By Jude Atupulazi
For the Candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, in the November 8 Guber Poll, only vote buying and voter apathy can stop him from booting out the incumbent Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo.
Speaking on Arise Television, Tuesday, Nwosu, who described the appointment of Prof Joash Amupitan as the new boss of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as providing fresh hopes of a credible election, said the poor performance of Soludo had made it certain that he would win except there were vote buying and voter apathy.
Nwosu therefore urged Anambra voters to come out en masse to vote, stressing that only by coming out in their numbers and shunning vote-buying would Prof. Amupitan’s promise of credible election bear fruit.
On his switch from the Labour Party (LP), the ADC standard bearer disclosed that he decided to move to the coalition platform of ADC when it became obvious that the nomination process in LP would run afoul of the Electoral Law and Nigeria’s Constitution.
‘I was the one who built the structure of Labour Party in Anambra State. When I decided to run for Governorship last year, I met our leader, Peter Obi, who advised me that Labour Party does not have a physical structure in Anambra State and that we needed to go and build the structures and be visible.
‘Then I recruited a team comprising His Excellency, Oseloka Obaze, the former Secretary to the Anambra State Government (SSG) and the Campaign Manager of Peter Obi Presidential Campaign Council under which I served as the Director ICT.
‘With him and the Rt. Hon. Ben Chuks Nwosu, who was the Speaker of Anambra State House of Assembly when Peter Obi was impeached, three of us moved down to Anambra State and set up the 21 Local Government Area offices for Labour Party, giving them N1 million each,’ he stated.
He said they also met with Innoson Plastics who made chairs and tables for them with which they built a physical structure and started moving from one local government to the other.
‘As a matter of fact, we travelled the nook and crannies of Anambra State about four times,’ Nwosu said, remarking that coming from the private sector background like the incumbent Governors of Enugu and Abia States, he was sure to replicate the good governance and impactful service delivery in those neighbouring states.
He assured that ADC would pull surprises in the November 8 Gubernatorial Poll in Anambra State, adding that just as the election was the first under Prof Amupitan, it was also going to be the coalition ADC’s first electoral contest after the coalition.
‘Yes, under the name of ADC. As you know, ADC is a coalition of parties being represented by mostly PDP, from which I picked my running mate, Chief Dr. Ndubisi Nwobu, who was a local government Chairman of Awka South under PDP, and also the State Chairman of PDP.
‘So PDP forms the major part of the coalition, followed by Labour, which I came from. So a major part of Peter Obi is of Labour, for which PDP got the position of the National Chairman of the party in the name of former Senate President, David Mark.
‘Then the Peter Obi-led Labour Party was given the position of National Organising Secretary for which he nominated Hon. Chinedu Idigo, who represents them. So it’s a coalition of parties. There is so much optimism, Obi is definitely part of ADC,’ Nwosu insisted.
On why he swore to an oath in court to serve only one term if elected Governor, Nwosu noted that just as the current incumbent used three and a half years to show that he had not done well for the state, the incoming ADC administration would use three years to make a difference.
He dismissed the assertion in some quarters that the incumbent Governor had done well, saying the indices were clear for everyone to see, starting from insecurity.
‘As a matter of fact, in the last three and a half years, Anambra State has lost illustrious children in the name of kidnappers and sundry brigandage. In fact, in Ihiala Local Government Area that houses Lilu, Mbosi- where my great brother and friend, Dr. Allen Onyema, the owner of Air Peace, hails from, in the past three and a half years, they have never been going home.
‘As a matter of fact, they are now holding traditional wedding ceremonies and everything in townships. And even to bury the dead, you have to find a way to pay ransom and then get in there. So insecurity has been a major challenge,’ he said, regretting that the only project the incumbent Governor could say he completed was the Government House, which, Nwosu pointed out, was initiated by a former Governor, the late Dr Chinwoke Mbadinuju in 1999.
‘The ADC administration under my watch will change the narrative. What I am bringing to the table is e-governance, e-security, e-health, e-tax, e-transportation, e-commerce,’ he said, disclosing that all would be anchored on his seven-point agenda of good governance, under the acronym SHEEEMS.
Nwosu said he would draw from his experience from the private sector where had managed an ICT company for the past 31 and a half years.
‘So, what is the difference between managing a state and managing a company? The only fair difference is that in a company you go for profit, whereas in a state it’s about the welfare of the people, showing accountability.
You must be efficient in the management of both humans and their resources, which is what is lacking in this state as of today. As a fact, we have issues of touts beating people with canes on the streets in the name of chasing them for tax,’ Nwosu said, while promising to raise the revenue profile of the state without recourse to crude methods.
