BY ABDULWAHAB ABDULAH & GBENGA ARIYIBI
Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi weekend said the state needed a collective rescue from its indigines to launch it into a big economic hub in  Nigeria.

This came as he said his government had no plan to scrap the College of Medicine, at the University of Ado Ekiti.
Speaking at an interactive session with Ekiti indigenes after his investiture as the Grand Patron of the Ekiti Parapo Association in Lagos, the governor called on citizens of the state not to see the efforts of the government at rebuilding the state as an Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, agenda but for the present and unborn generations.

According to him, “my belief is that our state has the potential to grow to an enviable level. What the present administration wants from our sons and daughters is a collective rescue mission, and we do not say we have all the answers to all Ekiti problems. We are open to tap from the knowledge, wealth and resources of Ekiti people wherever they are.”

On the College of Medicine that started under the government of Adeniyi Adebayo and suffered setbacks under successive regimes, especially funding and accreditation, the governor, said rather than scrap the college, the government intended to explore all avenues towards strengthening it to make it one of the best in the country.

The governor assured “that the college will be properly funded now that the three state- owned universities have been merged for proper management.”

Dr. Fayemi who also spoke on his plans to tackle unemployment and promote human capital development, said “no fewer than 5,000 indegenes of the state are currently undergoing leadership and entrepreneurial trainings as part of measures to reduce unemployment in the state.”

He noted that the state’s Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, moved to N300 million monthly from about N106 million it was at the time he assumed office, explaining that the increment was achieved by blocking leakages in the system and through a creative revenue mobilisation.

Earlier, President, Ekiti Parapo, Lagos, Chief Kola Akomolede, called on all the political office holders in the state not to use their in offices to amass wealth, but a call to serve the people of the state.

He called on the federal legislators to braze up for the challenges ahead, lamenting that “there are little presence of the federal government in the state.”