Former Governor of Enugu State, Mr Sullivan Chime, says President Muhammadu Buhari deserves the support of the South-East region in the Feb. 16 presidential election.
Chime also said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was no longer an option for Ndigbo, stressing that the party had outlived its usefulness.
The former governor disclosed this on Thursday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu.
He said that the South-East and entire old Eastern Nigeria needed to be grateful for the massive infrastructure upgrade going on in the region by the Buhari administration.
According to him, the only way to show appreciation is to support the re-election of the president instead of joining forces with those that held the economy down during their time.
Chime, who was the governor of the state between 2007 and 2015 on the platform of PDP, said that the Buhari-led administration had turned the South-East to a massive construction site.
The development, he said, was unlike previous administrations that neglected the area.
The former governor particularly mentioned the ongoing effort to realise the Second Niger Bridge in a record time which he said had been an object of politics by successive administrations.
“The Buhari administration has taken infrastructure development to the next level in the South-East and nobody should interrupt the momentum.
“Under a PDP administration, and not minding that the then president was from the old Eastern Nigeria, they did not include the Port Harcourt-Enugu-Makurdi Rail Lines when they were reviving the rail lines.
“It was not part of their programme. It is this administration that included it. The then president spent six years in office, yet you cannot give him credit for just one single project in the area.
“Do you know how many times the Enugu-Onitsha Express Road was awarded but nothing happened? Today, President Buahri is realising that project,” he said.
Chime said that the situation applied to the whole of the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway and other federal roads across the region which the current administration was working on.
He said that the people of the area had a cause to be grateful for the APC administration.
“The Buhari administration is doing a lot in that area. Look at what they have done in the agricultural sector and the N-Power project which has engaged thousands of Nigerians.
“We should allow Buhari to complete his tenure after which we look for somebody in his mould to continue from where he will stop,” he said.
Chime said that his faith in the re-election of the president was not shaken, in spite of the falsehood detractors were peddling against him.
He said that APC would certainly do well in the region in general and Enugu State in particular, considering the rising profile of the party in the area.
“With all certainty, there will be a major improvement on whatever the president scored in Enugu in 2015 because there was no APC here then.
“We are talking to the people and putting the records straight. I believe that Buhari is the best thing to happen to this country, this time.
“We should think about tomorrow as we go out to vote on Saturday and forget about all the sentiments being whipped by people desperate for power.
“The only way to go is APC. When PDP was in power, it was like they had no opposition and they were just doing whatever they liked.
“But today, it is a different ball game. God will bless Enugu people for voting Buhari,” Chime said.
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