Feb 19th, 2007
A Caring Heart
A Caring Heart: A speech given by Dr Mimiko on February 19, 2007 listing the 12-point agenda of his administration. Excerpts:
What the Labour Party is offering in Ondo State is a distinctive governance system predicated on using existing communal structures as the building blocks of governmental action. It offers a government that is selfless, transparent, forthright and committed to the generation of wealth for the good of all. It is a government in which every citizen is taken as a critical stakeholder in the true meaning of the concept, a government that is a catalyst of development and is committed to the deployment of the resources of Ondo State for the development of Ondo State citizens, an all-inclusive platform for individual well-being, corporate harmony and progressive politics.
For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to emphasize that while we believe in a liberalized, private-sector driven economy, we shall not shy away from the obligation of government, especially in an underdeveloped economy to intervene responsibly as a social obligation in direct employment, free/subsidized social services like health and education, social housing, soft credit and other poverty-reduction mechanism that will ensure that the weakest in society is given the opportunity to develop and actualize their potentials. It is in the context of this broad Labour tenor that we present our 12-point agenda.
The 12-point developmental agenda is encapsulated in the acronym, A CARING HEART:
A – Agriculture and Food Security
C – Community-driven city and coastal region renewal and general development initiatives
A – Aggressive capitalization of our land resource
R – Roads and Infrastructure
I – Industrialization
N – No-to-poverty programme
G – Gender equality and women empowerment
H – Health Care and Housing
E – Education and Capacity Building
A – Artisanship development and empowerment programme
R – Rural Development
T – Tourism, Sports and Youth Development