As the alignment and realignment for 2023 general elections continue, the committee saddled with the screening of governorship candidates of Abia North extraction has adopted the governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Bishop Dr. Sunday Ndukwo Onuoha as the consensus candidate of Abia North extraction.
Addressing newsmen on Monday in Umuahia, the State capital, The DG, Abia North Political Project and Team Lead Abia North Consensus Governorship candidate screening Committee, Dr. Uduma Nnate, stated that since 10 out of the 18 governorship candidates in the race are from Abia North, the committee already in existence was given the mandate of screening and reaching a consensus candidate for the sake of “equity”.
He said the committee placed on the front burner, the capacity, integrity, knowledge of good governance and health dispositions of the candidates from Abia North extraction before arriving at a consensus candidate, informing that the candidate of the ADC, Bishop Onuoha has all the qualities required to be the standard consensus candidate from the zone.
Dr. Nnate said the group, which has been at the forefront of promoting and encouraging aspirants from Abia North from different political parties till the conclusion of primaries, had to set up a screening committee that considered the chances, capacity, credibility of candidates, among others, revealing that the process was transparent as it properly gleaned the credentials and antecedents of the candidates.
He revealed that members of the committee were men and women of proven integrity drawn from the 5 LG s of Abia North just as 5 Elders from Abia North equally played advisory roles, saying that the process was transparent.
Dr. Nnate who pointed out that all the Governorship Candidates in the parties from Abia North are qualified, stressed that they also met their selection criteria but at the end, only one person is required to come from the zone.
Justifying the choice of the candidate of the ADC and President, Vision Africa Radio, Bishop Dr. Sunday Onuoha, the group noted that the Methodist Bishop is a peace-loving Nigerian that has traversed the country, uniting Christian and Muslim religious leaders and has continually sued for peaceful co-existence among Nigerians irrespective of ethnic or religious inclinations.
They also maintained that among all the candidates from Abia North, Bishop Onuoha has impacted many through his visionary community service cum global efforts, reiterating that through his Vision Africa platform, free medical missions, he has reached over one million people in Nigeria with orphanage, prison rehabilitation and collaboration with the disabled community as part of the organization’s objective.
Also speaking, another member of the group, Engr. Odo Ijere, said it is pertinent for the State to elect someone with wide spectrum especially as the state searches for good governance, insisting that Abia North needs a candidate of it’s extraction so as to reflect the wishes of Abia founding fathers which is encapsulated in the Abia Charter of Equity.
