Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) in Abia State, Chief Ikechi Emenike, has pledged that his first task if elected Governor in the 2023 election, would be to increase the size of the annual budget of the state above N300 billion.
The governorship candidate insists that the current annual budget is not enough to cover all sectors of the state, payment of salaries and pension and other interventions that the state could undertake annually.
Emenike, who stated this while addressing APC faithful in Ikwuano Local Government Area, explained that the current Abia annual budget of N147 billion cannot bring the state out of poverty and vowed to operate a more comprehensive budget if he emerges Governor in 2023.
His words; “My very first task as a Governor would be to increase Abia state budget to a minimum of N300 billion. I have the necessary contacts worldwide to attract funds to fund the budget. If you don’t have a budget of N300 billion and above, you can’t do anything. Even if you bring an angel and give him the current budget which the Abia state government is operating, he can’t develop Abia. Unless Jesus Christ comes by himself and multiply it as He did in the Holy Bible with five loaves of bread and two fishes.
“So, the first task for any people oriented government in Abia state is to increase the size of the budget. I will increase Abia’s budget to a minimum of N300 million. Check the current budget of N147billion and divide it by 6 million people, you can see that it can’t get anywhere in tackling the problems of the state. This is why they steal money. They pay salaries to some workers and owe the rest. Those owed 30 months and above will be asked to forfeit it. But I will clear all salary arrears owed workers in Abia. There will be no discrimination among workers.
He condemned the engagement of taskforce teams to collect taxes and levies, stressing that there are modern ways of generating revenue for the government instead of using thugs to harass people for revenue.
“When we increase the size of the annual budget, we are not going to do it by using taskforce teams to tax people. I will not use the taskforce teams to harass people. In the current Abia budget, have you seen where they put the money realized from the taskforce? Most of the taxes collected by the taskforce teams go into private pockets while little or not is paid into the government treasury. So, these task force teams that collect revenue from the people and put in their pockets should go and find work when I become governor in 2023.”
Earlier, the state chairman of the APC, Dr. Kingsley Ononogbu, described Emenike as the first among equals in the array of governorship candidates in the state and assured that he has the capacity to use Abia’s resources to develop the state.
