Odili can lead Nigeria

[Richard Akindele]

As politicians go to work in their effort to produce a successor to President Olusegun Obasanjo, a coalition of three grassroots socio-political organizations in Rivers State, the Rivers Democratic Network (RDN), Ikwerre Mandate and Ikwerre Progressives have jointly called on the Executive Governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili to contest the Presidential election in 2007.

In a joint press statement signed by the Chairmen of the three groups, Dr. Okey Onuchuku (RDN), Prince Amadi Oparaeli (Ikwerre Mandate) and Hon. Jossy Chie Amadi (Ikwerre Progressives) after a joint executive meeting held penultimate Saturday in Port Harcourt, the group said their call was premised on Governor Odili’s performance and credible score card in Rivers State which they described as a micro Nigerian nation with over 25 ethnic nationalities and associated cultural differences.

According to the statement, Dr. Odili is a totally detribalized Nigerian who strongly believes in the unity, progress and development of the country, stressing that they had no doubt that he would replicate the same positive scenario for the nation if elected the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The statement which said that Nigerians need a focused political leader who would not only maintain and sustain the reform agenda of the Obasanjo administration but would also strive to build on same to put more smiles on the faces of Nigerians, noted that the nemesis of political leadership in the country is the mischief associated with the discontinuity of the well meaning programmes of previous administrations.

The group identified the Independent Power Project of Governor Peter Odili, construction, resurfacing and rehabilitation of major roads, dualization of the Port Harcourt International Airport Road as well as the successful completion of the new Rivers State Government House and the new House of Assembly Complex as the ideas of a great leader.

They also expressed appreciation to Governor Peter Odili for granting scholarship to over 100 students of Rivers State origin to study abroad, rehabilitation of the State Secretariat Complex and the current poverty alleviation programmes of the Odili administration through a higher purchase transport initiative and the obliteration of the primordial cankerworm called upland-riverine dichotomy as steps taken in sincerity of purpose to put the State on a special developmental pedestal that other Nigerians desire replicated at the national level.

The coalition of the three socio-political groups therefore assured Governor Odili of their unalloyed loyalty and unflinching support as they urge him to step into the race to the Presidency in 2007.

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