Tony Icheku in Owerri
Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, began his assignment as the newly appointed Coordinator of the All Progressives Congress, APC in the South East, with a call on the zone to ‘help Nigeria for Nigeria to help her’.
He reiterated that to be “a President from South East, other zones must know you and trust you.”
Uzodimma, speaking at the SE Zonal meeting of the APC in Owerri explained that, “What the SE requires is the support of the bigger zones and for the stakeholders to achieve that, they have to develop the spirit of togetherness, forgive each other to assure the future of our children and generation yet unborn. This requires our being our brother’s keeper.”
The Imo governor, who is also the Chairman of Progressive Governors Forum, added that there was only one road for the SE to be part of what is happening at the Centre and that is for the zone to support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his programmes.
“In other words, there is every need to stand behind President Ahmed Tinubu and the Party APC. Nigeria is practising partisan democracy, so to win an election and be in position, you must use a political party and the party the SE needs now is All Progressives Congress (APC),” he affirmed.
Uzodimma acknowledged that the SE was still suffering from the repercussions of the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War, but noted that President Tinubu and the National Chairman of the APC, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, understood the precarious situation of the South East as a marginalised zone and were working with stakeholders to de-marginalise the zone
Uzodimma urged the APC faithful from the five SE States to “come together to serve the people of the zone and avoid the pull him down syndrome which is common among politicians.”
He was delighted over the turnout of the party members to the meeting, saying it, “shows new attitude and incremental awareness on the political demands of the zone.”
In his remarks, Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State, whose message was delivered by the Deputy Governor, Princess Patricia Onyemaechi Obilar, emphasised that APC needed one voice, needed to be focused and should be a team of brothers to achieve de-marginalisation.
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, who was also represented told the audience that President Tinubu, from available data and statistics, had done well with his programmes.
The Deputy National Chairman South, Emma Enukwu, who represented the National Chairman of the APC, Ganduje, said the national chairman had directed e-registration of APC members in all the states.
In their message, members of the National Assembly through, Senator Osita Izunaso, and the Minister for Labour and Employment, Dr. Nkeiruka Onyejiocha, expressed their gratitude to the Uzodinma for his leadership role in zone.
