C/River Speaker to establish constituency trust fund

Mr John Gaul-Lebo, Speaker of the Cross River House of Assembly says he will establish a trust fund for his constituents if elected into the House of Representatives.

Gaul-Lebo is the People’s Democratic Party candidate for Abi/Yakurr Federal Constituency of Cross River.

He told newsmen on Monday in Calabar, that the fund would be used for constituency development, provision of scholarship for constituents, medical outreach amongst others.

He explained that the fund would manage allocations for constituency development from the National Assembly as well as provide for entrepreneurial training of constituents and empowerment.

“As a House of Representative member, this fund will help us to renovate schools, health centres, provide scholarships, train our youths in entrepreneurial skills and support constituency projects.

“I hope to have this robust legislative direction that has content that can attract international development partners and funding into the constituency.

“The constituency trust fund is the first thing I will do from the day of my inauguration by the grace of God because with this fund, we can provide starter pack for our youths who have various self-employed skills,’’ he said.

He also promised to create an enterprise academy that would train youths on various skills and support them with grants to start their own businesses.

“Government alone cannot create all the jobs for our youths. The future of jobs is to give people skills, innovations, training and vocational education to enable the young people to convert their passion to portfolio and invest their talent greatly.

“I want to be proud that at the end of my four years in the House of Representatives by the grace of God that I trained over 1,000 youths from my constituency in various skill acquisition programmes.

“And through the constituency trust fund, we will give the beneficiaries financial support to start up their businesses,’’ he added.

The speaker, who told NAN that over 120 students had benefitted from his scholarship programme, gave assurance that he would sustain the programme if elected into the National Assembly.

“The legislature requires a legislative strategy and the best strategy you can have is to create a legislative direction and that is why I have created my New Direction in Legislative Governance Framework already.

“This legislative direction has a citizen agenda and it will be drawn from the National Assembly Legislative Direction for the period of 2019-2023,’’ he said.

He appealed to the people of Abi/Yakurr Federal Constituency to vote for him on Feb. 16, assuring them of a robust, quality and inclusive representation when voted into office.