Today, the Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Gburugburu) will welcome and play host to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his running mate, Mr. Peter Obi, at the PDP presidential campaign in Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu.
The rally will not only be about presenting and soliciting for votes for the PDP presidential candidate and his running mate, it will also showcase the level of popularity and acceptance of Governor Ugwuanyi’s administration by majority voters in the state and how the forthcoming elections will likely pan out in the state.
It will reaffirm the known truth that Enugu is a PDP state since 1999 and will remain a PDP state after 2019. It will also prove to the fifth columnists, that there is no disunity or crises in the Southeast PDP over the choice of Obi as Atiku’s running mate or emergence of Atiku as presidential candidate. Both are perfect choice of the majority PDP faithful including those from southeast zone, who see them as the best for Nigerians at this critical point.
The turnout of the PDP faithful and supporters at today’s rally will surely send a strong signal to the factionalised All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state that election is a game of numbers; a battle that is fought and won in the polling units and not on social media or Abuja. It will show unity of purpose among the PDP faithful in the state, despite the initial fallouts of the party primaries.
Members of the factionalised APC in the state, who had promised President Buhari millions of votes in the forthcoming election will see that even fifty thousand votes will be difficult for them to get. They will also realise that they are not on ground. But wait! Where and how do they think they will get votes when Gburugburu has become a political concept and movement in the state and almost everybody is a member, just because of the sterling performance of Governor Ugwuanyi in the office. Gburugburu is now a brand in the state and almost every resident wants to identify with it and proudly market it.
The factionalised APC in the state has no such movement or brand among the undertakers, who lost out in PDP and quickly hijacked the APC structure from the foundation members. Atiku and Obi need not to bother about their chances or votes in Enugu, because Gov. Ugwuanyi has by his achievements, performance and popularity made victory easy for PDP in the state in the forthcoming elections.
With the good governance the governor has provided coupled with the massive infrastructural development, enduring peace and people-oriented programmes that have been put in place, an average voter in the state will vote for PDP in the elections. It is not wrong to say that with Gov. Ugwuanyi, PDP victory in Enugu is a done deal and sure-footed. Gov. Ugwuanyi has not only made his party proud, he has not disappointed the people and his supporters, who voted him into office in 2015.
He has not forgotten his political root and this he has demonstrated by rallying other party faithful to support the emergence of the former governor of the state, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, who has suffered two senatorial election defeats in a controversial circumstance to emerge the PDP senatorial candidate for Enugu East zone.
This is an unprecedented political action or decision that is not typical of Nigerian politicians, who will always prefer to rubbish their political benefactors at any slightest opportunity.
Since coming into office, Gov. Ugwuanyi has shown that he has what it takes to make great difference in governance, especially in the time of difficulties and challenges. He has proven that good leadership and governance is not a rocket science. What else is good governance, apart from touching lives positively, formulating and implementing policies and programmes that are people-oriented.
This, Gov. Ugwuanyi has done passionately and dedicatedly to the joy and admiration of the residents of the state. While the opposition will be scratching their heads for what they will campaign with to get people’s votes, Gov. Ugwuanyi and the PDP will only have the challenge of choice making on which among its numerous laudable achievements in the state will they campaign with first?
These landmark achievements include-prompt payment of workers’ salary and payment of 13th month in December, increment of the Internally Generated Revenues (IGR), implementing the N10m one community, one project scheme, completion of the state-of-the-art Enugu State Diagnostic Centre, first of its kind in Southeast zone, completion of 100 units of one bedroom apartment for 100 lucky civil servants under grade 1 to 10, rehabilitation of facilities at Ajali and Oji River Water Treatment Scheme, making the state the most second advanced state in Nigeria towards the frontier of global good practices with regards to Ease of Doing Business as rated by World Bank Group in 2018 and several others that are lives impacting.
So, Atiku/ Obi’s visit to Enugu today for the presidential rally is just a home coming, because with Gbururgburu’s popularity and remarkable feats in governance, Enugu is secure for PDP. Enugu being the headquarters of Old Eastern region had always wanted the best for the country and Ndigbo in particular, which Atiku/Obi joint ticket represents.
In other words, the rally will be a mere formality because PDP’s victory in the forthcoming elections is not under any threat, unless such exists in the imagination of the few political dreamers and jobbers, who have no political base in the state.
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Aninwaede writes from Ninth Mile Ngwo, Enugu State