MANIFESTO My Dear Constituents, With high esteem, I present to you this declaration of principles as a renewal of my unwavering commitment to again represent you, the very enterprising and progressive people of Okene/Ogori-Magongo Federal Constituency of Kogi State in the House of Representatives, to the best of my ability. Next to God, you are the source of my energy and zeal and without you, I cannot work effectively. Therefore, I have consciously made myself an open book, completely transparent and accessible to everyone of you for the progress of all of us. My political position has never and will never change my person and this is the core of Hon Yusuf Ahmed Tijani Damisa “ASUEHI”. GOAL My purpose is to deploy the vast experience of the last three and a half years in consolidating my representation of your legitimate wishes and aspirations at the federal level. The thrust of my consolidation agenda is to leverage the social, political and economic potentials of this office towards emancipating our good people from the shackles of joblessness, deprivation and disease towards economic opportunities and collective prosperity. COMMITMENT I am committed to continue creating the right positive impact that will translate into a noticeable difference in the lives of our people. My commitment to driving socioeconomic growth and development through proactive legislation and people-centric oversight of the executive arm of government is again reaffirmed. I shall continue to tirelessly champion with renewed vigour the cause of social justice, equity, rule of law, peace and security as well as the total progress of our constituency, Kogi State and Nigeria. OBJECTIVES EDUCATION Realizing that education is the bedrock of social progress, I have within the last four years demonstrable commitment to uplifting the standard of education within our constituency and the results are quite visible in the numerous face-lifting renovation works and upgrade of teaching and learning equipment that we have undertaken across our schools. As I ask for a renewal of your mandate, I am intent on furthering these achievements through: • Reenergizing the drive towards increased and better directed investment in education while initiating an all-inclusive stakeholder engagement that will improve overall standard. • Collaborating with relevant agencies of government to undertake curricula reforms aimed at our making the products more employable and productive in line with contemporary practices. • Champion the redirection of emphasis on capacity building and motivation of teachers to increase output and improve the quality instruction that would translate into qualitative outcome in the students. • Float motivational initiatives for students through summer’s school, peer competition such as quiz, debates and scientific exhibitions while strengthening the linkages between schools and communities to enhance holistic education. WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND YOUTH DEVELOPMENT The future of our society is dependent and will be determined not only by what we do today, but more by investment in women and the future of our young ones. In my first term, I have shown determination to give the youths of our constituency a square deal and upon my reelection, I will: • Create Youth Development Programs to support Youth Organizations that already have specific mandate on a non - partisan basis. • Initiate vocational training/capacity building opportunities in the area of specialized craft through governmental agencies and non-governmental bodies targeted at those who are not fortunate enough to pursue formal education such as orphans, street kids and other disadvantaged groups. • Seek employment opportunities for our qualified constituents and initiate an entrepreneurship support scheme to create jobs and minimize urban youth unemployment. • Set up a dedicated W-SME (Women Small and medium enterprises) cluster in every district. • Initiate the Young Leaders’ and Youth for Development’ programmes in all districts of our constituency to encourage community service and to recognize and reward talented youth to serve as role models and mentors for others. • Sponsor legislation against underage labour and support the strengthening of existing laws against gender based violence and domestic abuse of all kinds. • Increase my advocacy within and outside the National Assembly to draw attention to and champion the needs of our people. HEALTH CARE • In this sector, I will: • Interface with the state government through state legislators to advocate for healthcare improvement in Kogi Central. • Improve on my health intervention program by further establishing drug revolving scheme. • Propose a health insurance policy to enable free medical services to pregnant women and children under the age of 5. ACCESS TO PORTABLE WATER In an attempt to ease the perennial difficulties in accessing portable water in the whole of Ebiraland, I initiated and completed over 33 motorized boreholes across communities within our constituency. My commitment to ensuring water security for our people has not flagged and so, when I am reelected for another term, I will: • Encourage setting up of drinking water supply grid in water scarce areas. • Promote decentralized, needs-based, community-managed water resource management and environmental sanitation initiatives. • Facilitate the extension of piped portable water to more communities in the constituency. • Partner with my colleagues in the State House of Assembly to facilitate the rehabilitation of the state owned Okene water works to make it function at maximal capacity. GOOD GOVERNANCE I am a firm advocate of people centred, participatory, accountable and responsible governance and this is anchored on the dictum of ‘power belongs to the people’. In this regard, I will: • Initiate and support legislative actions that will help to strengthen accountability, prudence