*Okwenna


Ahead  Anambra state gubernatorial election scheduled for November 2021, Ifedi Okwenna has promised to innovate Anambra state if elected as a governor of the state.

Ifedi Okwenna said this while picking the governorship form under the platform of the People's Democratic Party, PDP in Abuja.

He said, "Our mantra for seeking to govern our State is “Innovate Anambra”. We have chosen this because our problems are both increasing and becoming more complex.

"Issues like migration, youth unemployment, population explosion, urban poverty and decay, erosion and climate change, security challenges, inadequacy of affordable housing stock, inadequate healthcare planning and others  are posing novel and great challenges which cannot be solved in traditional ways.

"The negative impact of Covid-19 pandemic, the resultant recession and inefficient and recklessness management of the resources of the State have thrown us into debt. We have moved from a State with surplus to a debtor state.

"The revenue from the federation account is continuously declining with the unceasing fall in price of crude oil in international market. This means that our State’s own share from the federation account is dwindling incessantly too."

He however noted that the internally generated revenue (IGR) is not improving at a rate it will take care of our existing and novel challenges, as our revenue collection system is currently bedeviled by corruption, under declaration and non-expansion of our IGR net.


According to him, the way our State public and private sectors are organized and run cannot be attractive to our youths. Therefore, we cannot lure them back and retain them home unless we are innovating and fostering innovative culture in our public and private sector organizations.


In Anambra, the trust our people expect to have on their Government is not coming to them. The citizen's expectation that government will offer answers to their concerns and meet their expectations is lacking. Their expectations that their governments will listen and engage with them and to collaborate is therefore not coming.