Drop your ambition if  you don’t have investment in Abia ,Onuoha tells other guber candidtates

From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia

Governorship Candidate of African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Abia State says any governorship candidate in the state who has no investment in Abia should not aspire to be its governor.

 Bishop Sunday Onuoha threw the challenge on Thursday, December 22, 2022, in Umuahia, told his rivals that any governorship candidate without any investment in the state should rest his ambition.

Onuoha spoke after receiving the party’s flag as its governorship candidate during the flag off ceremony of the party’s campaigns for the 2023 general elections in Abia at Ibeku High School, Umuahia, said that he was in the race to win and bring innovations to governance in Abia.

Addressing supporters and party faithful that thronged the venue, said he had many advantages over other candidates, describing himself as an investor, a businessman, a technocrat, an academician; and above all, a clergy.

“If you want to be the governor of Abia, tell me your investment in Abia. Any person who has not invested in Abia has no reason to want to be the governor of Abia. I am an investor; I have invested in multi-billion organizations in Abia State,” the Methodist Bishop said.

He said that he received the mandate of the party to run for the governorship race “with a clear mission” to change the narrative, adding, “we have not come to show our face, we have come to win elections.” 

Dr. Onuoha said part of his development agenda for the state would be to turn Abia around, if given the mandate by the people, by ensuring that there was security, good business environment, development of the entertainment industry and provision of job openings for the teeming youths.

He said that he would reopen and further develop the abandoned Nsulu Games Village, which he noted, has the potential to employ over thousands of Abia youths,” he said.

“As your governor, we are going to go back to Nsulu Games Village, the heartbeat of our sports centre. I am going to develop Nsulu Games Village which has the capacity to employ over 10, 000 people. When I’m sworn in as governor, every young person that is an athlete will have job,” the Bishop said.

The ADC standard bearer who promised to fix the state’s health to guarantee easy access to healthcare delivery by all, said that in his private capacity, he has provided free medical treatment, through Vision Africa Foundation, to over 800, 000 people.

As a way of finding permanent solution to the lingering arrears of pension and gratuity in the state, Onuoha said retirees would be included in his cabinet. “Retirees will have a place in my cabinet, if I become governor. It has never happened but it will happen in my time,” he said.

He noted that talented Abians dominate Nigeria’s entertainment and creative industry and based on that, he would develop the sector to make Abia “the Jerusalem of our time,” as it was his intention to “raise a generation that would be greater than us.”

The Global Peace Award winner hinted that he hopes to make Abia the investors’ haven by promoting transparency in governance if he emerges victorious which would make investors to have trust in him.

He called on Abians to vote for him and all ADC candidates in the 2023 elections, promising that he would do things differently to bring about a new Abia. “A new Abia is possible,” he said.

National Vice Chairman of ADC in charge of Electoral Matters, Chief Anayo Arinze (Onowu) who presented the flags to all the ADC candidates, said the party’s hope was that it would get its first governor from Abia.

ADC will defeat all the defeatables. Our hope is in Abia to give us the first governor,” Arinze said, as he appealed to party faithful and all Abians “to join hands to make victory possible” for the party at the polls next year, stressing, that “it is in our own interest to elect Bishop Onuoha as the next Governor of Abia State.”

While welcoming party faithful to the campaigns flag off ceremony, Vice Chairman and also the Director-General, ADC Campaign Council, Abia State, Prince Okwara Agwu, said the event would herald other phases of the party’s campaigns in its bid to takeover Abia.

“It is a matter of great honour that our party’s campaign flag off event is crowned with success. This is not the end but the first phase of the beginning after which our party will move from phase to phase in winning the 2023 elections in Abia State,” Agwu said.

He charged every member of ADC in the State to work hard for the success of the party. “It is by working together that we can succeed. We must always do our best to take our dear party forward, regardless of any issues as it is peculiar with politics and political parties in this part of the world,” Agwu said.