Mr Terlumun Ikya, an economic consultant, has joined the race for 2023 Benue governorship election.
Ikya, currently the Project Management Consultant, coordinating Federal Government’s Micro, Small, Medium Size Enterprises (MSME) clinics, said this when he addressed newsmen in Abuja on Thursday.
He said that he was moved to run for the exalted office because of the level of poverty in the state.
“Yes, I do. I have a desire to lead Benue as the governor and the desire is hinged on the fact that poverty is high in the state.
“I have read reports in the past indicating that when we operated regional system in the Northern Nigeria, the Benue Province which was known as Tiv Province contributed the second highest tax to the then northern region only after Kano, what has happened?
“Today, we cannot even generate enough money to pay salaries not to talk of fixing infrastructures and provide other basic amenities, so we need to look at these issues and I believe I have some ideas.
“And working with my people if elected as governor of the state, we can address those issues and make the state more prosperous,’’ he said.
Ikya, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said that he was a loyal party member with close friends in other opposition parties like Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“When you aspire to be a governor, you are not aspiring to be the governor of a party but the governor of a state and you do not have a choice, you must work with everybody,” he said.
The aspirant said that there were many salient issues that needed to be addressed in the state, promising to focus on them if elected in 2023.
Ikya said that there was need to look at the issues in the education sector, the syllabus being operated and the lack of playing grounds for children in schools and at home.
“There is a problem with how our children are developing and that is not what we went through. So, government has a responsibility to fix the public schools and not just fix the public schools but also look at the curriculum with which we operate,” he said.
Ikya said that the sector must be repositioned by ensuring that technical education was priotised was development.
The aspirant said that, if elected as governor, the health sector would be given proper attention saying that it was so painful to see many people die of COVID-19 because of insufficient oxygen and ventilators.(NAN)
