Governor Bassey Otu of Cross River state Tuesday appealed to Nigerians to endure the current socio-economic challenges since anticipated gains from the federal government’s economic reforms, which saw the removal of fuel subsidy, would outweigh the current pain.
The governor, who said this at the UJ Esuene stadium, Tuesday, during the 64th anniversary of the country’s independence, also took time to enumerate steps his administration was taking to ameliorate the people’s economic challenges.
“At 64 years, we can confidently admit that Nigeria has come a long way and is steadily progressing as a sovereign and indivisible political entity,” he stated.
He said the country has recorded remarkable progress considering where it was before independence.
He charged Nigerians to focus on the goal and not the momentary pains that afflict the body as a result of ,“The unintended hardship visited on the citizenry arising from the necessary economic reforms introduced by the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
He said, “The inconveniences are enormous,” but that “the expected gains of these reforms far outweigh the pains,” noting, “What is required at this critical time of our nationhood is perseverance; for there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
On what he was doing to drastically reduce the pains Cross River people were going through, the governor said, “My administration is tackling hunger in the land through home-grown initiatives. Food prices are beginning to come down in the State as the initial result of these initiatives.
“As an agrarian-based economy, my administration has massively invested in the production of food crops like rice, cassava, beans and cash crops like cocoa, palm oil, cashew, rubber etc.”
In a bid to reduce the suffering of retirees, he had released N10 billion for the payment of pending gratuities and that screening of the first batch of retirees had been completed and that every voucher and other financial documentation concluded.
“Any moment from now, the screened pensioners will start to receive credit alerts to that effect. And by God’s grace, the next tranche of payment for the second batch will soon be worked out,” he stated.
Governor Otu also said that due to his empathy for the qualified but unemployed teeming youth in the state as a result of the embargo placed on employment by the previous administrations, he had lifted the 25-year embargo on employment by “approving the employment of 2,500 qualified indigenes into the state civil service”