MY AGENDA
(A Manifesto of Hope)
For Ikpoba/Okha Federal Constituency
By Hon Pius Alile
The summery of my quest to represent Egor/Ikpoba-Okha Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives is to establish a veritable meeting point of:
• Human capital development,
• Capacity building,
• Infrastructural development and Economic Empowerment
for the benefit of the majority of our people.
Through effective representation, I hope to agitate for and mobilize institutional resources towards the attainment of my vision of:
• Social Welfare,
• Equal Opportunities and
• Equitable distribution of infrastructural development.
POLICY COMMITMENT AND ACTION PLAN
In view of the aforementioned, it is my desire to represent my dear people of Egor and Ikpoba-Okha, at the House of Representatives come 2023, in the spirit of
• Selflessness
• Responsibility,
• Fairness,
•Courage,
• Hard-work, and
• Dedication.
Pursuant to the realization of this commitment, special attention will be given to:
- Education,
- Youth and Women Empowerment,
- Infrastructural Development,
- Agriculture,
- Tourism,
- Health,
- Sports
- Social services and
- Community development.
Expectedly these will be achieved through:
1. Sponsoring of relevant bills;
2. Facilitating of gainful employment into federal establishments;
3. Accessing poverty reduction schemes of the federal and state governments on behalf of and for my constituents;
4. Attracting investments and encouraging the establishment of small and medium scale business concerns to utilize the abundant manpower and raw materials in Egor/Ikpoba-Okha Federal Constituency;
5. Encouraging literacy and academic excellence at all levels of education through financial support for students in full time study;
6. Promoting ICT competence amongst the youths;
7. Up-scaling access to technology in schools and facilitating skills acquisition with starter packs;
8. Supporting health-care institutions, orphanages, and general health related campaigns;
9. Encouraging agriculture with support for farmers, through purchasing seedlings, herbicides and primary farm implements as well as ensuring that farmers get their fair share of available resources and opportunities;
10. Forging and maintaining positive working synergy with Community Leaders, the Youths, and Women to promote community development programmes, including market development and small credit scheme for market women;
11. Projecting a vibrant, firm, consistent, credible, informed and respected voice in the House of Representatives;
12. Establishing a functional constituency office in the two local government areas under the Constituency to enhance access to all;
13. Prudent utilization of constituency funds for genuine, people-focussed, transparent and verifiable projects and programmes;
14. Making the Benin monuments in Egor/Ikpob-Okha Federal Constituency tourism attractions;
15. Sponsoring Egor/Ikpob-Okha Federal Constituency youths on tourism trips as a way of expanding universal knowledge and integration of new ideas;
16. Sponsoring inter-schools sports competitions in Egor/Ikpoba-Okha Federal Constituency in furtherance of unity and peace among the people.
MY BACKGROUND
I, Pius Idele Alile was born about five decades ago in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. I began my education at Olua Primary School, Benin City, where I obtained my First School Leaving Certificate in 1982. Thereafter, I proceeded to Adolo College, Benin City, where I studied between 1982 and 1987 and obtained the West African Examinations Certificate (WAEC).
After secondary school, I gained admission to study at the prestigious University of Benin, where I bagged a Diploma in Social Works (DSW) in 1996. Subsequently, I applied through the direct entry screening to study law at the same institution between 1998 and 2002. However, my quest for a degree in law was aborted as I travelled out of Nigeria to Sweden in 2002 in search of a better education system and greener pastures. I started a family in the process. In continuation of my academic voyage I obtained a degree in Social Sciences from the Malmo University in Sweden before heading to the Latrobe University in Australia through an exchange program to study and obtain a Master’s degree also in Social Sciences with a major in International Migration, Ethnic Relation and Cultural Studies.
In furtherance of my capacity and intellectual development, I have attended several professional courses in human development and capacity building, notably at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. I am presently registered with the same university for a Ph.D. programme in Comparative Social Works Practices. The programme has, however, been placed on hold in light of other immediate pursuits.
PROFESSIONAL/WORK EXPERIENCE.
Over the years, I have garnered experiences from both local and international private and public spheres – in the field of social works and human development. At different firms, both public and private, I have, with my academic qualifications and brilliance, helped to design frameworks used in assessing the needs of the vulnerable in the society, as well as smartly deployed resources to address those needs and maximize impact.
Through my work, many disadvantaged communities have gained access to aids and resources that they desperately needed. Members of minority groups and low-income families have been able to achieve social mobility through my interventions that connected them with opportunities, including jobs and care tailored to their peculiar needs.
In the course of my professional career, I have displayed a clear understanding of the workings of society and the intricacies of resource distribution and interventions to even access to opportunities and reduce social inequality. I am a proven social organizer with effective mobilization skills. I am also a powerful advocate for social justice and the eradication of systemic poverty and all forms of social discrimination.
I worked with the Newcastle City Council between 2007 and 2009 as a social worker carrying out needs assessments for vulnerable adults for the local authority. My competence and successes on the job earned me an offer at the Birmingham City Council where I went to work as a Senior Social Worker before I was later promoted to the position of a Senior Practitioner in the Adults Services of the Birmingham City Council between 2009 and 2012.
I left the statutory sector in 2013 and started my private company, Living Glory Social Care Limited – a social care company based in Birmingham. This care company has provided care and employment opportunities to residents in West Midlands, United Kingdom.
I am an ordained Assistant Pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God in the United Kingdom. I am also a Senior Pastor at Living Glory International Ministries, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.
MY POLITICAL MILESTONES
My political engagement has been predicated on the commitment, and passion to drive social development for the underprivileged and vulnerable groups and individuals alike – and with a clear understanding of the application of state power to implement the broad spectrums of people oriented projects at a sustainable level through efficient and effective policies and smart resource management.
