Okowa: My Renewed Mandate Is A Massive Vote Of Confidence For The Work Done In The Last Four Years

-Promises To Upscale Wealth Creation Agenda, Establish 19 New Technical Colleges

-My Administration Is Unwavering In Its Pursuit Of Health For All Deltans

– Says Road And Physical Infrastructure Development Will Continue To Receive Priority Attention

By Daniel Dafe

The Governor of Delta State, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, Okowa has said that his renewed mandate is a massive vote of confidence for the work done in the last four years.

Governor Okowa who spoke in Asaba today during his inauguration for a second term in office at the Stephen Keshi Stadium, Asaba, recalled that during his broadcast to Deltans after he was declared re-elected, he stated that his re-election is “an invitation to raise the bar of good governance even higher and to surpass my achievements in the first term.”

He continued: “In the next four years, I shall consolidate, strengthen and upscale our wealth creation agenda. The focus remains to liberate the spirit of enterprise in our people through skills acquisition germane to wealth creation and employment generation.”

According to him, top on the list of his priorities is the establishment of 19 new technical colleges in 19 Local Government Areas.

This, he said will bring the total number of technical colleges to 25, making it one per Local Government Area.

Continuing, he disclosed that to complement these, “a fully functional vocational centre is to be established in each of the 25 Local Government Areas, while the existing polytechnics will be reformed and repositioned to become hubs for technical manpower development.”

He added: “Towards this end, entrepreneurial courses shall be introduced into their curriculum and made mandatory as a requirement for graduation. Let me also add that the entrepreneurship training programmes of STEP and YAGEP will be escalated and identified gaps corrected, to make them more robust and cost-efficient. The target is to at least double the number of graduate trainees and, most importantly, strengthen the Directorate of Youth Monitoring and Mentoring to ensure that the enterprise support packages are put to good use for lasting success.”

Speaking further, he said: “This administration is unwavering in its pursuit of Health for all Deltans (HeFAD) in line with the Universal Health Coverage mandate of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,” saying that the Universal Health Coverage will be sustained with renewed vigour.

Furthermore, he said: “In the next four years, efforts will be geared at having a well-equipped, functional and responsive primary healthcare centre in each of the 270 wards of the State,” saying that “the Delta State University Teaching Hospital will be continuously upgraded to make it a true centre of excellence.”

He said: “Road and physical infrastructure development will continue to receive priority attention from my administration,” noting that one thing that stood out from the various town hall meetings that were held during his first tenure was that the need for roads is very huge.”

He hoped that aside from public finance, partnerships by the state government and relevant stakeholders/investors will attract infrastructure funding.

“This administration will not spare any effort to connect our communities, renew our urban centres with network of roads and recreation opportunities for the benefit and enjoyment of current and future generations of Deltans,” he averred.