In a well attended
ceremony by ACN supporters and sympathizers from the 21 local government areas
of Anambra State and beyond, Mr. Godwin Ezeemo formally declared his intentions
to contest the Governorship election of Anambra State under the banner of ACN.
He pleaded with the party executives to guarantee free and fair elections to
promote internal democracy. He also rejected the position of Deputy Governor,
saying he has no intention of being a spare tyre to anyone. Also he rejected a
senatorial position, saying he is not made for the parliament, rather he
intends to be in a position where all Anambrarians will feel the impact of his
leadership. Below is the complete text of his speech at the ceremony.
ANAMBRA
STATE GOVERNOSHIP RACE 2014
ADDRESS
TO ACTION CONGRESS OF NIGERIA (ACN) PARTY BY
MR.
GODWIN CHUKWUNENYE EZEEMO
ON
HIS DECLARATION
My
name is Mr. Godwin Chukwunenye Ezeemo. One of your illustrious sons and
brother, born 58 years ago to the family of Nze Umeaku Godwin Ezeemo & Lolo
Ahusie Charity Ezeemo Umunwanyiekwosi Duru kindred of Umuojogwo, Amanasaa,
Umuchu Aguata Local Government Area. I am happily married with three (3)
children. I had my primary school education at St Thomas Anglican Primary
School Umuchu; my secondary school at St Peter’s Secondary School Achina, all
in Aguata Local Government Area, Anambra State. My higher Education at Federal
Polytechnic Ilaro, Ogun State, where I obtained a Higher National Diploma (HND)
in Marketing. After serving the Nation (NYSC). I went into the Freight
Forwarding business and domiciled in Lagos from 1986 to 1993. God has been
faithful in blessing the works of my hands.
I
relocated to Britain with my family in 1993 during the political impasse
involving Chief M. K. O. Abiola and Alhaji Basiru Tofa. You will recall a free
and fair election was annulled by Gen. Ibrahim Babaginda in 1993 and that
nearly threw Nigeria into another civil strife. I have had the privilege of
living in Britain for many years and touring so many parts of the world and
have seen and understood what we need as a people. The times have greatly
changed. There was a time when leaders think ahead of the people; making
provisions for things which wasn’t immediately needed but would be needed in
the future. Today, it seems that the people think ahead of their elected
representatives. Today, the people elects a leader but no sooner has the leader
emerged victorious at the polls than the leader
forgets the electorate, ignoring genuine emergency calls, real heart-cry,
cry of injustice, etc; choosing rather to champion causes which made little or no meaning to
‘the man in the street’ ending up embezzling and mismanaging public funds. The
people make several presentations and representations at this stage which fetched
little or nothing. This has resulted in massive unemployment, insecurity,
begging, under-development, youth restiveness, massive brain drain, languishing
in foreign jails, names changing in order to secure favours outside Igbo land,
etc. Our situation today is very pathetic, society has lost its value system
and our Igbo race is worse hit. Education and homely up-bringing are watered
down. Utilities such as Electricity, Water, and Telephone are not working or epileptic
in supply.
This
has been a concern that our leaders despite knowing these do not seem to care.
I have everything I need to live with my family comfortably throughout my life
overseas and I have been doing so. It was six years ago that I started visiting
home from my abode in Britain. These visits exposed me to the sordid state of
our infrastructure, dirty and unplanned cities, misplaced priorities, acute
bribery and corruption, etc. these discoveries gave me several sleepless
nights, I became worried as to how to assist my fatherland, to bring a definite
change to Anambra State, Igbo land, and Nigeria in general. I took this up as a
challenge. I began to use my personal resources to see whether a true change
can be effected hence the hosting of Conference with the Theme: REDISCOVERING
THE LOST IGBO VALUES (VALUE REORIENTATION) in conjunction with Nigeria Union of
Journalist (NUJ) Anambra State chapter.
