High Chief Ikechi Emenike, APC Governorship Candidate, Abia State
Abians have been celebrating Christmas without joy- Emenike
From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia
All Progressives Congress (APC) Governorship Candidate in Abia State, High Chief Ikechi Emenike, has expressed sadness that Abians have been celebrating Christmas over the years without the accompanying joy.
According to Emenike, a Development Economist, the Abia economy could not support a merry Christmas when workers were not paid.
Chief Emenike who stated this in his Christmas message to the people of the state, has however vowed to turn the tide and make Abians experience “real merry Christmas” if he takes over the reins of power in the state come 2023.
In the message entitled: “Gloom will give way to joy in 2023,” released on Christmas day, the APC standard bearer regretted that Abians have been celebrating Christmas over the years without the accompanying joy and happiness due to the ineptitude leadership foisted on the state, lamenting that the situation gets worse as the days go by.
“Just like in the previous year, Abia workers and pensioners are celebrating 2022 Yuletide season with gnashing of teeth following backlogs of unpaid salaries and pensions, which in some agencies and parastatals, are in the region of over 30 months.
“At present, medical doctors in the Abia health sector are on strike which they commenced on December 8, 2022 over unpaid salaries. The strike was declared in solidarity with their colleagues in Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH), who are owed 25 months salary arrears and those in the Health Management Board, (HMB), with 13 months of outstanding salaries,” he said.
The Abia APC governorship hopeful said that a new Abia was on the way where salary payment, a basic function of government, would become a culture of governance.
According to him, “a government that cannot pay its workers has no legitimacy to exist,” adding that there was no way Abia economy could “support a merry Christmas when workers are not paid their legitimate wages.”
Assuring that he would not only stem the ugly trend, but change the narrative for good, Emenike stressed the need for Abians to rescue God’s Own State from the grip of bad leaders just like Christ came and redeemed the world from sinfulness and urged Abians to embrace his Rescue and Develop Abia (RADA) movement sweeping across the state.
“I urged Abians to key into my vision of building a First Class State in a Third World Country by giving me and other APC candidates the mandate to implement my Rescue and Develop Abia (RADA) agenda come 2023,” he said.
“The despair and abject loss of faith in governance will definitely expire with the present PDP government and going forward, Abia will never again be saddled with the burden of ravenous locusts disguised as leaders,” he added.
