By Favour Goodness
Two business moguls from Nnewi in Nnewi Local Local Government Area of Anambra state have endorsed the guber aspirant of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Prof. Charles Soludo ahead of Nov. 6 governorship election in the state.
Chief Executive Officer of Ibeto Group, Chief Cletus Ibeto and the Chief Executive Officer of Innoson Vehicles Manufacturing Company, Chief Innocent Chukwuma have urged Anambra people to support Soludo who paid a visit to Chief Ibeto at his Nnewi residence.
The two great sons of Nnewi gave their political blessings to Soludo which is normal in politics where stakeholders always wish aspirants who visit them well.
However such perceived endorsement did not go down well with the supporters of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) guber candidate, Sen. Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah, a son of the community.
Innoson, however, said that his own support for Soludo is not sacrosanct but only based on Ibeto’s wish meaning that such support can be withdrawn at any time if Chief Ibeto announces another candidate as his choice to Nnewi community.
Meanwhile, Ubah supporters from the community were not happy with such endorsement by their two brothers.
Reacting, one of them under condition of anonymity said “anyone who lives in Nnewi knows that the name Ifeanyi Ubah moves mountains in the town.
“Even before his entrance into politics, Senator Ubah commanded a cult of followership in Nnewi because EVERY FAMILY in the town has benefited directly or indirectly from his benovelence.
“Even presently, Ifeanyi Ubah is the only politician from Nnewi that attracts mammoth crowd anytime he walks or drives through the streets of the town.
“The kind of love the Senator enjoys from Nnewi people is uncommon and that was confirmed when he stepped out of his comfort zone during the #EndSARS protests to calm the protesters.
“During that protest, he moved round the town with thousands of youths without any security officer and the protesters happily toured the town with him and abided by his plea for the discontinuation of the protest in Nnewi in order not to give hoodlums the opportunity to hijack it and destroy private and public properties.
“Only a man with the heart of gold who is widely and strongly loved by his people can make such risky move.
According to him, for APGA to throw parties because two great sons of Nnewi allegedly left Ifeanyi Ubah and gave their blessings to Soludo means that Ifeanyi Ubah is indeed a great son and a great threat to the party.
“APGA should focus on addressing present issues that may make the party to have the Zamfara experience instead of masturbating in celebration of a purported endorsement of a man that was afraid of a free primary due to his unpopularity among the party members and Anambra people.
“Ubah does not need any big man endorsement to win bulk votes in Nnewi. Even if 100 candidates sponsored by 100 big men emerge from Nnewi to contest with him, they will not get up to 100 votes as Nnewi people will as usual, follow Ubah who remains their big brother with a heart of gold.
“APGA should better go and check if they have Malaria if they keep dreaming of winning Nnewi when Ifeanyi Ubah is contesting on the platform of another political party.
“They should also remember that the victory of the outgoing Gov. Willie Obiano in Nnewi was the first time the party was able to win Nnewi votes in a decade, and that the victory was actualized because Ubah went Ward to Ward, village to village, market to market and on radio and begged Nnewi community to vote for the governor because of him,” he said.