I formally joined politics at a relatively young age. From the beginning, I participated effectively in the emergence of political parties in the transitional phase of General Abdulsalami Abubakar, the country’s last military head of state, before the return to democracy in the year 1999.
I first ran for public office on the platform of the defunct NCPN as far back as 1996 when Nigeria was just heralding a new democratic dispensation following years of a military interregnum that shrank civil society spaces and stifled democratic freedoms.
I stood as the NCPN Councillorship candidate for Ward 7, Egor Local Government Area. However, I got my first taste of unwholesome and underhand political practices, whereby on the eve of the election, I was disqualified without cause and effectively denied the right to contest.
I emerged as the secretary of the Unity Club, one of the major foundational groups that formed the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, particularly in Egor Local Government Area. Due to my commitment to the cause of democracy and clearly articulated vision of leadership despite my relatively young age, I once again stood for election, and I was elected the candidate of Ward 7 in Egor Local Government Area on the platform of the PDP. I contested and won the general election, making me the first elected Councillor of Ward 7 under the present Fourth Republic.
Aided by years of personal preparation and a people-focused agenda, I was an outstanding Councillor. My tenure brought about unprecedented development to Ward 7. In addition to my office as an elected Councillor, I was appointed the Supervisory Councillor, Youth and Sports, by the award winning Chairman of the Council, Hon. Barr. Henry Idahagbon.
Upon my return to Nigeria in 2014, I joined the All Progressives Congress. I left briefly but returned to the party in 2019 alongside Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, who became the APC candidate for the 2020 Edo State Governorship Election. I worked assiduously on the campaign, first in the Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu Governorship Campaign Organization, and then on the APC State Campaign Council.
MY PHILANTHROPY
I believe in the power of giving as a way of investing in the development of disadvantaged communities and offering a ladder of breakthrough to underprivileged members of the society. I believe very much in the welfare of the masses. This spurs me to give towards catering to their needs. To me, being of benefit to others and empowering them with whatever resources that is at my disposal, is a civic responsibility and moral obligation.
Prompted by this disposition, I formed the “Pius Alile Coalition Initiative” (PACI), which I lead as the Executive President. The initiative was borne of the desire to offer lifelines to several communities through impactful interventions that span the provision of clean water through the sinking of boreholes, access to education through the awarding of bursaries to indigent students, support for traders, vis-à-vis provision of grants for small-scale businesses and other medium- scale enterprises, etc.
This intervention has impacted several communities with improved literacy rate, dietary options, health outcomes, and raised the household income of many families.
RECAP
I would like to reemphasize by further articulation that we shall realize the three point foundation of my commitment if elected as the representative of Egor/Ikpoba-Okha Federal Constituency, by the following:
• promote bills that will create vocational and technical education;
• promote bills that will reduce the rate of social inequality;
• intervene in infrastructure development and maintenance of social amenities by grading earth roads, drilling boreholes, installing street lights and supporting communities with transformers to aid electricity supply;
• create data base to support indigent Egor/Ikpoba-Okha students of higher institutions;
•set up data base of the poor, disabled and the vulnerable in Egor/Ikpoba-Okha Federal Constituency and support them with stipends;
• set up a social welfare clinic in Egor/Ikpoba-Okha Federal Constituency to identify, scrutinise and work out modalities of support for the vulnerable people, particularly women, children, vulnerable elderly, nursing mothers and pregnant women;
• Promote entrepreneurship/skills acquisition to reduce unemployment and drive the economy of the constituency to create wealth for the people;
• attract diaspora investors to invest in Egor/Ikpoba-Okha Federal Constituency, in order to create employment opportunities.
EMPOWERMENT
(i) I will empower market women.
(ii) I will empower widows and widowers.
(iii) I will empower the less privileged members of the society.
(iv) I will empower artisans and graduates with skills acquisition and business ideas, etc.
ON EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES;
We strongly believe that equality benefits everyone regardless of gender, religion, race, social status and tribe. Therefore, our focus will include:
Equal opportunity for all.
Even distribution of empowerment benefits.
Non marginalization in skill acquisition and training.
Even distribution of bursary and scholarships.
Non marginalization of any part of the constituency on the issue of job opportunities.
Infrastructural development such as; roads, health care, bore-holes, as well as rural electricity projects, etc., shall be evenly done across the constituency.
ON EFFECTIVE REPRESENTATION
Essentially, the work of a legislator is inter-woven across three functions as follows:
• Law-making
• Representation
• Oversight
In view of the aforementioned, it is my responsibility not only to make laws; but also, to:
i. Ensure that diverse interests of my constituent members are fully represented.
ii. Provide an avenue for articulating and aggregating of different opinions on public issues/debates on bills.
iii. Ensure that members of the public can ventilate/express their grievances, and seek redress.
iv. Ensure oversights that will improve the performances of the executive arm.
Put in another way, I shall:
Promote people oriented bills.
Equally represent the interests of the people of my constituency.
Oversee the activities of the executive arm.
Safeguard public funds
Defend citizens’ rights, and seek public redress on; complaints, grievances and petitions against corresponding MDAs of government.
Give periodic reports on implementation of laws.
Perform effective budgetary oversights to assess governmental programmes and policies.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I want to make a solemn pledge that I shall abide by the promises made in this manifesto. I shall also be receptive of relevant suggestions towards making me the best that I want to be as the representative of Egor/Ikpoba Okha Federal Constituency, and of whom everyone will be proud. I will represent you honestly and respectfully. Therefore, count on your full support and prayers even as I remain your obedient servant.
God bless!
HON. PIUS IDELE ALILE