Okowa, Ogboru Absent At BBC-Pidgin Governorship Debate

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, the PDP candidate for March 2 governorship election and Chief Great Ogboru, his APC counterpart, were absent at the BBC Pidgin-organised debate in Asaba yesterday.
Also absent was Mr John Akwara, of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the debate billed to feature candidates of six political parties selected from about 50 registered governorship candidates in the state.
The Tide reports that the candidates who participated were Frank Esanubi of the African Action Congress (AAC), Odiakpo Obire of Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) and Brando Omu of All Grand Alliance Party (AGAP).
Each of the candidates took turn to proffer solutions to problems borthering on security, economy, education, restructuring, sports and jobs creation, among others in the state, urging the electorate to vote them in.
They accused the current and past administrations of poor performance and promised to speed up development in the various sectors to bring succor to the people, if elected.
They pledged to diversify the economy of the state through investment in agriculture and other mineral resources and create jobs.
Each of them also pledged to invest in sports to create jobs and properly engage the youths as well as address issues borthering on the physically challenged and other disadvantaged groups in the state .
Esanubi specifically pledged to create 20,000 jobs annually by releasing N1 million to each graduate of the state origin, adding that the party would budget N20 billion annually for that purpose.
He also pledged to revamp the educational system by introducing skills acquisition into the curricula of the state’s tertiary institutions to enable the graduates acquire skills outside their disciplines.
On his part, Obire promised to build industries and create opportunities for small scale businesses to thrive in the state as well as create jobs for the teeming unemployed youths.