APC Primaries: Agbese ready to debate challengers before date

By Henry Oche

Chief Philip Agbese, a leading House of Representatives aspirant for Ado/Ogbadibo/Okpokwu federal constituency has challenged his rivals in the All Progressives Congress to a debate.

The UK-trained law graduate, who spoke to newsmen on Tuesday during the Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations, said the party’s delegates and indeed potential voters deserve to know the character, temperament, ideas, intellect and unscripted approaches of those aspiring to represent them at the National Assembly.

“Making an informed decision is part of a thriving democracy. But it’s difficult to make an informed decision; people are busy, and it’s hard to know what information to trust,” the human rights activist said.

“A live debate is a trusted source of information, because it’s one of the very few times during an election campaign that you can hear directly from leaders – unedited and unfiltered”.

According to the media entrepreneur, a debate could ultimately increase the APC’s chance at electoral success, giving that voters would be fully armed with the policies of the party’s candidate.

“This would give voters an opportunity to make side-by-side comparisons and gives us a chance to say why we are best suited for the elected office,” he added.

Agbese, however, tasked his rivals to pick any platform or forum of their choice to debate ahead of the party’s primaries.

Restating his vision for his people, the Okanga Agila as he is fondly known said “information communication technology (ICT)
will be given topmost priority which will turn the Federal Constituency into an ICT hub of Benue State and Nigeria at large”.

He added that “education will be given its pride of place which will help to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor in the various communities.

“In raising the bar of education, there will be massive infrastructural development in our schools, access roads, portable water supply, electricity, vocational training centres, etc, will be given the needed attention”.

He further noted that women and youth empowerment in agribusiness, communication facilities, health and financial grants for business owners will be given attention.

According to him, this will boost the economic landscape of Enone.

On his plans for agriculture and agricultural businesses, Agbese said the era of manual farming is gone, to be replaced by mechanization.