The Deputy Governor of Benue State, Benson Abounu has promised to revamp agriculture if elected governor in 2023.
Abounu, who spoke after collecting his nomination form for the 2023 governorship poll on Friday, said he has garnered enough experience to lead the state.
“I’ve been a Special Advisor in the state in one administration, Commissioner for two times in another administration and now Deputy Governor for two times in the current administration, he added.
He said, “with the experience behind me, with my level of education and with my level of social interaction in the state, and knowing precisely what it takes to take our state to the next level, I think I am very vast in terms of experience and knowledge to be able to govern Benue State”.
The Deputy Governor who said the younger generation needs his experience and level of education assured that when sworn in as governor, “two hours later, because of all the experiences I’ve gathered in the past, I’ll be announcing members of my cabinet and this cabinet will be made up of 60to 70% of the youths”.
On the relationship between him and his principal, Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, he said ” between me and my governor, in nearly seven years, we have not had one single quarrel. My Governor understands me and I understand him. We are together in virtually everything that we do”.
“As I talk to you, we have no problems with each other at all and therefore I believe, since he knows that I believe in all the things that he believes in. I think he will not have any problem at all to cede power to me”.
On his plans for the state, Abounu promised to transform agriculture in the state.
He said, “I have all the plans for them. I am going to transform the agricultural business of Benue state”.
“We will encourage people to produce and mass agricultural products and when they are ready, the product will be sold at the stock exchange. So we are going to take agriculture to the next level”.
The Deputy Governor continued “Benue State is perhaps the most educated state in the whole of northern Nigeria and we are going to continue with this level of education. I’m going to make sure that human resources development will be next to none”.
“The most important thing as of today, not only in Benue state but in the entire country of Nigeria is the terrible state of insecurity that we have in the nation. My governor has stood very firm. He has stood in resistance to the incursion of insurgents. Thank God he has used me and taught me, I’ve learned a lot from him and all that I will need to do when I become governor is to deploy all that I’ve learned”.
