Anambra State: Students, Youths rally Support for PDP’s Presidential Candidate
Chinwe Onuigbo, Awka.
Thousands of students and youths trooped out in Anambra state, South-east Nigeria, to show support for the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
The event, which took place in Awka, the Anambra state capital, was tagged “Anambra Youths/ Students for Atiku.”
The student groups represented major tertiary institutions in Anambra state.
Addressing the students, the daughter of the PDP presidential candidate, Miss Maryam Abubakar, asked the young people to always believe in themselves.
“Having self confidence to vote for the right person is one major step to getting the country back.
“My father is a genuine believer in a better Nigeria and is determined to fix the country,” she said while urging the students to come out next year to vote massively for the PDP’s presidential candidate.
A one-time senator and chairman of Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organization, Anambra State, Chief Ben Ndi Obi, described Alhaji Abubakar as a lover of students and youths, referencing his investments in education.
Senator Obi said that the former vice president is man who is committed to a better Nigeria and, therefore, asked Anambra students to join the movement to recover the country.
On his part, the Director-General, Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organization in Anambra state, Professor Obiora Okonkwo, described the Atiku/Okowa movement as a formidable one.
“It is only when a government that is interested in youth development is supported that Nigerian youths can have a better sense of governance.
“The Atiku/Okowa movement is a formidable one that has a very strong national alliance that pictures the political ideologies of the foremost nationalists, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Alhaji Ahmadu Bello,” said Prof. Okonkwo.
He said that though the clamour for Igbo presidency is a general anthem among the Igbo people (one of the major ethnic groups in Nigeria), the time is still not ripe for the realization of that particular dream.
The Technical Adviser Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organization, South-East Zone, Chief Dan Ulasi, on his part, said that the search for national power in Nigeria can only be achieved through alliances and networks built over time.
“Even though a time is coming when Igbo people will be at centre of Nigeria’s power, it must be negotiated with patience,” he stressed.
Chief Ulasi then ran through a bit of Nigeria’s political history, explaining that the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe understood the shortcomings of Ndi Igbo (one of the major ethnic groups in Nigeria), hence he pursued alliance with other regions of the country, especially the North.
A former Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Iyom Josephine Anenih, was also at the event.
