The Catholic Bishop of Awka, the Anambra State capital, Rev Paulinus Ezeokafor, and prominent groups in the state have expressed support for former Governor Peter Obi as the vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Groups that endorsed Obi’s vice presidential candidacy include the youth wing of Anambra State Association of Town Unions (ASATU) and Anambra New Generation Vanguard (ANGV).
Ezeokafor and leaders of the groups – Osita Ozalagba of ASATU, Chinemerem Oguegbe and Dr Nonso Okoye, of ANGV – urged politicians in the Southeast to support the Abubakar Atiku-Obi presidential project.
The priest spoke yesterday at St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church, Ifitedunu, while addressing the congregation.
The cleric thanked Atiku for choosing Obi as his running mate.
He said: “I believe that with Atiku as an astute politician and Obi as a good manager of resources at the helm of affairs, Nigeria’s economic and administrative challenges would be adequately tackled.
“I am convinced that the Atiku/Obi combination would put smiles on the faces of the masses as the duo, hitherto job creators and renowned human capital developers, would place Nigerians on the path of progress.
“Nigeria’s current problem is lack of economic management and maladministration. I think, with Atiku and Obi at the helm of affairs, Nigeria would be changed for good. We are tired of leadership ineptitude.
“I think, without having all the facts, Obi’s candidature is the greatest thing to have happened to Nigerians in recent times.
“It is a blessing for the Igbo race. We have long been forgotten. Those who know Obi’s antecedent know him as a great manager of resources.”
ANGV urged Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi and others who opposed the nomination of Obi as Atiku’s running mate not to truncate Igbo chances of being key players in the county’s polity.
In a statement in Awka, ANGV’s leaders Chinemerem Oguegbe and Dr Nonso Okoye said Igbo youths would not take it lightly with anybody, no matter how highly place, to plunge the ethnic nationality into another era of deprivation and marginalisation.
It warned PDP leaders in the Southeast to stop arrogating the leadership of the Igbo to themselves.
ANGV said: “We wish to state that the issue in question affects the dreams of the entire Igbo nation to once again be key players in the politics of Nigeria and most importantly the hope of the younger generation of the Igbo nation to become political stakeholders in a united Nigeria.”
