2023: Secure ‘tiny Ebonyi state’ before seeking to be President, stakeholders tell Umahi

Stakeholders from Ebonyi State have advised the Governor, Dave Umahi, to first ensure the security of the state before seeking to vie for President of Nigeria.

The stakeholders, under the auspices of the Association of Ebonyi Indigenes In Diaspora (AEISD), lamented that persons displaced by communal clashes in parts of the state have been left to their fate, with no succour.

“As we speak, thousands who were displaced by communal war in Effium, Ohaukwu Local Government Area of the state are yet to return to their ancestral homes, needless to speak of receiving any succour whatsoever from the Umahi administration.

“The thousands of victims who were also displaced in three communities in Ezza North LGA where he is lavishing public funds in building an International Cargo Airport remain displaced as they are yet to be duly compensated by the Umahi administration. Hunger and poverty have been weaponized by his government such that all might come to beg for crumbs on his table.

“Any wonder Ebonyi is now officially rated the poverty capital of the entire Southern Nigeria by the National Bureau of Statistics,” the group regretted.

In a communiqué on Thursday, AESID through its Ambassador Paschal Oluchukwu said that “it received with mixed feelings the news that Ebonyi state Governor, Engr. David Nweze Umahi declared his intention to contest for the presidency.”

Adding that it totally rejects Umahi’s presidential ambition, the statement bemoaned that the country will not survive a week under what it described as the “dictatorship style of governor Umahi” as president.

It asked the governor to give stewardship of his seven years in the state, noting that “Umahi has failed to secure our tiny Ebonyi State with the consistent and reported attacks and communal clashes recorded under his administration, some of which are allegedly fueled even by his political appointees.”

“With the way and manner he has handled the State’s House of Assembly which is ordinarily a separate arm of government, are we not certain that a National Assembly under an Umahi Presidency would be worse than the current rubber-stamp legislative arm that we have in Nigeria?

“Will Nigeria truly survive just a one-week reign of a Dictator like Umahi? AESID would wish to ask; which impact and mark has Governor Umahi made in Ebonyi’s critical sectors such as, Education- given we are classified as Educationally-Less-Developed, Health- given our poor maternal mortality rate and Agriculture-given our rich potentials in this sector?

“What about the State’s Civil service he has left in its shadows, including Lecturers in our State-owned tertiary institutions whose salaries he has withheld and pays any pittance he feels like? Is it the retirees some of who have died in their pains and agonies over non-payment of their due entitlements or their sorrowing relatives that would drum support for Umahi’s touted 2023 Presidential ambition?

“Mysterious deaths such as the sudden ‘disappearance’ of some five NELAN contractors sometime in November last year among other cases of suspicious demises all points to the alleged diabolic and wicked extent the government has gone in its dealings with the now beleaguered Ebonyi masses.

“Rather than provide jobs for our teeming populace, what the Umahi government specializes on is to appoint, through proxies, our vibrant youths who daily sing its praises on the Social media for some pittance.

“For this noble accountability platform in particular, therefore, we believe it is time for him to be held to account for the little opportunity he has had in just one, out of a total of the 36 States of the federation that he now aspires to pilot their affairs,” the statement maintained.

Governor Umahi had on Tuesday met with President Muhammadu Buhari where he announced his intention to contest the 2023 presidential election.

(Daily Independent)