SDP to promote gainful employment, poverty reduction in Osun — Omisore

• Says party’s manifestos focus on good governance, human capital development

Senator Iyiola Omisore

Senator Iyiola Omisore, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate for the September 22 governorship election in Osun State, has promised to offer people gainful employment and reduce poverty in the state.

He said the party’s manifestos already made public will focus on good governance and human capital development in Osun State.

Omisore, speaking with Nigerian Tribune on his party’s manifestos in Ile-Ife, on Tuesday, said, the vision of SDP is for “Osun to emerge as the most inclusively integrated and sustainably developed friendly state in Nigeria.

He remarked that the state was full of resources which had, for eight years, been underutilised by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) government of Governor Rauf Aregbesola, but which he said, could have been tapped into to create gainful employment for people in the state.

Omisore berated the Aregbesola-led administration for engaging youths in the state “with cheap and non-pensionable O’Yes job, and offering N10,000 per month for graduates, which he said was demoralising and had negatively affected a lot of youths in the state, stressing that it was an error he would immediately correct as a governor in the state.

“The SDP has understudied the situation, so, we are ready to start work immediately and correct the anomaly by offering our youths and other categories of people in the state with pensionable jobs they will be proud of, since our plan is to invest in human capital development for a multiplier effect in government agencies and parastatals in the state,” Omisore said.

According to him, his government’s quest to promote gainful employment and poverty reduction in the state will be addressed through “rapid agro-allied industrialisation, reliable power supply, building and rehabilitation of water schemes, improved sanitation and facilitating local technology development.”

Not only that, Omisore, who said he had enough experience aa a former deputy governor and Senate member, noted that for development to be sustained, the state also had to be well secured, the reason he said, security issue will be addressed “from an all-embracing development perspective, with food security, as well as security of social justice and rule of law.”

Above all, he said the people of Osun State are very important, as they were the essence of governance, hence, security of life and property and other basic needs will be prioritised in the scheme of things, adding that, under this condition will his plan to create an atmosphere for development of tourism potentials, and investment in infrastructural development in the state will thrive.

Similarly, the SDP governorship hopeful said, his party will introduce e-governance through ingenious exploitation of information and communication technology, in order to foster most cost effective public sector operations in the state.

Likewise, to make his government an all-inclusive on, Omisore said, his cabinet will develop a “financing scheme” as a “reliable lending facility for artisans, small and medium scale operators, artists and categories of people in the state.