Group Canvasses Support for Okowa as VP Candidate to Atiku
Sylvester Idowu in Warri
A political pressure group, The Mid Westerners, has called on critics of Senator Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa as the vice presidential candidate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to sheathe their sword and support the duo in their bid to reform the country.
The group, at a press briefing yesterday in Warri Delta State, said since civilian regime till now, no mid westerner had been given the opportunity to occupy the position of the VP of this country.
Chairman of the group, Hon, Iwemdi Nwaham, said those criticising the choice of Okowa as the vice presidential candidate to Atiku should not lose this opportunity given to the mid western region of the country.
According to Nwaham, who was flanked by his Vice Chairman and Secretary, Prof. David Ejenobo and Hon. Fidelis Chimokwu, noted that, since the creation of the Mid Western region from the Western region since 1963, the Mid Western region, which is made up of Edo and Delta state, has remained marginalised politically.
He said: “We the members of The Midwesterners will be the first to admit that we have slept on our rights for too long.”
“However, we wish to say that the recent uproar over the choice of the Delta State Governor, Senator Arthur Okowa, OON, as the PDP Vice Presidential Candidate leaves a very sour taste in the mouth.
“In the 24 years political history of the present democratic dispensation in Nigeria, while the former Western Region has ruled for eight years, the former Northern Region has ruled for 10 years and the former Eastern region has ruled for six years. It is only the former Midwestern region that has not tasted the position of president or vice president for 24 years.
“We the Midwesterners are not happy with the “use and dump” antics of our brothers and sisters from the old Eastern region. Is Senator Okowa not an Ibo man by ancestry? Why should the North Eastern part of Delta State be treated nonchalantly by our brothers across the Niger? Delta Igbos are treated as Igbos when it pleases them to so do. This attitude must stop,” Nwaham said.
The group said it was time to stop such marginalisation, pleading with the Nigerians, particularly their brothers and sisters in other regions to allow them a taste of the office for the first time in the history of Nigeria.
They noted that a vote for PDP should be seen as a vote for Senator Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa and the people of the old Midwestern region.
They also called on “all sons and daughters of the old Midwestern region to rise up with one voice to vote for the only Party that has given us this once-in-a-life-time opportunity, the PDP.”
The group similarly called the attention of the political class in Delta State to the overwhelming reception which the campaign rallies of the PDP received in the State, maintaining that since 1999, Delta State has remained a PDP State.
“The three governors who have ruled this State during this period have not disappointed us. Let us vote PDP candidates in all the elections in Delta State in both the national elections slated for February 25 and the state elections slated for March 11.
“Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori is Godsend to continue from where Senator Okowa will stop on May 29, 2023. He has the capacity and capability to lead this state forward. Let us join hands with the PDP to make Delta State one of the best states in the Nigerian nation,” the group said.
