Mrs Agol Ebun Tracy is the governorship candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party and the second female candidate in the election. In this interview, she speaks on why politicians are defecting from one party to another and what she will do differently if elected, among other sundry issues.
Daily Trust: Why are you in the governorship race?
Mrs Agol Ebun Tracy: I am in the race because of the passion I have for my people. I am also in the race to change the narrative. If I am elected, it is not going to be business as usual like all past governors who do not have the interest of the people at heart.
DT: What are you going to do differently from others?
Tracy: In NNPP, we are looking at free education from primary to secondary school level, at the higher institution, we are looking at bursary in respective of where the student is schooling. Most of the South South states, except Edo, are giving bursary to indigent students; so, we are going to give them bursary to make their education better.
In agriculture, we are going to engage in a robust mechanise agriculture. At the moment, Edo State government is giving out loans to certain faceless individuals and it is on record that they have been giving loans. For instance, if you have one acre of land and need government intervention, that is where mechanisation will come in but for now, we don’t have a robust mechanisation in Edo State. When you go to agric offices in the state, you see lots of tractors unutilised. If you have tractors and they are not utilized, then how will you improve agriculture? We are going to help farmers with improved seedlings and loans to do things pertaining to agriculture in the state.
DT: Judging by the way politics is being played in Nigeria, what do you think will work for you to win the election?
Tracy: You might call me a neophyte, some people will tell me I’m not properly grounded in politics, I should go and join the APC or PDP, forgetting that both parties started from the scratch. They didn’t have everything when they started, some personalities made the parties what they are today but for some years now, both parties have not fared well in Edo State and Nigeria in terms of good governance, so why don’t we change the narrative.
I see myself as a woman sent to Edo people, I see myself as a deliverer the Edo people need and God willing, I am going to make sure Edo people smile again and became the envy of other states in Nigeria with the programmes we’ll put together. We have a team of experts in education, agriculture, job creation, human capital development among others. As time progresses, we are going to unfold our programmes to Edo people.
DT: You are the second female candidate in the election, so how are you going to harness the potentials of women?
Tracy: I met with the women in their areas. I also met with the market women and other women professionals and they have asked me to go, that they are behind me. I have also talked to the youths in every platform I found myself that they should not kill themselves because of politicians. Politicians don’t die because of politics but they only defect from one party to another. If you die because of politicians, you died for nothing.
I also encourage the youths to aspire to any level in politics. They should not subject themselves to slavery, tied to the slave master who sends them on errand every day to go and destabilise, terrorise, intimidate and kill. They should remember that they are potential leaders, so why would they allow politicians to send them on demonic errands when their own children are abroad acquiring good education and living a good life? When you are killed, your generation has ended.
So, I urge the youths and women of Edo State to come out en masse and vote for NNPP.
DT: Why do think defection is very rampant in our politics?
Tracy: Politicians defect because of greed and most of them do not have principles and ideology in the first place. The manifestos they claimed to have were just put together for the purpose of election. If you have passion for your people and also feel their pulse, you will not change like a chameleon every day.
Today, you will change from Party A to B and tomorrow from Party B to C and back to A. Edo people should note that these persons that are changing from A to B and B to C every day cannot be trusted. If you feel that because Party A didn’t agree with you and move to Party B, you are no longer trustworthy. If you ask me, they are fraudsters and they have come to defraud the present generation and the future generations to come. They are using the potentials of present and future generation; they don’t have any agenda, they don’t have the people’s interest at heart hence they are moving from left to right to defraud the people.
DT: Edo State is considered as one of the highly indebted states coupled with dwindling allocation, how are you going to get revenue to actualise your programmes if you elected?
Tracy: We have been plunged into huge debt, which is the reason why our leaders are borrowing money from the international community, but they have not looked inward. In my manifesto, I talked about human capital development and also promised to create 100,000 jobs yearly.
In creating these jobs, we are going to look inwards because we have state assets that have not been harnessed. We will see how we can bring them into fruition and make sure that people have a means of livelihood through those assets. Then for education, there are lots of qualified teachers in the state but they don’t have jobs and most schools, especially in the rural communities, don’t have teachers and you find a situation where you have two teachers in a school in place of ten teachers.
For instance, what happened to the state water board? it is not functioning, but it can take between 300 and 400 workers. All these infrastructures on ground are not working because certain people decided to steal the money instead of using it to develop the state. So, we are going to look at these assets that have been underutilised and abandoned, and then rehabilitate them to make sure that people get jobs and stop social vices and criminal activities.
