no reason why there should be vacant farm land in any part of the country. All the untapped job opportunities in agricultural sector should b exploited and this should translate to food for all. I marvel at why we still teach our children how to use hoes and cutlasses in 21st century while farming has since gone even from mechanized to knowledge based, where genetics is now revolutionizing food production. I am running for the House of Representatives to encourage mechanized, industrialized farming while we exploit advances in genetic engineering and knowledge based farming.