Maazi Ogbonnaya Okoro Criticizes Ebonyi State Governor Rt. Hon. Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru Over Plan to Purchase Commercial Aircraft While Citizens Struggle to Put Food on the Table.
Maazi Ogbonnaya Okoro lamented why Ebonyi State wants to purchase aircraft when the citizenry is hungry and arguably the poorest in the Southeast.
He said he has maintained from day one that what Ebonyi State needs is human capital development, not the aircraft business. He urged the governor to focus on the state’s strengths, particularly agriculture, and invest heavily in mechanized farming.
He argued that Ebonyi State alone could feed the entire nation and export food produce if the government were to invest seriously in agriculture. The money used for constructing the airport and the funds intended for aircraft acquisition would be enough to set up significant agricultural investments that could feed the nation, create more job opportunities in the state, and generate multiple revenue streams.
While he acknowledged that aircraft and airports are welcome developments, Maazi Okoro insisted they would make much more sense if the focus were on developing human capital, especially among certain people from the state whose names he prefers not to mention.
He urged the governor to focus on these people and empower them, even if it doesn’t reach everyone. These people are scattered across the country, often hawking, and the state government needs to empower them through quality education and skill acquisition. The money wasted on some projects in Ebonyi State could lift millions out of poverty.
Maazi Okoro stressed that the Ebonyi State government should invest heavily in primary education, agriculture, and other areas of strength.
He emphasized that what Ebonyi needs is serious human capital development, not superficial empowerment schemes. He added that he knows some of his fellow citizens from Ebonyi State might not appreciate his stance because they dislike speaking truth to power, but insisted that Ebonyi should invest in its people. “You count one before two,” he said, arguing that bragging about owning aircraft when the citizenry is poor isn’t development but backwardness.
Finally, he stated that if the airport were viable, many airlines would have partnered with the state, eliminating the need to waste money on purchasing aircraft. Maazi Okoro concluded by reiterating that human capital development is what Ebonyi State needs most, and whoever achieves this would have solved the state’s problems.