and transparency at all levels all levels of government in the country. • Continue my acclaimed support for local government autonomy in like I did during the 2013 constitutional review process. The aim, of course, is to give States and LGAs more power and ability to grow and develop faster, to enhance a more solid public institutions and infrastructure, to increase accountability to the grassroots. MY SCORECARD When I was elected in 2011, I initiated a participatory needs assessment process, the purpose of which was to identify the needs and priorities of our people. Having listened intently to your views, I reached a firm determination to respond to and act under the guidance of the feedback we elicited. Four years on, a quick reflection on my sojourn in the Green Chamber of the National Assembly will clearly reveal the following achievements, for which I render all Glory to the Almighty and appreciation to you, my distinguished people of Okene/Ogori-Magongo Federal Constituency:- HUMAN CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT • I provided free computer appreciation program which saw over 2000 youths across the constituency benefiting and thus empowered to pursue their dreams of the 21st century. • I donated over 200 motorcycles to different categories of individuals to make life more meaningful for them. • I donated a bus to Ebira Youth Congress (EYC) to further their cultural and social development works. • I launched a market women scheme which led to 800 small scale traders having their businesses transformed. • I donated over 50 deep freezers to market women to facilitate their business. • I provided entrepreneurship and skills acquisition training with follow up funding for the establishment of a cooperative society scheme and it has so far benefited over 500 people. • I distributed countless numbers of video cameras, photo cameras, vulcanizing machines car washing machines etc. to a number of artisans and entrepreneur in our constituency to lift them out of poverty and dependency. • I facilitated the employment of more than fifty fellow constituents into various senior positions within the Federal Civil Service. EDUCATION • I provided scholarship to over 200 people across our constituency to further their education and thus better their chances in life. • I constructed and furnished three blocks of classroom at Queens of Apostles College, Okene to ease the infrastructure decay in the college. • I embarked on the construction and furnishing of one block of 3 classrooms with convenience and borehole at GSS Ohiana and it now nearing completion. • I rehabilitated and equipped Standard Primary School Onyukoko to improve quality of learning for our children. • I provided 105 computers to Abdul Azeez Attah Memorial College, Okene to make the school Information Communication Technology (ICT) compliant. • I co-sponsored one person for PG at a University in the UK to build high level manpower for our people and the state in general and therefore better our chances of competing at the centre. • I donated cars to National Association of Ebira Students (NAES) to enhance their operations. HEALTH • I equipped Okene General Hospital for better service delivery and patient outcome. • I provided free medical check-up and treatment for high blood pressure and diabetes. • I provided a platform for free surgeries for different disease conditions including restoring sight to more than 70 cataract blind persons. WATER • I commissioned two studies through the lower Niger River Basin aimed at getting to the roots of our water problems. • I provided portable drinking water through the provision of over 33 motorized boreholes across the constituency. LEGISLATION • I sponsored a bill to establish a functional and compulsory birth registration in Nigeria. • I sponsored a bill to establish both state and government owned farms in Nigeria. • I raised a motion to create a pedestrian bridge across the roads of FCE Okene and Kogi State Polytechnic Lokoja respectively. • I raised a motion to terminate the tenure of interim governing council of Ajaokuta Steel Company and Itakpe Iron Ore Mining Company. • I raised a motion to condemn job racketeering in the civil service of Nigeria. • I raised a motion to condemn the activities of Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. While I will first of all focus on making sure that the above bills and motions are effective and applied, I intend to follow up also with so many more which will not be mentioned now and others that are still in the works. CONCLUSION The prosperous society we clamour for cannot be built by mediocre neither can it be built by self-serving aggrandizement nor narrow clannish and religious irredentism. It is only possible through a conscious and dedicated effort anchored on deep commitment to the welfare and well-being of the people. I remain acutely aware of the immense responsibilities and strict requirements of representing one of the most sophisticated and cosmopolitan constituency in Nigeria. As I present myself for reelection, I wish to remind that the choice before you is not just about policies and programmes; it is more importantly about the life course of our constituency for the coming four years and far beyond. I take solace in my belief that you will judge me fairly by my records and vote for me again because I have done it before, I am persisting in doing it and you can be certain I will do it again and again for the good of us all. Even then, I present this document as my covenant, a tool for accountability and a benchmark against which our future work will be assessed as I seek your worthy mandate for another promising four years. God bless Okene/Ogori-Magongo federal constituency. God bless Ebiraland. God bless Kogi State. God bless Nigeria.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 04:26:26 +0000
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