A renowned socio-political and ethnic group, Umuigbo Progressive Network (UPN), has endorsed the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari into office for the second term.
President Buhari is contesting the 2019 presidential election under the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The group, in a statement signed by the President-General, Barrister Oscar Obi, KSM, stated that it arrived at the conclusion after a deep analysis and critical review of the President Buhari’s achievement in the last three years.
According to him, no other President in the history of the country has in all sincerity, given priority to the south-east and south-south other than President Buhari.
The group maintained that it was convinced that there is no candidate at this period that can match the credentials of Mr President and urged Nigerians, old and young, to support the Buhari re-election project for him to consolidate the successes so far made and reposition the nation for the future generation.
“Under President Buhari, we have 69 ongoing road and bridge projects which are spread across the five states in the South East, and are now in different stages of completion.
“Some of these projects are the Emergency Repairs of Failed Section in Umuahia-Ariam-Ikot Ekpene Road; rehabilitation and reconstruction of Enugu-Port Harcourt dual carriageway; rehabilitation of Onitsha bound Carriageway of the Onitsha-Enugu road; emergency repairs of Ihiala-Orlu-Umuduru road; rehabilitation of old Enugu-Port Harcourt road; emergency repairs of Onitsha-Owerri road; rehabilitiation of Oba-Nnewi-Okigwe Road,” Oscar said.
“Do also recall that in October 2018, President Buhari approved the payment of pensions to Biafran war veterans, a gesture which brought hope and joy to many homes in the south east. More so, the appointment of our sons and daughters to hold key economic position shows how much President Buhari loves the people of the region,” the statement added.
Among other achievements of the Buhari’s administration listed in the press stament include the ongoing construction of the Second Niger Bridge which will connect Asaba in Delta State and Onitsha in Anambra State, across the River Niger.
“In October 2018, the federal government announced that it has raised $177 million for Ogoni cleanup. We will never forget how Ogoni was destroyed over the years by oil leaks leading to the destruction of surrounding waters and farm lands with no government attention. Our suffering and lamentation however came to an end when President Buhari awarded contracts to 21 firms for the cleanup exercise.
“We can’t but thank the Buhari’s administration for the completion and commissioning of Zik’s mausoleum in his country home, Onitsha. This is a project that has been abandoned for more than 20 years but President Buhari kept to his promise and completed the mausoleum. We see this as an immeasurable honour to Anambra people and the entire South-East people.
The group, in the statement further disassociated itself from the endorsement of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and passed a Vote of Confidence on President Muhammadu Buhari, and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.
“It is appalling to see the sister socio-cultural body, Ohaneze-Ndigbo derail from the path of history and political tradition. This is a body known to align with the government at the centre. Resting on the excuse that Alhaji Atiku picked Peter Obi as his running mate when under same party for past decades, the region was deprived of meaningful infrastructural development – this is disheartening and unpleasing.
“We should begin to ask our leaders who were part of the 16 years of PDP what they did with the resources allocated to them. Not one of them rehabilitated or constructed new roads. All our Primary Health Cares and institutions were left in deplorable state; abandoned projects filtered everywhere across the region with many villages cut off from the city due to erosions, and were not fixed until President Buhari assumes office.
“What happens to Ndigbo declaring total support for one of their kinsmen, Dr Kingsley Moughalu, a brilliant substantive Presidential candidate of the Young Progressive Party (YPP)?
“While they are at their voyage of no return, we the UPN have endorsed President Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo for continuity. Both have been able to provide security for all Nigerians and leadership in all sectors of the government.
“Our own endorsement is established on the fact that President Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo are men of integrity who possess the commitment to lead a government with firm knowledge and competent management of Nigeria’s economy.
“President Buhari and his Vice, Osinbajo, have in their three and half years eliminated kidnappings in the Nigerian political space and bombing of pipelines; these two men belief in free and fair electoral process as shown in the last Anambra Gubernatorial election.
“We endorse President Buhari to continue the fight against corruption and we have no doubt that these two men will rebuild Nigeria, setting the pace for the country of our dream,” the group noted.
Umuigbo Progressive Network further applauded President Buhari for extending the Social Investment Programmes (SIP) to the region where about 15,000 young people are beneficiaries.
The group stressed that it would do everything within its power to ensure that President Buhari wins all the South-East and South South States in the presidential election.
“The era of putting all our political eggs in one basket is long gone. We shall work for the completion of President Buhari second term in office in order to pave way and take the country to the next level,” it added.
