Ahead of the December 26 Ondo State governorship election, the Young Democratic Party (YDP) governorship candidate has stated that his party will focus on human capacity building as a way to redirect the economy of the state.
The deputy governorship candidate of the party, Mr. Egbeola Olawale Martins, stated this in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday, asking the electorate whether they want to allow themselves to keep on being led into a fast changing 21st century through the doors of 20th century leaders and their ideas or want to reboot the economy by basing it on the only recession proof resource.
Egbeola said:” Our challenge therefore as a nation and people of Ondo State is to develop “manpower resources” to boost our competitiveness in today’s global village. In a world where the five most valuable companies, by market capitalisation are in ICT with a combined value of over 2.4 trillion dollars or five times the Nigerian economy, we cannot continue to drive the economy of Ondo in a 21st century on the wheels of 20th century ideologies and policies.
“By building a high skilled populace, we can build our very own Dubai on our coastline and a technology hub that will change lives and build wealth on the scale of Google and Facebook. The top 5 companies in the world, which have greatly altered the way we live forever, are all less than 45years old and were started by men younger than 30 years of age. What this means is that we live in the age of youth and the biggest challenge confronting us as a people is not the price of a barrel of crude but to develop and empower our youth to function in today’s economy.”
He added that African has generally played second fiddle before and that there are opportunities to a key player in shaping human affairs.
“Africa is hailed as the new frontier, with Nigeria being recognised as a major player in Africa, and Ondo State can be an example for the rest of Nigeria and indeed Africa.
“In 2015 India made over $100billion from ICT exports and Business Process Outsourcing, more than 5times the entire annual budget of Nigeria, so we cannot afford to keep neglecting the development of relevant skills.
“Huge Oil reserves mean we are a key energy source to power the industries of the future, large mineral deposits give us comparative advantage in siting mining industries and processing industries, our large coastline gives us a unique opportunity to be a key logistics and transportation hub, stable climate means we are a key player in agriculture with huge potentials for agro allied industries and food processing,” he said.
