In a significant development for the Edo State gubernatorial race, Prince Clem Agba, has officially returned the nomination form, saying its ‘Trust Agenda” seeks to bridge the gap between rural and urban development, promising transformative changes across the state.
Agba who spoke with journalists shortly after submitting his governorship nomination and expression of interest forms at the All Progressives Congress, APC, National Secretariat in Abuja, said I’m bringing to the table is what I call the TRUST initiative. We want to transform our rural urban spaces together.
He added, “If you’re developing the urban areas, you should simultaneously be developing the rural areas.”
He explained that the initiative against the backdrop of widespread concerns over the plight of rural inhabitants, the aspirant, who previously served as a commissioner, emphasized the urgency of revitalizing both rural and urban spaces concurrently.
According to him the Trust Agenda places a strategic focus on essential elements such as access roads, agro corridors, and power supply to catalyze sustainable development that mere mechanization is insufficient without addressing the critical issue of access to markets for agricultural products.
“This challenge contributes to a staggering 60% of produced goods failing to reach markets, resulting in significant losses for farmers.”
Agba’s vision extends beyond agriculture, encompassing the revitalization of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which currently employ 70% of the state’s population. Recognizing the burden of multiple taxes on these enterprises, the Trust Agenda pledges to ease the tax burden, fostering a more conducive environment for small-scale industries.
The Trust Agenda envisions the development of infrastructure, including roads and power, to facilitate efficient market connections, ultimately reducing harvest losses.
He said “For me, what I’m bringing to the table is what I call the TRUST initiative. Some people call it the TRUST agenda, but whatever you want to call it, we want to transform our rural urban spaces together. That’s what TRUST means to me. If you’re developing the urban areas, you should simultaneously be developing the rural areas.
“You should be providing access road especially around the agro corridors. So that 60% that goes to waste, which is a low hanging fruit will be recovered not mechanization, I hear people talking about tractorization. You buy more tractors, you get more improved yields, you increase the acreage and the result will be that you are increasing the percentage of harvest losses.
“Until we deal with the issue of access to market for these products, which has to do with ensuring that there are roads, either for the farmer to get to the market or the market to come to the farmer and ensuring that there is power. I’m not talking about the national grid. I’m talking about captive power.
“So once you have captive power available, you’ll find that cottage industries begin to develop around these farm settlements. What will happen is people will set up storage facilities, others will begin to set up processing facilities. The National Development Plan also talked about the micro. That’s micro small and medium enterprises currently in Nigeria they employ 70% of our people.
“But they are the most marginalized because there are so many binding constraints. The state government will tax, federal government would tax. We have multiplicity of taxes. So what it ends up doing is killing the small scale industries. It is also going to be a major area of target for us to deal with when I become the governor of Edo state.”
” I’m just taking one aspect of the National Development Plan, which I do believe is a foundation for other things to happen… So a man cannot be talking about self actualization or self esteem when he has not put food in his stomach. He cannot talk about self actualization or self esteem when he has no shelter.
“Do we need someone that will come and experiment, some will say that they have been in the organized private sector or their life. But like I said, in the public sector, the scenario is totally different. You’re not looking at the bottom line. So you’re gonna take 2,3,4 years to begin to learn and treat people like machines, there will be no empathy.
“The governor requires empathy. You have to feel your people. It’s not about projects that you do. It’s about the impact of the projects that you are doing,”he said.
