A frontline governorship hopeful, Chief James Okereke Anyaogu, has announced the political party he will actualize his ambition to become governor of Abia State.
This is coming against the backdrops of several calls by the majority of people of Abia state on political platform he would actualize his governorship bid ahead of the general election in 2023 in the state and other parts of Nigeria.
However, while disclosing the YPP as his party, which was contained in a worded statement issued to AFRIPOST on Friday in Umuahia, the Abia capital, Anyaogu also regretted that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the governing All Progressive Congress (APC), have failed woefully in all indices of governance, and also with the mandate given to it by the people of the state in the past twenty years in the helms of affairs of Abia state.
According to him, “the PDP with the mandate of Abians in the executive and legislative arms of government has failed woefully in delivering good Leadership and the dividends of democracy they promised. With the people’s mandate, the PDP seemed to get worse at every turn of election and as such has lost the people’s trust”.
The international business mogul, further berated lack of people’s oriented development plans as contained in PDP’s manifesto, pointing out that he decided to pitch tent with the Young Progressive Party (YPP) as platform for achieving his 2023 gubernatorial bid because it reflected his good thoughts for Abia state and equally to detach himself from undue interference by cabals who has continued to serve as stumbling block to Abia’s socio-economic and Infrastructural development.
“This is one of the toughest political challenges I have faced in recent times. Studying the manifesto of different political parties has taken me considerable time.
Continuing, the Abia Aspirant also said “the essence of this is to ensure that the party’s manifesto reflects my good thoughts for Abia state and to equally detach myself from undue interference by the cabals who have held Abia’s destiny down for too long.
“Umunnem ndi Abia, on the strength of the above, I am happy to announce today, that the Young Progressive Party (YPP) is our party, and I shall be contesting the governorship position in Abia state under this people-oriented platform”.
Anyaogu’s statement partly read, “With this unfortunate development and reality, in today’s Abia State, it’s not enough to claim, you are new and you will be different only to continue to associate with the same political party that has deliberately stalled the development, causing retrogression as can be evidentially attested by true conscience beings. Doing the same thing repeatedly and hoping for positive changes can only be attributed to a disorganized or one who doesn’t truly care about the pains of Abians, our people said “Anaghim ata oke, anaghim ata oke, mana ka-were eze kereya umuaka.” You can’t wine and dine with the problem and turn around to mouth you will be different, our people are wiser and able to detect these deceits, gambits, strategem, and lies, hence, can not fall for their shenanigans anymore.
“This takes us to the national ruling party; the All Progressives Congress (APC). The APC is the party at the helm and in charge of our national affairs. Considering where we were before the emergence of the APC and where we are after, we can categorically, without mincing words state that the party has not faired any better at the national level, this is supported by the reality of economic quagmire, political instability, insecurity, hardship and even their inability to address the ongoing strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), moreover, they could not articulate a clear stand on and against open grazing which leads to the invasion of communities and destruction of farms by herdsmen.
“Then; one may ask, how about the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)? APGA was founded by a great man Chief Chekwas Okorie (Ojeozi Ndi-Igbo), who is also my brother, to be an alternative for an esteemed Igboman and as a vehicle for Igbo political emancipation in Nigeria, but it has since lost its doctrine especially here in Abia State, where only those disgruntled elements in PDP and APC have held sway at the pie with no proper vision or plan to move our state forward.