Chidi Samuel|
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, on Friday said that the Senator Hope Uzodinma will bring an end to a government by a single family and return Imo back to the people if elected as governor in the 2019 governorship election.
The former labour leader who condemned nepotism in the government of Imo State spoke at a rally to launch the APC campaign in the state.
In the rally which was boycotted by the incumbent governor, Mr. Rochas Okorocha, and the state Chairman of the APC, Mr. Dan Nwafor, Oshiomhole said candidates of other parties who placing President Muhammadu Buhari’s pictures beside theirs are fake.
He apparently was referring to the candidates of Okorocha and Ibikunle Amosun whose candidates has since decamped from APC but are currently campaigning with pictures of President Buhari.
Oshiomhole said, “Those who are putting Buhari with their faces because they are unknown are fake. Buhari has APC as his party.”
“Buhari has adopted Uzodinma as his governorship candidate. We brought you a message of hope not a message of lamentation and family business.
“We have come to deliver the message of hope that although things have gone wrong in the recent past, we have come to say how we will return the governance of the state to the people.”
He continued, “When you elect Senator Hope, appointment into government will be based on merit, not family connection.
“I’m assuring you that we have a governorship candidate, whose purpose is to develop and bring prosperity to the Igbo young man, the Owerri young woman, the carpenter, the mechanic and, above all, my own comrades, the civil servants of Imo State who don’t know any longer what a payday looks like.
“When we talk of happiness, we will not domesticate it in the hands of a sister. The happiness of the great people of Imo State will be the primary purpose of government under Sen. Hope Uzodinma,” he said.
“One contract will not be awarded to three people. If it must be awarded, it will not be awarded to in-laws. It will be awarded to the genuine businessmen and women of Imo State.
“Never again will any of your governors look at your (traditional) leaders and abuse them because democracy is about people.
“Never again shall we govern on the basis of family connections. Whether you know somebody or you don’t, whether you marry from me or I don’t marry from you, that shall not be the basis for winning the next election,” he said.
Oshiomhole assured families with breadwinners and pensioners who had not been paid for six to nine months that “the bailout, which President Muhammadu Buhari had given governors, including the governor of Imo State, and was not used for that purpose, will be retrieved and our pensioners will smile again.”
Earlier, Uzodinma assured the APC chairman that, at the end of the day, the party would be vindicated.
“We are not going to disappoint the people of Imo and we’ll have victory, five over five. I promise, in the name of the almighty God, it shall never be the same again. The Egyptians you are seeing today, you shall see no more,” he said.