…promises rehabilitation of businesses, roads, railways in Abia State
By Tunde Opalana
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar on Saturday in Umuahia, Abia State assured people of the South Eastern region that the PDP government under his watch will not play ethnic or religious cards but run an all inclusive administration.
He further assured that the Igbo race will not be marginalized but be accorded equal opportunities as other tribes and region and that the PDP government will not give room for religious persecution suffered by southeasterners in the past.
These are among other promises he made on Saturday in Abia State during the presidential campaign rally of the party.
Saying that there must be an end to distraction of the Nigerian people particularly in the South East by political.parry that has brought ethnic and religious division, the presidential candidate said Nigerians will be more focused on the unity of the country under PDP government.
Atiku said, “let me tell you, PDP is going to win. Therefore, it is better that you are on a winning ticket than on a ticket that cannot take you anywhere.
“I appeal to you not to be distracted by other political parties that may be playing either religious or ethnic card.
“In PDP, we have no religious or ethnic card, we play only Nigeria card. A card that will bring every body on board, a card that will give a sense of belonging to every part of this country, to every religion, to every ethnicity.”
To make life more meaningful under his administration, the former vice president of Nigeria pledged to earmark huge amount of money for the rehabilitation of businesses in commercial centres of Abia State and the South East geo-political zone in general if elected as President.
In addition, he promised address the problem of erosion in the region, rehabilitate bad roads, build new ones to connect other cities in the region as well as providing railway services to further ease transportation.
“I have seen a number of requests that you have made here. These requests are legitimate and they fall within our policy which we tagged: My Covenant with Nigerians, meaning our promise to Nigerians.
“The issue or railway is there, the issue of rehabilitation of federal roads is also there. Aba is the capital of South East as far as business is concerned.
“I remember when I addressed the business community in the South East in Aba, I promised them that I am going to set out a lot of money for the rehabilitation of businesses in Aba. That promise is still there.
“My Vice president has announced that we are going to set aside $10bn to make sure that we support businesses, particularly in this part of the country.
“On Abia dry port, many of you may not be aware, but I am one of those, as Vice President, who approved that dry port. “The promoters know that but for me, they would not have gotten the approval to set up that dry port. It will be my pleasure to make sure that that dry port functions and is operating.
READ ALSO: Tinubu offered me N150m to join his camp – Popular..
“We in PDP, will be prepared to give Abians (indigenes of Abia State ) what Abians want. It is not an issue of ethnicity, it is not an issue of religion but it is an issue of good governance.
“You can all bear witness that when PDP was governing, Nigeria was prospering. That was the time Nigeria became the biggest economy in Africa.
“We created more jobs, we created more prosperity for everybody in this country. We brought about peace and we brought about unity.
“There was no question of people saying: we were marginalized or we were not represented and so on and so forth. We provided a balanced leadership to this country. So you have no reason not to vote for PDP”, he pointed out,” said Atiku.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.