Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia
Presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, yesterday flagged off the 2023 governorship campaign of the party’s governorship candidate in Abia State, Mr. Alex Otti, with assurance that Nigeria would experience a new lease of life with LP in charge of affairs.
The flag-off ceremony was initially mired in controversy, following the attempt by the Abia State government to force a change of venue on the ground that the Ngwa High School was a public facility that could not be used for political activities.
But reason eventually prevailed, and the LP faithful popularly branded as “Obedients” thronged the school premises in Aba to welcome Obi and his wife, Margaret as well as the Vice-Presidential candidate, Yusuf Dati Baba-Ahmed.
National Chairman of LP, Julius Abure, led other members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to give support to the party’s governorship standard bearer in Abia.
Obi said he was sad that all the factories in Aba and other industrial cities like Onitsha, Kano, Kaduna, had collapsed due to the effects of bad economic policies and inept leadership.
He assured his teeming supporters that the dead factories would be brought back to life by the time Labour Party took control of affairs and started rebuilding Nigeria.
“Our commitment is to secure and unite Nigeria. We are energetic and committed to rebuild Nigeria,” he said.
In his remarks, Baba-Ahmed said the era of deception by the ruling class was gone for good, because “our eyes don open and our minds don clear”.
He said what Nigeria needed now was a leader with “credibility, character and capacity”, adding that Obi embodied all the three characteristics.
Otti, who is yet again taking a shot at the Abia governorship seat, told his supporters that he remained committed to the task of freeing Abia from bad governance.
“This gathering is a declaration of intent to rescue Abia from bad governance that has held it down for decades,” he said, adding that it was time for Abians to tell “the evil cabal that enough is enough”.
He lamented the sorry state of affairs in Abia under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has been in power for over two decades, saying bad governance has driven the people to despondency.
“If we were dissatisfied in 2015, we should be outraged now (hence) we are saying, enough is enough.”
