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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The Abdulrahman Mohammed-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday screened presidential and governorship aspirants seeking the party’s tickets for the 2027 general elections.
The sole presidential aspirant, Senator Sandy Onor, was screened by the Presidential Screening Committee chaired by Okezie Ikpeazu. Governorship aspirants screened by the Gubernatorial Screening Committee, chaired by former Kaduna State governor Ahmed Makarfi, included Kelechi Anosike from Abia State and Kayode Ogunshola from Oyo State.
Other aspirants who appeared before the Gubernatorial Screening Committee are Mustapha Lamido (Jigawa), David Ombugadu (Nasarawa), Hassan Ali (Kwara), Salamanca Bolakalekawu (Kwara), Samson Nnamani (Enugu), John Kalu (Abia), Danyaro Saipiya (Plateau), Hazeem Gbolaranmi (Oyo) among others.
Onor, while fielding questions from journalists after the screening, said the PDP has overcome its challenges and is ready for the forthcoming elections.
He noted that as presidential candidate, the party’s campaign for the 2027 election would focus on the grassroots, expressing optimism that people at the grassroots will vote overwhelmingly for the PDP.
According to him, “This is an iconic party. This is a legacy party and institution. We know we have had our vicissitudes and crises. But we have overcome them.
“I am very trusting that in the days ahead and in the months ahead, under my leadership and the cooperation of the leadership and followership of this party, we shall roll out our machine very quickly. And we can win. This is the People’s Democratic Party. We can win.”
Onor added that if elected president, he would ensure that local government areas are well funded as part of measures to tackle the security challenges in the country.
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On the issue of insecurity, he said: “One of the basic issues breeding insecurity is grassroots poverty. We must look for ways and means of ensuring that our young men across Nigeria are meaningfully engaged. One sure way of doing that is funding local governments properly.
“When you have local governments that are not properly funded, you will have a lot of ungoverned spaces in the country. There is no space in this country that is not part of a local government. If you fund local governments well, they will activate their security institutions.
“Traditional rulers will be well taken care of. Vigilantes will be properly funded. Before these militants and marauders incubate and consolidate, they would have taken them out.
“I will ensure that local governments are properly funded. And I will ensure that youth unemployment is checked. Youth must be meaningfully engaged.”
Similarly, Anosike promised that if elected Abia governor, he would industrialise the state, boost medium and small-scale enterprises, as well as give premium attention to agriculture.
“There are so many resources in Abia that are not yet tapped. The government is not paying attention to them because it may not yield profits immediately. But it’s not about you. It’s about the ones coming after you. It’s about tomorrow. It’s about prosperity. That’s the new mindset — creating investments that tomorrow’s leaders will climb on and prosper. These are more of what I am going to do in Abia State and these are not being done by this present government.”
Ogunshola, on his part, said if elected governor, he would, among other things, pursue skill development for young persons as well as embark on rural development and agriculture.
He said: “We need to ensure that we skill our youths. And this is a good time to do that. When we skill them, we can export them to the North East and to the West. I think the current government has tried to do it. It has done well with business investments, so that’s good.
“But I think we can scale those things. The government can actually create not just an environment, but create the industry, fund it, and then essentially hand it off, while ensuring they govern the value chain.”
