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By Madu Obi
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the last Anambra governorship election and now an aspirant for the 2025 poll on the platform of the Labour Party, LP, Mr. Valentine Ozigbo, has promised to do only one tenure if elected, in line with the existing zoning arrangement in the state.
Speaking during an interaction with media practitioners in Awka, Ozigbo also criticized the incumbent governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, saying the governor underperformed in his two years in the saddle.
Both Ozigbo and Soludo are from the same Anambra South senatorial zone and going by the existing zoning arrangement in the state, governorship will shift to another zone after eight years in the South.
Mindful of the arrangement, Ozigbo said: "Zoning is a good thing, but it must be combined with competence to make sense. You don’t pick someone just because he is from a certain zone, and you don’t pick him when you know you can pick someone that is better."
“I respect zoning, and I will be making a case for a single term of four years. Anyone who sees what Alex Otti is doing in Abia will know that four years is enough time to do a lot of work."
“I will honour that principle of zoning, and I will not need anyone’s push or prompting to do otherwise. I will be ready to do an agreement and do an undertaking that I will do just one term."
"I also wish to remind you that our leader, Mr Peter Obi, has been consistent that a southerner who emerges in 2025 on the LP platform, will only do one term."
“It is therefore a settled matter that I intend to run for just one term and I intend to keep faith with the agreement".
On Governor Soludo's performance in two years, Ozigbo said he would have approached governance differently, which would have been more effective, had he won the election of November 2021 that brought Soludo to office.
He added: “Governor Soludo has performed below the expectation of Anambra people and has failed to connect with them in the last two years."
"Governance is not all about being an autocratic leader; you have to listen to the people and know their problems. You have to implement superior recommendations because nobody knows it all."
Ozigbo lamented that some of the people he thought were working for him, turned out to be betrayals, adding that he had learnt his lesson.
"We were betrayed last time because even though we saw the signs, we ignored them. Going forward, we won’t ignore any sign so as to reduce the level of betrayal to the minimum."
"Those I thought I was working with in PDP betrayed me . I used all the time I would have used for campaign trying to pacify those who lost in the primaries, but instead they decided to gang up and betrayed me. All the time I used in trying to build a united PDP were wasted. I hope it will not repeat."
"As a first comer in politics, there were a lot of lessions one must learn. I have learnt some. When I came in ,many of my co-aspirants never trusted me. We saw the signs of the betrayal, but we ignored them ,but this time, when we see any ,we will act immediately to minimize the betrayal level."
“This time, I’ll do my best to identify the right people to work with so that even if there may be mistake, it won’t be fatal," he said.
He expressed concern over the state's insecurity, urging the people to also view the 2025 election as a turning point for future elections in Nigeria.
He called for unity among party members, even as he acknowledged the challenges of contesting against an incumbent.
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