Abaribe was asleep for 16 years, wake with governorship ambition – Uche Nwosu

Senate Minority leader and Senator representing Abia South Senatorial district, Enyinnaya Abaribe has come under serious fire with condemnations trailing his governorship ambition.

A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State, Uche Nwosu lampooned the lawmaker who declared his intention to contest Abia State governorship election come, 2023, saying that the minority leader has gone to sleep for 16 years only for him to wake up with governorship ambition.

Senator Abaribe who comes from the same Local Government Area with the incumbent governor, Okezie Ikpeazu had declared his intention to contest governorship.

The lawmaker disclosed his intention at an event in Obingwa and
Aba North Local Government Areas, while he has also met the State governor on his ambition.

Nwosu’s position was contained in a statement he issued and obtained by CAPITAL POST, posited further that Senator Abaribe lacked the moral justification to be Abia governor.

He said the lawmaker in the upper parliament was silent and uncaring in the travails of Abia State for the past 16 years, wondering, a man who has failed to deliver dividends of democracy would suddenly wake up to gubernatorial ambition.

According to him, the lawmaker has been disconnected with Abia in his sixteen years and it would be too much a risk for the State to be placed in hand of that character.

Nwosu said, “it’s a recognized fact that Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe’s length of stay in the Senate, doesn’t commensurate with the level of development on the ground in Abia South Senatorial district and the state generally.

He lamented the deplorable condition of road infrastructure and the complete lack of Federal government’s presence, stating that, if the Abaribe was alive to his responsibilities in the last 16 years, it would have been a changed narrative.

“He practically made the Senate his permanent abode, having been there for over 16 years, but could not influence developmental change and address all the federal roads in deplorable condition in his Senatorial district (Abia South), right from President Goodluck Jonathan’s PDP led administration and the current President Buhari’s regime. I could say that Abia south zone has been existing without a voice since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999.

“That’s why one can’t travel by road from Osisioma/Port Harcourt Enugu express road to Port Harcourt-Rivers state. That’s why one can’t travel from Aba to Akwa Ibom and Calabar.

“That’s why one can’t travel from Opobo junction to Azumiri. And that’s why Rivers people, Cameroonians and Northerners hardly come to Ariaria and New Market anymore to buy foods wholesale.

Nwosu told Abaribe to separate his condemnation of the maltreatment of IPOB from the real dividends of democracy that the Southern Abia people expected of him, adding that he shouldn’t use his sentiment for IPOB as his political canon fodder.

“The people of his Senatorial district lack effective representation in the Senate. championing the cause or speaking against actions against IPOB is quite different from championing the cause of a Senatorial district. It’s also different from being a state governor”.