Tobi Adebayo
Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly Worldwide has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for not interfering with the November 6 Anambra Governorship election.
Ohanaeze, in a statement by its Director-General, Strategic Planning and Implementations, of the group, Amb. Tony Chiemelu Obizoba, thanked President Buhari for providing adequate security and an enabling environment to conduct a free and fair election.
The organisation also congratulated the Governor-elect, Professor Charles Soludo and urged him to be a “governor for all.”
“It also thanked President Buhari for ensuring a credible poll without interference, despite the involvement of his own political party, All Progressives Congress (APC), which remarkably came third in the contest that saw the candidate of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) as the winner.
“Recall that amidst the avoidable heat, which turned the South East region of Nigeria to a ghost of itself, and a particular plot against the possibility of holding the 2021 governorship election in Anambra State, Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly Worldwide was conspicuously about the only Igbo group that refused to be cowed down by the scares and panic caused as it stood for what was right, blaming leaders in the region for being complacent with activities of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
“Thanking President Buhari on this feat is important because, if the President had, had interference with that election, the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) might not win.
“It is there remarkable that the President conducted an election in a federating unit of the country and his own party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) not even came second but third and there was no attempt whatsoever by him to manipulate the process.
“We give it to him. In the last 22 years of the democratic experience of the Fourth Republic, we have seen presidents and have seen how they fared in the conduct of solo elections involving their party’s candidates. We saw a do-or-die election, we saw where the situation was prewritten results in favour of their party’s interest. But under APC’s President Buhari, election victories have been won in ways that the losers have got no justification for disagreement.
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“We congratulate the winner of the governorship election in the person of Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo over his resounding victory. We make bod to say that his success at the election makes us proud as Anambra people and we rejoice with him and the entire electorate, who came out, shunning the threats of the insecurity elements, and decided the fate of the state for the next four years in terms of governance.”
“Soludo will remain in history as the former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that effected the banking reforms started by late General Sani Abacha regime with the recapitalization policy of that apex bank that saved and has continued to sustain Nigeria’s banking sector till today.
“He should reciprocate the magnanimity of President Buhari, who did not allow sentiment for his own party, the APC, to do interference that could have cost him his victory, by also being magnanimous in victory towards others in ensuring a collective effort for a greater Anambra State socially and economically,” the statement read.
