THE GOVERNOR WIKE'S CHARM ON RIVERS YOUTHS FOR 2019.
Governor Wike's proposed disbursement of N200m, a socio-economic threat to thedevelopment of Rivers State./
Response by DOUGLAS Dodiyi-Manuel
We are yet to determine the implementation quotient of the 2016 and 2017 budgets that summatively amounted to N840b expenditure in two years.
What are loans?
I don't believe in artisanal programs that insult the potentials of our YOUTH. In this day and age, industrialisation is the word, not mere survival.
If the Rivers State Government is sincere, then they must follow certain sequence:
1. Institutionalization: by this, I mean to create and strengthen institutions that will drive GOVERNMENT'S POLICIES. We can't in the 21st Century allow Wike run government like a kiosk.
These institutions will look into government's proposed programs, availability of funds and others resources that may be human or material in nature, and propose an empowerment protocol that is most effective.
2. Industrialization: this describes the automation and/or mechanization of productional process or enterprise in a manner that achieves a multiplier output.
Through institutions, the processes of industrialization can be framed.
The moment an enterprise assumes or attains industrial status, the following ensues:
1. Job creations - this is beyond artisanal farming. It creates middle-class jobs.
2. Tax revenue generation - both the corporate entity and the human content pay Tax to government.
3. Social solutions - with production at industrial proportions, we tend towards food security. And with further increase in production, cost of living improves.
This is what is expected of a contemporary government.
At the beginning of the Wike administration in 2015, the RIVERS STATE Government gave N50,000 person to selected political cronies in the guise of Agric Loan. Why don't they publish their successes and challenges in that exercise?
How many people precisely were given the loans?
How many jobs were created after two years?
How much Tax revenue accrued to government from the enterprises that benefited?
How many of these enterprises paid back the loan?
Until these salient questions are answered, the Wike's proposed N200m Agric Loan largesse must be regarded as socio-economic threat.
