Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia
After losing hope for a better deal under the present administration of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, the oil bearing communities in Ukwa West and Ukwa East Local Government Areas of Abia State have shifted their expectations for succour to a new administration that would be elected in 2023
Former Senate President, Senator Adolphus Wabara, expressed this sentiment when he implored a frontline governorship aspirant on the platform of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Chima Anyaso, to ensure that he “fixed the terrible road network” across Ukwa if he gets the mandate.
Wabara made the appeal at his Ohambele’s country home Ukwa East when Anyaso paid him a courtesy visit with his entourage in the course of his consultative tours of Abia Local Governments to seek the support of party delegates and stakeholders.
According to him, the people of Ukwa would be happy if their pride of place was given to them in the scheme of things in Abia State where their status as oil bearing area has not reflected in their welfare.
Wabara, who is the Secretary of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), restated his call for power shift to Abia North in 2023, noting that the rotation arrangement in the state had commenced from the zone in 1999 and having gone round it should go back to its starting point.
He said that Abia is proud to have Anyaso as a governorship hopeful and described him as “a promising young man and close friend of the governor,” adding that he has all it would take to get the PDP governorship ticket.
Anyaso was on a campaign blitz that took him to five local governments in one day seeking for the support of party delegates ahead of the forthcoming PDP governorship primary.
The council areas he covered included Ukwa West, Ukwa East, Umuahia North, Umuahia South, and Ugwunagbo where he engaged with party delegates.
He explained that his courtesy visit to Wabara was to formally inform him of his intention to run for the office of governor of Abia State in 2023 and to seek his blessings.
The PDP governorship hopeful also commiserated with the former senate president and elder statesman on the demise of his wife, Felicia, who passed on last month.
During his engagement with party delegates and stakeholders in Ukwa East, Anyaso told them that he was poised “to focus on the job of governance, do new things, and sustain the positive achievements of the previous governments, especially that of the incumbent, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.
“I am not coming to talk against anybody but to do the job. Dr. Ikpeazu has done well and needs somebody that will continue from where he stopped and do better than him. He said he will not hand over to one who is older than him. I am much younger than him and confident he will hand over to me,” Anyaso said.
The governorship hopeful told the people that he was not brandishing “any document like others” but only presents his trustworthiness and clean records of his business dealings, adding that he has continued to devote huge percentage of his earnings to fund his charitable and philanthropic activities.
He pleaded with the delegates to give him their votes at the forthcoming governorship primary, assuring that he would focus on capacity building and youth involvement in governance, fixing road infrastructure and provision of basic amenities that are primary responsibilities of any government.
Anyaso stated that he understood the principles of wealth creation hence one of his cardinal goals would be to create wealth in Abia and to enhance the state’s internally generated revenues profile while aggressively addressing poverty and sundry developmental problems.
