Guber poll debate: UPP hails Chidoka’s performance

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

The United Progressive Party (UPP) has commended its candidate in the November 18 governorship election in Anambra State, Osita Chidoka, for his outstanding performance in the Election Debate organized by Channels Television on Sunday 12th November 2017.
In a statement issued by the Party’s National Publicity Secretary, UPP said Chidoka out-shined his opponents during the debate and proved yet again that he is the best qualified candidate for the gubernatorial poll.
“His clear vision for a greater Anambra State, intellectual capacity, pedigree, integrity, grassroots politics popularity and general acceptance of his candidacy combined to make him the candidate to beat in the Saturday election.
“A man of indefatigable endeavour, Chidoka’s patriotism, maturity, passion, articulation, comportment, oratory, sagacity and tenacity of purpose endeared him in the hearts of fellow compatriots who will troop out en masse on Saturday to vote for United Progressive Party (UPP) with the tiger head as its logo”, UPP said in the statement.
It further described him as a man of enormous intellectual capacity, adding that he has made the good people of Anambra State proud again and raised hope of a new beginning in the onerous task of industrializing the State and raising the people’s standards of living through infrastructural and human development.
“On the viability of the $2 billion Umuleri airport project in the State, Chidoka asserted that, “No State government owns an airport because it’s in the Exclusive List. If a State builds an airport, the Federal Government would eventually collect it. When I was Minister of Aviation, I collected three airports from three State governments. The government should rather channel the $2 billion meant for the airport into transforming Awka and Onitsha into mega-cities.” He stressed that many of the neighbouring States already had airports and described the project as a waste of resources.
“On pro-Biafra agitation by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Chidoka said: “My co-contestants all claim IPOB is an offshoot of unemployment. I disagree. It is the manifestation of the fundamental structural problem with Nigeria. Those agitating all over the world are professionals and not unemployed.” His position is in tandem with the national call for restructuring which All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government has succumbed to.
“Any party that do not subscribe to the right to self-determination and the rights of component parts of Nigeria to express themselves freely, that party does not approximate my philosophy. I believe that Nigeria is a product of negotiation, we must negotiate, we negotiated and got independence; we negotiated and created the Mid-Western State.
Nigeria is a subject of continuous negotiation”, he stated.
In the light of the above, UPP said Chidoka’s position is consistent with the party’s manifesto which provides for self-determination, restructuring, referendum, unconditional release of Prisoners of Conscience, resource control, State Police/Community Policing and true federalism.
Meanwhile, in his debate, Chidoka had said he would run a digital government if elected the Governor of Anambra State, adding that with technology, his government would drive a robust foreign and local investment campaign in the State.