. as TAN organizes debate for Nnewi North Chairmanship candidates
By Chuks Eke
The member Representing Nnewi North, Nnewi South and Ekwusigo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Amb. Peter Ifeanyi Uzokwe (YPP), has described the death of Senator Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah as a monumental loss to the entire universe.
He said Ubah’s death is not only a monumental loss to Nnewi, his home town, Anambra, his home state, Nigeria, his country home or national assembly, his base but in the entire universe where his business empire cuts across.
Speaking at a political debate tagged: Nnewi Debate 2024, organized by the Transformation Ambassadors of Nnewi, TAN for Nnewi North Local Government Chairmanship candidates of various political parties held in Nnewi on Sunday, Hon. Uzokwe lamented that since Ubah’s death, members of the Young People’s Party, YPP which the late Ubah nurtured to a standard political party, have never recovered from the devastating blow occasioned by. his sudden death.
According to the lawmaker, “Nnewi might think that the loss is only to Nnewi people. No, Nigeria lost somebody in Ifeanyi Ubah. The entire world equally lost somebody in Ifeanyi Ubah. Let me ask one question. Who will intervene when Ndi-Igbo are at loggerhead with their host communities like in Trade Fair Complex, Ladipo or Idumota in Lagos?”
“Who will interface with the State Government? Or Deidei market in Abuja and get their shops unlocked? Who is that Senator who is the Senate Committee Chairman on State and Local Government, on whose platform he used to launch the Bill for Local Government Autonomy?”
“Who is the Capital Oil that is the Chairman of the Down Stream Sector of the Petroleum Industry? Who is that Senator that will keep assuring us that our Refineries will work again? As at today, I don’t have the capacity to step into his shoes, but I’ll try to keep the flag flying. I will try my best, and with the help of God, maintain his legacies”.
On his message to Ndi–Nnewi in respect to Saturday’s local government chairmanship and councillorship elections, he declared: “This election is not about opposition. It is about capacity. It is about what you have to offer the people. With the allocation coming from the Federation Account and the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, especially from the Markets, Nnewi does not need State Government interferance”.
It is her right and not a privilege for the State Government to give Nnewi what is rightly due to her. Nobody should play hanky panky with the allocation that is due to Nnewi.Take Nnewi out from Anambra and the state will collapse”.
On his candidate, Hon. Paul Muoneke, he said: “Whatever I’ll say about him is just like me talking about myself. In YPP, we don’t present somebody without capacity. If he’s elected and doesn’t do well, he should be ready for opposition.Just like me, if I’m not doing well, I’m ready to be challenged”.
“In YPP, we are very careful with the kind of candidates we present. He is a candidate we carefully brought out with Lady Irene Udoaja as his running mate. What a beautiful combination? Look at the way he answered all the cunning questions thrown at him. He is a material and I’m confident that he’ll win the election”.
During the debate, the candidate of YPP, Paul Muoneke who was the only candidate that attended it, said he would harmonize Nnewi Community Central Security and the local vigilante services with CCTV cameras mounted in all nooks and crannies in the council area to boost adequate security.
“We will modernize Nnewi markets to international standard with CCTV cameras. We will empower our youths through sports. We will facilitate agricultural boost with high yielding seedlings and provision of arable lands through Public Private Partnership, PPP”.
“We will also transform Nnewi into a real Taiwan of Africa. We will ensure steady power supply, make Nnewi Stadium and GRA projects realizable and a lot of other critical infrastructures would be put in place”, said Muoneke.
In his vote of thanks, the initiator of the debate and Publicity Secretary of TAN, organizers of the debate, Chukwumaife Caleb Festus Okeke-Enyobi, described the 2024 Nnewi Debate as a success and first of its kind in the history of local government elections in the country.
He however expressed disgust that only Muoneke of the YPP turned up at the event which was expected to be attended by candidates of other major political parties like the PDP, APC and APGA to present their manifestoes to Nnewi North electorate and allow them make their choice among the candidates.
