2023 elections: LP mobilising to cub voter apathy in Southeast — Dr. Okwenna
Felix Oti, Awka
As the 2023 general elections are few weeks away, the Labour Party (LP) has said it is mobilising to ensure that there is no voter apathy in the Southeast as feared by many.
The party said it is making special interventions, not only in making sure that registered voters in the region get their PVCs ahead of the polls; but also in many other areas that would boost voter interest in the region because of the strategic nature of the 2023 general election.
The Head, Intervention Team of the Obi/Datti Presidential Campaign Council of Labour party, Dr. Ifedi Okwenna, gave the indication yesterday in Awka, Anambra state capital, during a special meeting with members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Anambra State Council, led by its chairman, Comrade Odogwu Emeka Odogwu, PhD at the Godwin Ezeemo International Press Center, NUJ Secretariat, Awka.
He said, “We at the LP are making every necessary efforts to achieve good results at the polls. This is because, it will be wrong for other Nigerians to be lending their support to Peter Obi, while the Southeast will be found wanting, by not voting massively for the LP presidential candidate. We are traversing all the nooks and crannies; we have suspended sleep; we have suspended rest to achieve this, and we are not relenting. In the next three weeks, presidential election will hold, and Nigerians will elect a president after their own heart.
“Nigerians need president with capacity, character, compassion, and who has the willpower to turn things around for the better, and the answer is in Peter Obi. Obi is one person among his contemporaries that can help Nigerians take back their country, and move it forward.”
Flanked by the Coordinator, Diaspora Intervention for Obi/Datti presidential campaign council, Barr Franklin Nwakor, Okwenna, Okwenna also noted with regret that since the inception of the present democratic dispensation which started in 1999, the Southeast is yet to produce number one citizen of the country; while other zones have taken their turns at different times.
“By May, 2023, the North where Atiku and Kwankwaso are coming from shall have produced a president for about 10 years under Musa Yar’Adua and Mohammadu Buhari, as well as vice president for 6 years under Namadi Sambo.
“Southwest where Tinubu comes from, has produced a President and vice for 16 years in the last 20 years; under Olusegun Obasanjo and Yemi Osinbajo. The South-South has equally produced president for six years, and a vice president for two years within the same period, under Goodluck Jonathan. The Southeast remains the only zone in Southern Nigeria yet to produce president for this country in the present democratic dispensation and, of course, since the end of the civil war in 1970,” he submitted.
Earlier, the Chairman NUJ Anambra, State Council, Comrade Odogwu Emeka Odogwu PhD thanked Dr Ifedi Okwenna and his team for considering NUJ Anambra Council as one of the first to visit in the Southeast, and assured that their message of hope shall be spread to Ndigbo to ensure that voter apathy is curbed.
