By Tony Adibe
A former Minister of Information and the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Frank Nweke Jnr, has described the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), as a disaster and a disservice to the people of Enugu State.
Chief Nweke also vowed to chase the PDP away from the Government House, Enugu, saying that the party’s continued stay in office would further impoverish the citizens and subject them to cruel oppression.
Nweke, who made this assertion during the public presentation of his manifesto for the 2023 governorship, said though PDP had done one good thing or the other, it failed the people in Enugu State woefully especially in the last seven years. He said that because PDP had failed Enugu people, there is need to push them out from Enugu Government House by all means in 2023.
According to him, “We’ll do everything possible to chase out PDP from Enugu State. PDP has been a disaster and a disservice to the state and should be chased out, come 2023.”
Nweke explained that part of the reasons he decamped from PDP to the APGA is that PDP has jettisoned equity as it was enshrined in the constitution of the party which made provision for power sharing between the North and the South. He insisted that it was for the same reason that the Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi abandoned PDP and opted for a different political party.
He acknowledged that whatever he is today was achieved while he was in the PDP during former President Olusegun Obasanjo era, but that he found the deliberate turning of the PDP constitution upside down by its current leadership as too bitter and insulting to stomach.
Expounding his manifesto on how he would transform Enugu if elected governor, Nweke said that he would focus his administration on seven key areas which include leadership, good governance, security, human capital, technology and innovation.
He said that he would ensure that water is provided in every nook and cranny of the state to check the perennial water scarcity that has been bedeviling the state for years both in the urban areas and the rural areas.
“It’s a big shame that after 100 years of founding Enugu, water is still a major problem in Enugu. And the water problem is even made worse under the PDP government in Enugu State,” Nweke said.
To achieve adequate water supply, Nweke said that he would unbunddle it into three parts which include production, treatment and reticulation, stressing that it would not work well where the process of water production, treatment, supply/pumping, distribution is done by only one body.
“The water board and the water corporation will become regulators. They will ensure that the operators don’t exploit the citizens. There will be regulatory governance,” he said, adding: “Water is life but certain persons handling the affairs of government don’t seem to know the importance of water to human life.”
Maintaining that he would make sure that youths are provided with jobs, Nweke bemoaned a situation in which most graduates engage in menial jobs for survival, and stated further that he would revive ailing industries and make agriculture quite attractive. The APGA standard bearer assured that he would promote the Nollywood industry in the state by setting aside a billion Naira, and regretted that Enugu used to be a pacesetter in the film industry and should be encouraged to maintain the lead.
