Who did Ikpeazu sign the pact with?
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate for Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu (PhD), has become the beginning of wisdom in the camp of opposition political parties in the state. They have done everything humanly possible to pull him down, but their unsuccessful games have shown that he is the man God has sent to govern Abia State in the next dispensation. Gratefully enough, he is not into the campaign of calumny as the opposition politicians are wont in the state.
When the gluttonous opposition politicians took Ikpeazu to the cleaners that he had signed a pact with the incumbent Governor Theodore Orji, he refuted the odious statement, saying that there was never a thing like that, and there would never be. He rather was flummoxed on how some politicians in the state have been throwing millions around and told Nigerians to question the source of these persons money.
In Ikpeazu's words: “I have not signed anything (pact) and nobody has made that proposal to me and nobody will do it because I am a person of modest means and a lot of things do not appeal to me….You know from recent history that such things don't work anywhere. You can't show one example of somebody that has been tied and put in the pocket and he is a governor…. Nobody is contemplating such.”
The glaring truth is that if Ikpeazu had to bring money before he would become the guber candidate of the PDP in Abia State, he would not have made it, because he has always been a man of sincerity and a man of modest means, who does not like the fangs of corruption and aberration. Ikpeazu has always thanked God for his nomination and win in the primaries.
He had said: “Governor Theodore Orji played a role in my nomination as PDP flag bearer and he didn't ask money from me to do that. If he wanted money, I wouldn't have been an option because I don't have money to offer anybody. One of the candidates running the election with me, who was an aspirant in PDP, offered N3 billion to Governor Orji, but the governor said no and said that equity and justice must be done.
“The same candidate paid another huge amount somewhere just to get the PDP ticket. When he realized his money couldn't buy him the PDP ticket, he ran to another party, where his money was able to buy him a ticket. The records are there to show. It is not about money. This is about what God wants to do. For the first time in the history of our state, an ordinary lecturer, a common man like me, from Ngwa, is emerging to become governor.”
Even though that Ikpeazu did not mention names, we already know that that candidate was the charade in the APGA called Dr. Alex Otti whose desperation has revealed to the people of Abia State who he is – a man of questionable means. Yes, the governor might have played a major role in the nomination of Ikpeazu, but the dude is not the governor's anointed candidate. The governor never for one day said that power must shift to the Abia South, this is the making of the PDP, of which the governor is the leader in Abia State.
However, Ikpeazu has cleared the perception thus: “I want to put it on record that while I was serving as Deputy General Manager of ASEPA in charge of Aba, the Aba Landlords Association who saw the leadership potential in me recommended me to the PDP hierarchy in Abia State. At one of their meetings with the state governor, they said to him, this man could become governor. They were so excited about my determination to wrought a change in that sector of the gamut of Aba challenge. I didn't know them and didn't give them a dime. In fact, it was after their meeting that I was told what they told the governor… Now, much as I count myself lucky to be picked out of so many qualified Abians for the top job by our party, I am not a stooge to anybody.”
Knowing the truth now that Ikpeazu did not sign any pact with anybody or promised to do so any time, it is pertinent to understand that the man has promised among others, to lift the city of Aba from its current state to another level when elected governor. According to him, these will include uplifting current infrastructures, upgrading facilities at the Ariaria Market and other markets in Aba as well as dealing with issue of environmental denigration which has become the lot of the commercial city….
Ikpeazu added that we have a roadmap on how to revive various industries, which are in comatose in the state, as well as apply some new techniques that will make the internally generated revenue of the state from its current N500m monthly to about N2 billion monthly.
Unlike other contestants who have believed that our people have endorsed them when nothing like that exists, the humble and humane Ikpeazu is soliciting for all Abia people to give him the maximum support and votes so that we will actualise our dreams for the state.
According to him, “Our vision is to make Abia State the premier destination in Nigeria, West and Central Africa for investors, traders, shoppers, workers and tourists…. To actualise this, we must leverage on the strategic geographical location of Aba, which makes it what sugar is to ants, and attract trade and commerce. Aba is the commercial centre of Old Eastern Region and a major player in the commercial life of Nigeria, West and Central Africa. It is, therefore, our duty to place world class infrastructure around the city so that we can return trade and commerce and build industrial clusters, using the German model of apprenticeship system, where we have family line businesses.”
It is expedient for all Abia people to vote for Ikpeazu who has promised that his government must intervene in terms of giving access to world class finishing and equipment so that there can be mass production of finished products that can compete for space in shops in top shops in America, Europe and Asian markets. We have to vote for Ikpeazu who has promised that his government will do a mass reorientation of the way our people think; the time has come when we will not allow people talk down on Aba and her products; we are among the best in the world; our plan is that in the days ahead, Aba will attract the attention of African and the World to Nigeria. This is our focus. Vote for Ikpeazu!
.Hart writes from Lagos