2023: Abia youths give red card to bad leaders * Say ‘they ‘ve already ruined our future, we only want to save our children’s destiny’

2023: Abia youths give red card to bad leaders

By Steve Oko

Abia youths have vowed never again to sell their votes for a piece of bread, threatening to end the era of bad leadership in the state in 2023.

The coalition of different youth groups made the declaration Sunday in Umuahia, the state capital, when they visited the immediate-past General Manager of Abia State Environmental Protection Agency, ASEPA, Hon. Okechukwu Apugo (Ngwo two Abia).

They expressed disappointment that people they trusted and voted into power in the past got to office and abandoned them, allocating to themselves the position of God.

The youths vowed that in 2023, they will use their votes against all those who have used their political positions as instruments of oppression against the masses and accumulation of wealth at the expense of the people.

According to the youths the resolve to resist bad governance and wicked politicians was to stop them from ruining the future of their children after destroying their own.

” They have already destroyed our future; we only want to stop them from ruining the future of our children also”, yelled the youth leaders who converged from different parts of the state, mostly Ikwuano and Umuahia.

Wawa News Global which exclusively covered the event reports that the youths were angry with a number of politicians in the state who they accused of using and dumping them.

 The bipartisan youths said that the 2023 election would be individual- based, vowing never to vote because of party affiliations but based on the capacity, competence and antecedents of individual contestants.

” We are after leadership with substance not money bags. We don’t care about anybody’s party, all we want is a better Abia State. We want those that will truly empower us and not give us Keke while storing our common patrimony for their unborn generation”.

Speaking at the gathering, one of the youth leaders, Hon. Chibueze Okankpa from Okwuta Ibeku, said Abia youths had suffered enough in the hands of wicked politicians who used them to get to power only to abandon them afterwards.

” We have suffered immeasurably in the hands of these people. They only remember us whenever election is coming around but we will disappoint them in 2023.

” Never again shall Abia youths be used as tissue paper. Nobody will use us to rig election again only to steal our common wealth later.

” These people are evil. They give pita to us and use our mandates to enrich themselves while we remain beggars and live in penury”.

Similarly, Leader of Action Youths, Comrade Patrick Ugochukwu, from Amaeke Ibeku, said that the era of enslaving Abia youths was over.

” I’m a contractor but they give contracts to themselves only to remember us during election season. Enough is enough. We have rejected them and their money.”

Hon Obinna Igwe from Anambra  State who said he was born and brought up in Umuahia, regretted that politicans in the state had always used youths to achieve their selfish interests and abandon them later.

He vowed to mobilise stranger elements in the state against those using their political positions to ruin the future of youths.

Igwe regretted that the wicked politicians had always used hunger as an instrument to achieve their aims by inducing hungry youths with peanuts during election.

He urged youths to resist every form of monetary inducements and vote for honest candidates with agenda for the youths.

” Let’s not sell the future of our children because the politicians have already taken our own future. We must stop them from stealing the future of our children also. It’s time to use our PVC to retire them”.

Speaker after speaker, bemoaned the wickedness and insensitivity of politicians over the plights of the masses especially the youths “whom they have rendered hopeless”.

The youths pleaded with Apugo who they commended for standing firm against god-fatherism and injustice to help provide direction to teeming Abia youths now ready to take their destiny in their hands.

They equally commended him for providing hope to a lot of youths through his football academy that has enabled some youths to actualise their life dreams, describing him as a beacon of hope.

Responding, the former ASEPA boss, thanked the youths for their resolve to take their destiny in their hands.

He harped on the need for unity among Abia youths irrespective of their political affiliations to be able to resist the “political principalities holding the state to ransom”.

Apugo who is a stunch member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, however, said that party would have no place in determining the choice of Abia youths in the 2023 polls.

” We will assess all the candidates based on their antecedents and whoever will build our state and make life better for the people will get our mandate.

” The era of buying youths over with money is gone for good. We no longer need their money for elections. Let’s stop collecting their money because that’s why when they get into office they start packing money they will use to buy their way through during the next election instead of working for the people.

” I’m in PDP and have never left PDP but in 2023, it’s going to be Abia first. We will listen to all the candidates and choose the best among them not minding their platforms.”

Later in an interview, Apugo told Wawa News Global that the outcome of 2023 elections would shock many politicians in the state because the youths who they had enslaved over the years would disappoint them.

He decried the high level of poverty in the state due to bad governance and said the youths were determined to rescue the state.

” All the offices are important to us. We will critically look at all the candidates and make our choice based on their competence. We need honest and compassionate leaders who will reduce the level of poverty in the land and truly empower our youths”.