Former Governor of Imo State, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, has declared that he is the only aspirant in the Peoples Democratic Party that is running on the ticket that has only four years to go to complete his tenure.
Ohakim made this declaration while addressing Imo State indigenes in United States through a conference call.
According to the former governor, since Governor Rochas Okorocha is running on the ticket that he has four years to go to complete his tenure the only other person that has four years to go to complete a tenure is himself.
He also said he is the only one that has programmes and projects to compare with Okorocha’s.
He went on to say that throughout his regime as governor, no single contract failed in Imo State.
Ohakim therefore said anyone from Okigwe who is trying to run for governor when he has only has four years, to be deemed as playing the spoiler game.
Shedding some light on the highlights of his administration in Imo State, Ohakim decried the imbalance going on in the state at this time, pointing out that the state won national recognitions on some of the programmes that he created and scored number one in four major programmes.
One is the clean and green initiative where Imo State won the first price of the Federal Ministry of the Environment for four years – 2007, 2008 2009 and 2010.
The other was IROMA, which is the Imo Rural Road Maintenance Agency, which also earned Imo State an award from the World Bank.
The former governor reaffirmed that he has all it takes, including lots of votes waiting to be harvested, to confront Okorocha.
He said in terms of popularity, structure and funding, Okorocha cannot beat him.
He posited the he created 10,000 graduate jobs and 50 per cent of the autonomous communities in Imo State.
Ohakim further recalled that the entire 44 development centres in the state were instituted by his administration.
The former governor stressed that the entire town unions that Okorocha demolished were financed by his administration.
Similarly, all the democratically elected local government executives Okorocha removed came into power during his administration.
He promised to “allow them to serve out their term”.
To this end, he re-iterated that no other aspirant, including the incumbent, can match this structure.
He said: “I am the only person who can defeat Rochas Okorocha.”
Ohakim pledged that he will not only reinstate the 10,000 jobs to the graduates in the first month of his administration, but will also create good jobs in areas like clean environment, security, transportation, education, massive road construction projects, rural development projects, agriculture, health care, among other development areas.
Ohakim assured the people of the state that he will embark on the process of completing the abandoned projects by Okorocha that are costing the state billions of Naira today.
Ohakim reminded the audience that he is capable of uniting the party after the primary unlike other candidates.
“Unifying the party after the primary is critical and I have been tested and I am the only one who has the leadership and skills to bring everyone under the same unified umbrella,” he stated.
He declared: “I respect the rule of law and our traditional rulers because they play a vital role in the community.”
According to the ex-governor: “They share in our commitment to protect property and lives of our citizens.
“It is important for someone like me to move swiftly to work to harmonize differences after the primary so that PDP will go into the election peaceful and united.”
He reasoned that overheating the politics in the state may be detrimental to the people and called for all efforts to focus on “lifting our people out of poverty”.
Ohakim reassured the Imo State Diaspora community that they will become equity holders in their home state, adding that his administration (2007-2011) brought home nine people from the Diaspora community to work in his administration.
Earlier in his welcome speech Dr. Acho Orabuchi, a notable Imo State/Nigerian leader in the Diaspora and founder of Pan Ndi-Igbo Foundation (PNF USA) and the current National Chairman of the Association of Nigerian-American Professionals, Incorporated, commended Ohakim for reaching out to the Imo Diaspora community in US.
Orabuchi pledged the commitment of the groups to support all meaningful effort to grow Imo State in particular and Nigeria in general.
“It is a humbling experience to have you address us and reassure us that Imo will be better under Ohakim’s administration,” Dr. Orabuchi said.