8-hour economy not enough to transform Anambra — Dep. gov’ship candidate

Mr Uzu Okagbue, the Deputy Governorship Candidate of the Young Progressive Party (YPP) in the upcoming Anambra election, says the state cannot attain meaningful development with its current eight-hour economy.

Okagbue said this at a news briefing in Awka on Tuesday.

He spoke on the massive economic potentials of the state which, he said, were negatively impacted by insecurity.

“The biggest threat to the hope of development in Anambra is that it cannot attain development while running an eight-hour economy.

“Today, the state economy runs from 9am to about 5pm daily.

“No state can grow in an eight-hour economy nor advance toward the expected dimension in any part of the world.

“The world has swiftly moved to a 24-hour economy, which is why payment systems now run all day, non-stop.

“This helps to ensure that business operations are not disrupted by artificial roadblocks.

“The road is still far for Anambra because the state is trapped in all manner of insecurity, which has not only completely deleted one full day from the original six active business days, but also reduced effective business hours to a paltry eight hours,” Okagbue said.

He decried the situation, where people can no longer start their days early enough nor close late because of insecurity.

“No country, indeed, no society can develop by running an eigh-hour economy in five days. Anambra cannot be the exception,” he said.

The deputy governorship hopeful regretted that insecurity had been a major source of concern in Anambra.

He argued that “Operation udoghachi”, a security outfit inaugurated by Gov. Chukwuma Soludo on January 18 to tackle insecurity in the state, had not proved to be particularly effective.

He, therefore, appealed to the people to vote for YPP “to enable the party to tackle insecurity and build a state that operates a 24-hour economy”.

He said, “When you vote us into power, we will tackle insecurity headlong in order to bring back night life and boost economic activities.

Our correspondent reports that armed robbery, kidnapping, ritual killings and cult war, among other security breaches, which were rampant before the launch of udoghachi, have significantly abated.