Elias Mbam, an All Progressives Congress governorship aspirant on Thursday, says he has developed a blueprint to reverse the poverty index of Ebonyi.

Mr Mbam, also chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, pledged to reverse the index if elected governor in 2023.

He said the 2019 National Bureau of Statistics poverty index indicated that Ebonyi scored 87.02 per cent with poor citizens, revealing a startling reality of the state’s poverty level.

“Our state is put below Jigawa, Taraba and Sokoto as the states with the highest level of poverty per head in Nigeria and the only state in southern Nigeria with the highest number of poor citizens. I’ll reverse this trend if I become governor in 2023,” Mr Mbam said.

The one-time minister of state for finance said that he had developed an economic blueprint that set out a step-by-step approach toward reversing the ugly narrative, promising to reduce poverty in two years as Ebonyi governor drastically.

He said that he would leverage his knowledge in microeconomics and skills in revenue diversification, having served for nearly 10 years as RMAFC chairman, to turn around the state’s economy.

“Diversification and resource distribution will reduce poverty in Ebonyi, make households happy and economically buoyant, as well as increase the amount of money in the pockets of citizens,” he added. “Our initiative, when implemented, will drastically reduce rural-urban migration with its attendant migration of teeming youths to hawk in other cities in Nigeria.”

On the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration, which has entered the fourth quarter, Mr Mbam charged Ebonyi indigenes who have attained 18 years and above and were yet to register to go and get registered.

“According to a report released by the electoral body recently, as of March 15, about 127,424 PVCs were still unclaimed in Ebonyi,” he stated. “The voter card is our only power to effect the change we all desire in political leadership. So, I enjoin our people to arm themselves with their voter’s card”. 

(NAN)