I’ll fight poverty if elected Taraba governor -Kanawa

EMMANUEL AWARI, Jalingo

The governorship candidate of the Young Democratic Party (YDP) in Taraba State in the forth-coming governorship elections, Musa Bah Kanawa, has said the state has faced retrogression under successive administrations.

He then promised to fight poverty and educational backwardness in the state when elected.

Speaking in an interview with newsmen, Kanawa said his ‎government if elected would fight poverty, promote peaceful coexistence, good education, health, agriculture and entrepreneurship with the intent to build a virile Taraba State “consistent with the dream of our noble founding fathers”.

Kanawa said it has become extremely difficult to talk of meaningful development in a time of intense ethno-religious tensions being witnessed in the state.

“Our government will, therefore, start tackling under-development by demonstrating sincere commitment to investment in the creation of enabling environment for our people to develop trust among themselves and have faith in government,” Kanawa said.‎ He said the prevailing atmosphere of excessive mutual distrust among the people and against the government was a serious impediment to progress.

“Our governance will be premised on the four cardinal points contained in our manifesto which are Respect for Diversity and Inclusion; Community-Based, Socio-Economic and Industrial Development; Facilities and Infrastructural Development and Security and Peaceful Coexistence. “One of our major tasks is to restore desirable confidence for accelerated progress of our people and the state by ‘walking the talk’. This is because we believe that unless people are stimulated to unleash their potentialities, the clamour for development would remain an unrealisable dream”‎ , he said.

Denying rumours of his stepping down from the race for another candidate, Kanawa said he was absolutely in the race ‎inspired by the need to save Taraba people from avoidable hardships that they have been subjected to over the years.‎

“Yes, I ‎ have even been approached with such overtures a couple of times, which I consider part of normal political process whereby people exercise their freedom of expressions. However, the truth remains that I have never contemplated, talk less of withdrawing for another candidate. I am in the race hoping to finish credibly and successfully, by the grace of Almighty God”, he stated. He said his government when elected would give sense of belonging to all and elevate the standard of living generally in Taraba State.

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