Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu has stated the reason he wants to represent the people of Abia South senatorial district in the Senate come 2023 after serving eight years as Abia State governor.
Ikpeazu who reveals this when he interacted with some selected journalists at the weekend, said if it’s the wish of his people to represent them, so be it.
The governor went further to say that the Abia South senatorial zone is lacking in federal presence, adding that he will attract federal projects just he had done in this seven and half years as Abia governor.
“I am tired of being a governor but certainly not tired of responding to impulses from my people,” Ikpeazu said. According to him, whatever one sees in Aba today is done under his watch, hence he wants to continue representing his people at the red chamber.
He said: “If it is the wish of my people that I represent them in the Senate, so be it but after my stint in the Senate because of age, I will contemplate retirement from politics but if my people feel I am still young enough and also have something to offer, especially in the area of the fact that all that you see in Aba today is done under my watch.
“If you delete my intervention from Aba, in fact, Abia South and some parts of Abia Central will be left a void, formless and shapeless. But of all things you have seen, we have done so far, they are by efforts of the state government. There is no Federal Government presence in Abia South. They think they need somebody who has the capacity to create and attract Federal Government’s attention to Abia South.
“They want us to continue along the line of supporting us as the SME capital of Nigeria. We need to give Aba manufacturers a global perspective, and we need to give the Federal Government impetus to use us as the arrowhead in the Continental Free Trade Agreement, where we rightly belong.
“We are not contending with anybody as the largest producer of crude oil, neither are we contending with anybody as the largest producer of rice but we are the best manufacturers of shoes in Africa and the best manufacturer of garments and wears in Africa.
“So, we need to give a national voice to all of these that we have been doing. If I could create an SME bank as a governor, I could do more on capacity building. I could even establish two industries around Aba, then I understand what the problems are and I can speak about them.
“I can mount strong advocacy in that direction and get things done. I have also done so much in terms of support for trade and commerce and my people think that I will be able to ask questions in the area of why Custom Officers raid warehouses in Aba and after going through the rigours in the Wharf, harassment along Benin-Ore Expressway and getting to the warehouse in Aba.
“It is just like somebody coming into your pot of soup and lifting the wing of chicken and asking you where is the birth certificate of this chicken? So, we think that there is something that is not right about how the rest of Nigerians perceive our people in this our genuine calling as traders and small-scale manufacturers, which is just our God-given talent.
“God doesn’t give one everything but the much he has given, we are asking that we need to protect. My people also think that I am in a position to mount strong advocacy in that direction. I am in a position to drive this transition leveraging on Federal Government impetus to do that”, the governor concluded.
Speaking on his absence during the launch of PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar’s campaign, Ikpeazu said his absence was unavoidable, noting that there was no war between him and Atiku.
“There is no battle between the presidential candidate and me. He is my presidential candidate. I don’t have any other candidate, but at times, when one gets to a certain point in life, and a vehicle is put down for a journey, every kid will jump at that offer.
“But as a matured man, questions will be asked about the destination of the vehicle. That is the question I am asking. I am a South-easterner. I am an Igbo man. We have been faithful apologists of the PDP since 1999 and needed to ask a question. The greatest need of Nigerians today is inclusiveness.
“Can we be sensitive to the feelings of other people? Can I be guaranteed a country where a criminal in Sokoto is a criminal in Abia and a criminal Abia is a criminal in Zamfara? Can I be guaranteed a country where my son will not be brutalized, because his name is Okolie?
“Can I be allowed into a meeting out of respect for my capacity to make contributions in that meeting and not necessarily because I am here but because of where I come from?
“There was a time in this country when the quota system was the order of the day; even in admission, because if we take candidates on merit, some sections of this country may not have candidates and everybody agreed to it so that our brothers and sisters can catch up with us.
“When did we jettison that consideration? The other name for hypocrisy is double-standard and these questions were being asked quietly and politely before some characters escalated it to the national platform.
“I was not in Abuja, because I went overseas for a United Nations meeting held in New York and I just came back, which is why I couldn’t attend the launch.
“But going forward, if those questions are not answered, we will limp into the bus and see how it goes, but I thank God for the courage to ask those questions for and on behalf of Nnamdi and I will end this particular question with a proverb about a chicken that found itself in the claws of a kite and the chicken continued to shout and it said ‘I am shouting not because the kite will leave me but let heaven and earth hear my voice.”
