Nigeria - Dr. Dan Shere is the governorship candidate of People For Democratic Change (PDC) in Enugu State. He discusses with journalists on his ambition, his relationship with Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, why he left Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for PDC and other national issues. Assistant Politics Editor, Daniel Kanu, was there. Excerpts:

What will be your priority if elected?

My priority will be education, health, agriculture and access roads to rural areas, so that all the communities in Enugu State can be accessed. I will empower women because when you empower them, you have empowered a nation. What our people require is not much, our people go into petty trading with as little as N25,000. You can start a trade for a rural market woman with small money in a well-coordinated micro-credit system. Where you have micro-credit system that goes through town unions, using them as a third tier of government and Community Development Coordinating Committee (CDCC), which we had in the era of Nnamani. We are at a level in Enugu State where we are not supposed to be worried about school fees and how to earn a living. This is not the time for Housing Authorities, so that people would become landlords and not time for commissioners to go home with four jeeps. These things are favouritism and corruption. The level Enugu State is today, we should be talking about educating our people, rural women empowerment and rural industries that should be able to impact directly on the lives of the people. That is what I am talking about.

Do you think you have the quality to be elected and how do you intend to accomplish what you said if elected?

I am tested and trusted. As a local council chairman, I inherited 21 months arrears of salaries and had to pay 15 months arrears from my own salary. Apart from that, I am the only chairman who was able to build rural hospitals. If you know where Opi Agu is, you have to pull your trouser to cross the streams. I built a hospital and staff quarter there. I did rural electrification in some communities in Lejja and Opi. I have gone round the State and their priorities are rural development, agriculture, health and education. I was Pro- Chancellor in Enugu State University, the school fees was N25,000, I was Pro-chancellor in the university of Agriculture, Makurdi, the school was N9,000. I was Pro-chancellor in the University of Agriculture, Umudike; the school fee was N26,000 and today I am Pro-chancellor in the University of Port Harcourt. The fee is still N25,000 and in Enugu State University, school fee is now N140,000. If I become governor, the tuition must come down, so that parents can afford to train their children.

To what extent can people of Enugu State hold you responsible if you fail?

The consequences are there; I am in Enugu, I am not running away. I am less than 50 years and I will still be there with the people. I am a man of my words and for the past 12 years, I have been in Enugu. I am tested. I have a blueprint on how to take the state to promised land. As a former Finance Commissioner in the state, I believe that revenue generation and federal allocation commission will be able to do what I have here. The money that comes to the state will be able to give the state basic developments.

Lets talk about rural empowerment, how do you compare Nnamani's with the incumbent administration?

When you go to the rural areas, roads were built in the first six months of Chimaroke (Nnamani)'s administration. There was Opi Nsukka road, Agwu- Ndiabo road and Ozalla- Agbani road. These are roads leading to rural areas, so that the people will feel the impact of government that it used their money judiciously. What they tell us today is that we should go to Enugu city and see streetlights and roads. There is what we call opportunity cost in economics. The opportunity cost of Enugu now, is that public infrastructures have decayed everywhere, the public schools have gone, there are no chalks in schools, the school fees are paid in computer and captured in Government House, the windows have fallen out, the international partners have gone and others. The Educational Trust Fund (ETF) is no more working with the state, because no school has being renovated. The era of Chimaroke Nnamani was the greatest era of reforms. Reforms in civil service, criminal justice system and in partnership with international organizations that brought funds and developments to the state.

What about in the education sector?

When Nnamani was governor, ESUT school fees was N25,000. Our priority should be education, because our people need to know what others know in a globalised world, where our people have to compete with the rest of the world. Education remains the key to developing our place. Look at Asian countries that have been able to do it, like Malaysia and all the Asian Tigers. It is possible because of knowledge acquired through sound education. People come from the airport to the centre of the city and say that Enugu is developed, because they see streetlights in the night. The opportunity cost for those things is our tomorrow, our children and our future that is what we are crying out for.

Daniel Kanu

Daily Independent/13/04/2011