The Kaduna State Igbo Community Welfare Association, has endorsed the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Uba Sani, promising to support him in the race to Sir Kashim Ibrahim House.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting in Kaduna, the Legal Adviser of the Association, Barrister Valentine Ewuzie, said ‘’we have analysed and assessed all the candidates and we can here and now, without mincing words, assure you that you are our candidate.’’
He also described Sen. Uba Sani as the most competent and qualified candidate amongst all those that are jostling to be governor of Kaduna state, given his spectacular performance at the upper legislative chamber.
Ewuzie, who described the lawmaker as a friend of the Igbos, further said that the lawmaker has shown that he knows the Igbos very well, ‘’by saying that we are the most organized set of people.’’
According to the Legal Adviser, that is an apt description of the Igbos, ‘’and being the most organized, we are going to employ it into making sure that you emerge as the next governor of this state.’’
He recalled that when Igbos were given quit notices from the north in 2017, Gov. Nasir El Rufai and Senator Uba Sani played pivotal roles in repudiating the pronouncement.
Ewuzie also said that the governor and the senator, at that time the Political Adviser to Gov. El-Rufai, met with Igbo leaders and assured them of their safety.
The Legal Adviser further said that Uba Sani donated a bus to the Igbo community, for the leaders to go round the state and allay the fears of their people, adding that the bus remains the only vehicle of the Igbo Welfare Association.
The Igbo leader also commended the Kaduna State Government for abolishing the indigene/settler dichotomy, by recruiting professionals, including teachers, on merit.
‘’It is also not in doubt that Kaduna state under your watch and the watch of His Excellency, Malam Nasir El Rufai, is the only state that abolished the settler/indigene dichotomy in Nigeria as a whole.
‘’And you have given key roles to professionals and most especially the teachers in Kaduna state, by recruiting from all states of the federation on merit, without minding where they come from,’’ he said.
Earlier, Senator Sani implored the Igbos to take their destiny in their hands by using their numerical strength to vote for the right candidates, promising to be fair to all.
The APC gubernatorial candidate also promised to make an Igbo person a member of Kaduna State Executive Council, as a commissioner, when voted into office.
He argued that when an Igbo person is in the cabinet, the person will be the liaison between government and the Igbo community, adding that that arrangement will be more effective than using friends and acquaintances whenever the government wants to reach out to them.