ORTOM WRITES LETTER TO PDP DELEGATES

Chief Dr. Samuel Ortom writes while wife Chief Mrs. Eunice Ortom watches

My dear delegate,

AN APPEAL TO PDP DELEGATES TO NOMINATE CHIEF DR ORTOM AS GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATE

I write to first of all congratulate you on your well deserved election as a delegate of our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Following this development it is now your responsibility to elect candidates of the party for election into the Benue State House of Assembly, the House of Representatives, the Senate, Governor of Benue State as well as President of the country in the forth coming general elections next year.

May I inform you that I aspire to be Governor of Benue State and therefore, solicit your vote which shall enable me become the candidate of the party at the PDP State Congress on December 8, 2014.

You may already be aware that I am a core party man who has served at the local, state and federal levels and acquired the requisite experience at all these levels.

I have also made my modest contributions to the socio-economic development of Benue State through various enterprises that have given employment to over 400 people.

Having fought and defeated poverty, if given the mandate God willing, I am determined to replicate the feat through creativity and resourcefulness.

I pledge to govern with the fear of God which shall enable me entrench the core values of equity, fairness, transparency, honesty, accountability, selflessness, forgiveness, reconciliation, peace and unity while running an all inclusive administration.

My development agenda will ensure that we move our people out of poverty, ignorance and disease, market women and men generate profit, students have excellent study environment and scholarships, women are politically and economically entrenched in leadership and decision making positions, youths and people with disabilities have jobs, civil servants are reinvented, teachers are motivated, retirees have their dignity restored, the poor are made rich, the sick are healed, minorities are protected and given a sense of belonging, and farmers have inputs to maximize their production which shall be processed for enhanced economic growth of the entire state.

My vision for the state has been summarized as follows:

Good Governance and Revenue Security
√ Ensure transparency and accountability in governance.
√ Establish Community policing system.
√ Upgrade the Benue Internal Revenue Service, BIRS, to a Revenue Commission for revenue security.
√ Reform the Civil Service and lift embargo on employment.
√ Create jobs so as to engage the youths.
√ Reorganize the pension office and address the problems of pensioners at both state and local government levels.

Agriculture-driven Industrialization
√ In partnership with the organized private sector leverage on the rich agricultural potentials of the state by setting up small, medium and large processing factories.
√ Drive industrialization, enhance food security, create jobs, provide employment, reduce poverty, and enhance the economic growth.
√ Stimulate agricultural growth through modernization, diversification, genetic upgrading, disease control and commercialization of agriculture.
√ Facilitate the establishment of organized markets for agricultural produce and products.
√ Establish agricultural credit financing schemes (ACFS)
√ Re-organize and privatize moribund state-owned industries
√ Establish new industries both in agriculture and solid mineral sectors
√ Establish a bank to make international financial transactions and provide credit guarantee services to facilitate access to capital by SMEs
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics-based Education and Health Services
√ Introduce Entrepreneurial education
√ Ensure that teachers are given their pride of place by training, re-training, and re-orientation at all levels as well as adequate remuneration and welfare package
√ Reinforce existing scholarship scheme and establish student loan scheme for financing education
√ Support the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and address issues of maternal morbidity and mortality, as well as infant and child mortality.
√ Initiate incentives for rural posting of health staff
√ Revive and ensure the accreditation of the school of nursing and midwifery in Makurdi
√ Promote Health Insurance Scheme for all
Investments in Critical Infrastructure
√ Invest in grid and off grid power solutions with focus on coal, hydro, solar, recycled waste and geo-thermal power generation to increase electricity supply
√ Invest in hi-speed internet broadband access to facilitate e-governance
√ Construction of modern roads
√ Provision of an airport in Makurdi, and light rail from Otukpo to Gboko to Zaki-Biam and then Gboko to Makurdi (with Gboko as a hub)
√ Reticulation of water in all major urban areas
√ Provision of mass housing layouts in Makurdi and major towns
√ Develop tourism and hospitality industry, establish wild life park and a museum and make Benue attractive to tourists
Gender, Women, Youth, Sports and people with disabilities
√ Mainstream gender in all projects and programs
√ Have more women in appointive, elective and decision making positions
√ Support the establishment of business ventures by women