A frontline candidate in Delta State and a leading industrialist in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation have presented a scenario that can be averted by the people of the state comes 2023 election.

Olorogun Barr. Kenneth Gbagi, FNIM, who is the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Delta State and former minister of State for education, said the State needs a governor with a clear understanding of the state’s challenges in 2023.

Gbagi, who was recently honoured with the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON), stated this on Friday October 21st 2022, during an interactive session with the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Asaba, the State capital.

He warned that the state would be in anarchy if CAN allows someone who is not schooled and who lacks entrepreneurial mind to rule over the State and if the current challenges are not addressed by 2023.

The biggest industrialist however, urged the citizens to make sacrifices in order to build a better Delta State with his candidature as a private businessman who has successfully established industries across the state.

“As you know, I am one of those aspiring to serve this state. We all need to make sacrifices to build a better state for our children.

“You need someone who is conversant with the enormity of the problems besieging this state today.

“You will have to understand it for you to get it right, you must have an entrepreneurial mind for you to know what to do.

“If not aggressively tackled from 2023, this state will not be there for all of us and we will suffer it for another eight years”, he warned

Delta State received the highest national allocation in the country. Between January and June 2022, Delta registered Nigeria’s highest Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations. The state received nearly 123 billion Nigerian naira (NGN) (284 million U.S. dollars) in FAAC revenue in that period.

The former Chairman, Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, reaffirmed his commitment to revamp the ailing industries in the state.

“Oghara, was housing the biggest oil company Mobile, in the whole of the South-south. Everybody from all walks of life, relied on. From Oghara to Jesse Junction, there were over nine Liability Limited Companies that is internationally recognized all over the world.

“Coming to Sapele, there are over 22 Limited Companies that are recognized worldwide. All of these companies and areas are dead. Delta State was more important and better in industrialization and in business than Lagos.

“Lack of character, integrity in governance and accountability constituted the main reasons why these companies left and they are dead today. Investors all over the world will come to a place where they see as safe and secure.

“Because of this, Shell pulled out of Delta State to another South-south State. They saw character and integrity there, they did not see it here, Delta State is fatherless just as it is motherless. The way Delta State was structured, character was the basis.

“What do we need to do sir? Is to bring back our industries. It’s to bring back the glory of what Delta State stood for. Shell, has started talking to me that they will come back to Delta State if I become governor.

“Why? Because they know that nobody can get me to do what is wrong no matter how juicy and how good it is.

“The solution to Delta State, is to emancipate all our youths from the street. From day one, I will put computers in all the LGAs to register all our unemployed youths and I will start paying them.

“In the computarization of your membership as a youth who is not employed, they would have told me what they want to do, within the maximum of three months, the payment will stop and I would have given them a job in their skills.

“Once all those youths are engaged, it is a win-win situation and your economy would have started rolling. If more than 60 per cent of your citizenry are gainfully engaged, you are done”, insisting that whatever we are doing must be one that will strengthens and preserve the state.