I
had sympathy for Action Congress of Nigeria for many years. This caused me to
host His Excellency Senator Dr. Chris N. Ngige at my country home in Umuchu to
appreciate him for the good work he did during his tenure as Governor of
Anambra State. I later joined Action Congress as a full fledged member. During
this period and over time I made the following contribution for the progress
and success of our great party in Anambra State:
1.
Cash
and bus donations to the state Executive / Working Committee of the party for
over 2 years;
2.
Sponsored
state Executive working tour of ACN wards in Old Aguata Local Government:
3.
Cash
donations to the Gubernatorial and Senatorial campaign / elections of Dr. Chris
Ngige (OON);
4.
Sponsored
the state chairman’s trip to Accra, Ghana for an ACN Seminar;
5.
Paid
annual rents for some ACN local Government and ward offices in the state
covering Aguata, Orumba North, Orumba South, Nnewi North, Awka South, and
Njikoka Local Government Areas. This process is still going on now with other
Local Government setups;
6.
Procured
Registration / Membership forms from ACN National Headquarters Abuja and
distributed same to Aguata Local Government Areas for registering new members
and financed allowances of the administrative staff that conducted the
registration;
7.
I
have been paying rent for the Aguata LGA office of ACN for the past 3 years,
furnished and equipped the office with chairs, fans, flat screen Television and
Generator sets, etc;
8.
Provided
financial support to the state ACN
youth wing for running their programmes;
9.
Have
generally sponsored and provided financial support for building, organizing and
popularizing Action Congress of Nigeria
for the past 4 years in Anambra;
10.
I
provided 326 unified ACN sign boards for all the ward offices in Anambra State
most of which are still there to be collected and installed;
11.
Co-financed
two ACN state assembly aspirants;
12.
Donated
to women wing of ACN;
13.
Donated
to the party purse for the last concluded April 2013 ACN National Congress in
Lagos.
Much
has been done which I cannot mention here. In all, they go towards keeping the
flag flying for ACN.
As
I was making these contributions to my immediate environment, rather than
become satisfied, I felt deeper hunger to reach out to all the people of
Anambra State; the desire to do this has become a consuming passion and burden
that I resolved to vie for the Governorship position in the state so as to use Government
fiat to develop my state. When it became clear to me that I can no longer
experience joy except I accomplish this goal; I held a meeting with members of
my family at which I tabled this burden. I told them that I would not want to
retire and die in Britain. That I would rather want to utilize part of my
working life to develop my people and so prepare to retire at home. My family
told me that, as long as my going is with good intention and not to join the
band-wagon of corruption, mismanagement, plan-less governance, bad administrations
that characterize our system, they are solidly behind me.
Today,
I am very happy and delighted and I am sure you do, to be part of this historic
meeting. It is historic because what is happening now has never happened in our
party in Anambra state. We should see this favour from God to be part of this
history. I am glad that the party has opened up to accommodate many aspirants
with different backgrounds and views as against what it used to be. This has
given me the opportunity I have today, to be part of this race and that is what
democracy is all about.
It
gives me great pleasure to present myself as a candidate for the Governorship
Election in 2014 to the enlarged party Executives of ACN which is merging into
APC. I solicit your support and prayers.
Among
the many things I wish to accomplish, I will organize a good welfare package
for the members of the party and the state as a whole. I will accommodate every
one of you as a stakeholder in the state with a high sense of belonging.
Deprivation and hoarding of information for selfish purposes will cease. I will
set the boundaries free for all. And we will achieve a freedom that will give
up the type of democracy we see in western world. I will in addition to the
above place great emphasis on the following:
1.
Restoring
our lost values and affordable qualitative
education;
2.
Basic
utilities shall be in place for industrial growth and development;
3.
Agricultural
development
4.
Gainful
employment for our youth even in rural areas;
5.
Elimination
of insecurity;
6.
Provision
of adequate health care for all.
I
thank you all for coming and pray that His Grace will see you back to your
respective homes.
Godwin
Chukwunaenye Ezeemo
24/5/2013
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