By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
People’s Redemption Party ( PRP ) Kaduna State Gubernatorial Candidate in the 2023 general election , Hayatudeen Lawal Makarfi has said loans should be invested in wealth-creating infrastructure for growth and benefit of citizens.
He criticized the idea of borrowing to beautify cities by building flyovers and underpass carriage links which he said, have no economic value nor empowerment benefit to people whom should be top beneficiaries of loans.
Makarfi made the assertion, while fielding questions from Civil Society Organizations in a series of one-on-one interface with governorship candidates on their policy statements and blueprints if elected.
The gubernatorial dialogue organized by a collection of nonprofit organizations such as ; Partnership For Issues-based Campaign in Nigeria ( PICaN) and Legal Awareness For Nigerian Women ( LANW) in collaboration with Action Aid and Partnership To Educate, Reform and Learn (PERL) drew participants from the media, academia, women and youth organizations across Kaduna State .
Friday December 23 featured the PRP candidate who revealed a three-point agenda which he said, would take Kaduna State from a consumer to a production entity.
The 37-year-old graduate of Quantity Survey anchored his development plans on three tripod which included; Social Justice, Economic Recovery and Human Capital Development.
He pledged to operate an administration with human face, which he noted, would have a deep compassion for citizens to excel in their chosen fields of human endeavours with support from the government.
The former aid to Governor Nasir el-Rufai, promised to ensure an even distribution of wealth, trickling down to the people at the grassroots, by providing an enabling environment and sustainable incentives for small businesses to thrive.
On education, the governorship hopeful said he would review fees charged in state owned tertiary institutions to enable children from poor backgrounds access higher education and compete with kids from rich background.
He lamented high debt profile of Kaduna, saying it is unacceptable ranking the state as second most indebted with no human capital development projects commensurate to the huge loan collected on behalf of citizens.
“The only way to fight corruption is to empower people and make sure they have enough to cater for their needs and those of their families.
“We will operate an ideology-based policy that will emancipate the people from their present state of deficit and hardship and motivate them by giving a true sense of belonging so they will see the project of governance as theirs.
“We will make Kaduna the economic hub of West Africa, an ICT giant with concentration on our pupils in JSS to train them on robotics and artificial intelligence so they could benefit from over 200 billon dollars global investment in that sector which is the main driver of modern economic stride in the world today.
“Sports is another area where we will invest and make sure it creates wealth for our teeming youth so they could earn a living from it.
“We will by the grace of God, build at least one stadium in each local government area by attracting investors who will collaborate with us to provide an enabling ground for our youth to take sports as a money-spinner, capable of engaging them and sustaining their ways of life.
“It is scary having over eight million jobless citizens in the state, which is a time bomb that must be tackled if We are serious about solving the problem of insecurity .
” I will find a lasting solution to farmers and herders’ crisis by solving the problem from the root cause so it would rear its head again.
“I will make sure people with physical disabilities have vital roles to play in our affairs if elected by ensuring competent individuals irrespective of their social or physical status are absolved in our administration to contribute their quota.
“In fact, I have a son who is physically challenged, I see special potentials in individuals with physical challenges which should be tapped for the benefit of the citizens.
“We will operate an inclusive government where women are not left out but are given lucrative portfolios to give their best to growth and development of the State,” he said.
Earlier in his remarks, moderator of the interactive session, Yusuf Goje, an advocate of good and participatory governance at the grassroots, said the event was organized to extract commitments from candidates contesting elective positions and chart a course on how best the people could be served to effectively deliver dividends of democracy in the next dispensation.
