*As leadership assures of victory
With the 2019 elections drawing closer, there has become a torrential movement of young persons into the youth wing of a frontrunner in the Imo governorship race on the APGA platform, Mr. Okey Ezeh.
Recently, some youth organizations in the state had announced their integration into the Okey Ezeh Youth Vanguard. Even more profound is the number of youths who day after day throng the office of the Okey Ezeh Campaign Organization in Owerri seeking to identify with the project.
When contacted, the Leader of the Okey Ezeh Youth Vanguard, Comrade Amuche Akubuiro, confirmed that indeed there is an ‘unprecedented and sustained mass entry’ of youths into the Vanguard which he said obviously stems from a strong passion in Imo youths to have a paradigm shift come 2019. According to him, that shift is about moving away from ineptitude, visionlessness and poor governance to launching Imo into the galaxy of stellar states through credible and capable leadership.
“Imo has been wrecked. Our once glorious state has been run aground by bad and insensitive leaders. The time has come for everyone to stand and be counted in this process of redemption.
“One very true position which every Imo youth is resolute about is that the state needs a leader who represents a confluence of capacity, credibility and youthfulness. This is why Mr. Okey Ezeh is the popular choice and this is the reason Imo youths in their hundreds join the Vanguard on a daily basis.
“Again, there is this factor of trust and reliability. Most youths have been used at elections and dumped thereafter by these same career politicians that now masquerade as messiahs because elections are here again. But in Okey Ezeh the youths see a colleague who has consistently shared all he has with them. What most people don’t know is that there are about 360 dressmakers of Imo origin across Nigeria today who were picked up and trained, certified and established by the Okey Ezeh Foundation. Same obtains in other vocations. And the mind-blowing part of it is that he began all these over a decade ago, as young and tender as he was, and without any awareness whatsoever that he might seek a political office in future.
“What speaks volumes about his character also is the way he has carried everyone in APGA along. For years, he provided for the party and ensured that it played its role as an opposition party. I recall that when aspirants began to join APGA to declare for governorship, Mr. Okey Ezeh was placing advertorials in the newspapers to welcome them and congratulate the party. Which other politician can do that? It tells of his selflessness, sincere love for APGA and the broadness of his political vision. The greatest urgency now is victory for the party come 2019, and by every standard it’s Okey Ezeh that can guarantee that. Wars are not won with borrowed weapons,” Akubuiro maintained.