Obaseki unveils 30-year Edo State development plan

The Edo State government on Friday launched a roadmap to meet its 30-year development plan for the future of the state by 2050.

Governor Godwin Obaseki, who unveiled the development plan as part of activities to mark the ongoing Alaghodaro summit in Benin City, said it is divided into five-year periods beginning from 2021 to 2025 with eight election cycles.

Obaseki further said that there are two sets of planners namely social and economic planners, physical planners across different states and countries contributing to the planning process with priorities on indigenes of the state, especially younger generation who according to him will be the one to implement the plan.

Despite decline in crude oil revenues, reduction in federal allocation to states, economic downturn and unstable foreign exchange rates and other challenges that were occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, the governor was hopeful that there is a bright future ahead for Edo State.

“What we have today is a defining moment. We cannot make such mistakes again after 30 years. We believe that Nigeria and Edo State have a bright future despite all these challenges.

“It is possible that our dreams will become reality because we have strategies that will help us achieve our dreams. So, today, we are going to be talking and launching the Edo State 30 year’s development plan.

“The strategy for the long term plan is broken into periods; we are just not dreaming about 30 years from now but between 2021 and 2025. It is broken into five-year periods and we have six of those periods in eight electoral cycles.

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Highlighting some of the strategies to achieve the plan, he said Edo State can sustain its dreams by redefining the way government works, providing efficient public service, focusing on human capacity development of the people, developing centers for economic transformations, upscaling of the technology ecosystem among others.

“As government we will combine this and focus, Edo will become great again. We are not just dreaming and we have been on this for five years. This is our fifth anniversary. We believe Edo will be great again because the people will do it,” Obaseki said.

On how to ensure the plan is sustained, he said, “What we can guarantee is that once we have a system that calls the leadership to account, then that will be a better guarantee to ensure the system continues to work the way the people want it.”

Speaking on some of his achievements over the years, he said his administration has provided an effective work environment, transformed the education sector, prioritized primary healthcare, leveraged on oil palm, launched Edo tech park to train software engineers and invested in security.

“It is only a matter of time; Edo State will own its state police. Security is local, only the people can secure themselves. Our dreams can become reality because we have strategies backing our dreams,” he added.