The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic party for the 2023 general election in Abia state Professor Uche Ikonnne, has promised to introduce a system of governance where every indigene of the state would be involved.
He revealed that the new leadership system under his watch would be known as "participatory governance", pointing out that Abians will not understand what the government is doing until they are made equal partners in the running of the state.
The PDP flag bearer made this revelation in Umuahia the state capital during an interactive session with members of Abia Online Media Publisher Organization on Wednesday.
The academia in politics stated that he would make use of existing development structures in various communities in the state to site development projects in line with each community's area of comparative advantage.
Ikonne maintained that the participatory governance module will encourage even development across towns and communities in the state and also provide a feed back mechanism for government to plan for future development.
His words, "We want the people to own projects the government will be doing in their area and the only way we can achieve that is by ensuring that they are involved when key decisions are made by the government from the beginning to the end of each project.
"When the people see government projects as their projects they will work hard to protect and secure such infrastructure from vandalization and destruction.
"That's why I'm talking about participatory governance, where we will make use of the existing development Unions which all communities in our state already have.
"Communities can also choose a particular project and call the attention of the government in executing such projects and under my watch will gladly provide such assistance".
Ikonne, also vowed to prioritize the payment of salaries, pensions and gratuity, adding that should he meet any backlog of unpaid salaries, same would be cleared within the first six months of his administration.
The governorship hopeful dismissed insinuation that he would be a surrogate, to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, having received his blessings to flag the PDP colour.
He said, "Everyone must come from somewhere. Abians should be grateful to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu for encouraging my candidature.
"If Ikpeazu wanted someone who will be his surrogate he won't support my candidature. But he did that because he had laid a function for a standard of development in the state and only wanted a man of proven integrity who will build on that foundation".
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