From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
The Young Progressive Party (YPP) candidate for Abia Central Senatorial District, Chief Chuku Wachuku, has said Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Mr Peter Obi stands a good chance of winning next year’s presidential election.
Chief Wachuku, who stated this during an interactive session with the media at his country home, Mbawsi, Isiala Ngwa North LGA, stated that the likelihood of Mr Obi becoming the next president was high.
The candidate for senator expressed optimism that his Abia Central constituents would deliver bloc votes to the YPP in next year’s senatorial election.
The former Director General of National Directorate of Employment (NDE) noted that his people-oriented programmes puts him ahead of competing candidates.
Chief Chuku said he would use his experience as the former DG of the NDE to introduce law in the National Assembly that will create thousands of jobs if elected.
He promised to initiate a key partnership to be struck with the management of Geometrics Power to ensure that industries and households in Abia Central enjoy adequate power supply.
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He listed unemployment in Nigeria as the direct cause of the country’s insecurity crisis, but assured that with his experience in labour and economic policies coupled with his cognate achievements in poverty alleviation, thousands of micro and macro jobs would be created for the people of Abia Central.
The ex-NDE boss who described his opponents in next year’s senatorial battle as “local champions and pretenders”, recalled that it was his policy formulation that gave birth to National Poverty Alleviation Program (NAPAP) embarked upon by different administrations.
He regretted that the NAPAP he envisioned and midwived was not the same with the present-day flagrant donations of tricycles to youths, describing such as unsustainable.
He lamented that many politicians and administrators of today have mistaken the donation of tricycle (KEKE) to mean economic empowerment even when the youths should have been provided with sustainable and valuable jobs.
On his chances of defeating his opponents in 2023, the ex-NDE DG emphasized that apart from his qualifications, it is the turn of his Isiala Ngwa North part of Umunneato Ngwa, to produce the next Senator as the position has completely rotated among other political blocs in Abia Central.