Senator Bassey Akpan has over the weekend flagged off his governorship campaigns for the 2023 general elections in Akwa Ibom State.
Addressing the crowd at the campaigns ground along Airport road, Uyo, the state capital, Senator Akpan who explained that his entire blueprint covered three segments of short, medium and long term impacts said he would tackle what he described as ‘rot’ in Akwa Ibom educational system when elected.
He disclosed plans of restoring the Akwa Ibom State University to its original concept of a science, technology, and maritime-based institution to reposition the state as a major intellectual hub in the emerging economy.
He further disclosed plans to establish a University of Agriculture with other related disciplines in the state and to fully equip one technical school in each federal constituency to the minimum acceptable global standard.
His words, ” we will specifically address the rot in the educational sector by ensuring free and qualitative education in Primary and Secondary Schools. We would restore imprest to Head-teachers to run schools, re-open and make functional the specialized secondary schools that have been overgrown by weeds.”
Akpan harped on the need to equip the institutions with neccessary tools that would help graduates from those institutions to be become self-reliant in areas such as carpentry, tailoring, electrical installations, plumbing and fitting.
The YPP flag bearer said that plans have been concluded to launch in the first three months of his assumption of office, the first phase of N50 billion Prosperity Trust Fund, to mitigate the root cause of poverty, especially in rural areas.
Akpan also said he would leverage on numerous value-chains prevalent in agro-allied ventures to create multi-faceted employment opportunities, produce processed goods and facilitate the export of goods by Akwa Ibom people saying that, such would enable him create 500,000 jobs in two years.
The Governorship candidate who expressed worry over the current rating of Akwa Ibom as the second South South state most ravaged by poverty said the implementation of his economic agenda and blueprint would reverse the situation.
