By Ferdinand Ekeoma
Abia State pensioners have appealed to the All Progressives Grand
Alliance (APGA) governorship candidate, Dr. Alex Otti, to thwart any
clandestine plan by the government to rig the March 2 governorship election.
Their prayer is Otti
emerges the governor, in order to save them from complete annihilation caused
by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government.
The pensioners who gathered for their monthly meeting in
Umuahia had invited Otti as their preferred candidate to come and interact with
them on some of his would-be policies on assumption of office as governor.
Introducing Otti to the audience, their state Chairman
described the APGA candidate as an amiable man known and respected in many
quarters for his character, intellect, and record of excellence in the
corporate world, hence their decision to align with him.
Otti expressed joy over the opportunity to
interact with the pensioners, and thanked them for the massive support they
gave to him in 2015.
He told them that if they had followed developments in his
campaign train, they would observe that welfare of pensioners has been one of
his major talking-points, and disclosed that top on his priority is to quickly
clear salary and pension arrears shortly on assumption of office as governor,
insisting that such a measure would help jump-start the economy of the
state.
Otti took the floor and led the pensioners on
over one hour voyage of sound and fact-filled tutorial that borderd on Economy
and Governance, regretting that because the State is led by people who do not
know how the economy works, they take critical policies and programmes like
payment of salaries and pension, investment in infrastructure, job creation,
security etc for granted, thus causing general economic hardship in the State.
He regretted that power is in the hands of people who are
physically and spiritually hungry to the extent that they know nothing about
creation of wealth and general economic prosperity. Nonetheless assured the
weeping pensioners that both the greedy godfathers and their godsons shall be
shown the exit door, else Abians would begin to flee the state in droves as a
result of economic hardship.
He reminded the pensioners that he is not a politician,
rather a concerned Abian who was compelled by the near hopeless situation in
the state to step out and arrest the Abia’s dangerous drift to doom, and
reassured the pensioners that he has what it takes to positively rewrite the
history of the state in a way everyone would be proud to associate with Abia
State.
The financial expert, whose speech was repeatedly interrupted
by series of applause from the highly excited and expectant pensioners,
expressed disappointment that Abia is topping the table of all known negative
indices, and told his audience that one poor economic policy, like refusal to
rejig the economy through the payment of workers and pensioners has the
propensity to dangerously harm the economy and have far reaching consequences
that could bring development in all facets to a halt.
The governorship hopeful presented his manifesto to the
senior citizens, and made it clear that the manifesto which he personally
prepared is his contract with Abia people which he has signed and urged them to
step out on the 2nd of March, 2019 to sign theirs by voting APGA all the way,
and assured that no man would dare tamper with their votes.
He also urged them to remind their families and loved ones on
the need to vote for APGA in all the elections in Abia state, starting
from 16th February when the National Assembly Election shall take place.
The copies of the manifesto were later shared to all the
pensioners present.
Responding on behalf of other pensioners, the state chairman
and his secretary, painted horrible and heart wrenching pictures of what the
pensioners are passing through, including untimely death of many members due to
lack of finances to take care of themselves and their families.
They disclosed that most of them are owed as much as 22
months pension arrears, not to talk of unpaid leave allowances and other
emoluments, and regretted that from all indications, the Okezie Ikpeazu-led
government is not willing to pay anyone.
They restated their willingness to bring out their children
and family members to massively vote for Dr. Alex Otti and APGA again, and
urged him to ensure that no body tampers with their votes.
They regretted that the Ikpeazu led government is speedily
destroying the Abia Civil Service through some petty actions like the creation
of dichotomy, saying that as senior citizens who worked for the state, they do
not deserve to be treated with such wickedness.
Prayers were later said for the pensioners and for Dr. Alex
Otti and his team.