A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP), Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has appealed to the leader of the Pan Niger Delta Elders Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, to jettison the call on the Federal Government to reverse the naming of the Agbor Railway Station Complex after Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

Eze stressed that the ex-President is satisfied and has already expressed gratitude to President Mohammadu Buhari and the Transportation Minister, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, for the honour done to him.

In a statement made available to the media on Wednesday, Eze said if icons like Obafemi Awolowo, Dr Alex Ekweme and other great leaders could be named after some of the railway stations, then ex-President Dr. Jonathan, a pride of the Eastern region, is eminently qualified and entitled for the honour and it will be unfair to attempt to discredit it for any reason whatsoever.

Eze wondered why it is only Dr Jonathan whose naming is generating furore whereas it is the same Dr Jonathan that started the railways revolution dream and actually started the project with the structure we have today.

He reminded the critics that great scientists name viruses and germs after themselves just because they discovered them.

He further pointed out that in currency naming, it is faces on small bills that are regarded as more important because most people would touch and see it daily than the higher denominations. He noted that the number of people that would see Jonathan’s name per day at a railways station would be far more than those that would see it at an international airport or international hotel.

Eze also reminded the latter-day towncriers for Dr Jonathan that the same Jonathan presented himself as a lover of the common people by creating a campaign brand of the boy from Otueke without a shoe, the son of a canoe man.

He therefore wondered what is belittling to such a “boy” ending up with his name inscribed in one of the key Railway Stations in Nigeria.

He argued that naming him after a train station would not stop him from getting more honours as President Muhammadu Buhari has been sending him on special missions abroad, thereby ingratiating Dr Jonathan’s name in the minds of the international community more than any former President of Nigeria.

The party chieftain therefore called on Chief Clark to pay a detailed attention to more critical issues of common concern and channel his energies to mobilise stakeholders to raise a voice against the artful scheme to satanically deprive the Eastern region the divine opportunity of linking her to other parts of the country through modern rail.

He said events have clearly revealed the existence of a cabal, a group of unconscious and conscienceless mortals, with a sworn mandate to scuttle every effort of the Federal Government at developing the South-South and South East regions and with a term of reference to frustrate the Eastern rail line project which he said will meaningfully impact the lives and livelihoods of the people and significantly add to the economies of states.

Eze wants Clark to think about why eastern ports remained dead over the decades and decide if such was a mere accident or a design by a group to ensure that the economy of the Eastern region remained dead and continue to feed from another region.

The strategy, according to him, is a reminder to the people of the former eastern region to know that politics is another form of war with the same results.

Using Niger Deltans against Niger Delta

Eze lamented that more sickening is the very disturbing fact that Hon. Ossai Nicholas Ossai, the lawmaker representing the people of Ndokwa/Ukwani Federal Constituency of Delta State and Chairman, House Committee on Treaties, Protocols and Agreements, has been conscripted to do the bidding against his own people.

He called on stakeholders of South South and South East to rise up, lend their voices against the common adversaries and react with the timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people.

Recall that the Minister of Transportation, Chief Chibuike Amaechi, had expressed shock that Ossai could be hounded on a project that would be of immense benefit to him and his constituents thus:

“It was apparent that the Chairman of the Committee investigating the Federal Government loan from China, Hon. Nicholas Osai, was determined to deny the people of the South-South and the South East the opportunity to be connected by rail.”

Eze said “the moronic carriage” of Hon. Ossai in recent times reflected in the expression of the Minister is good proof that the Delta-born lawmaker and his snooping paymasters are hell-bent on impeding the efforts of the administration of President Buhari to fulfil his campaign pledge of giving the country a durable and modern rail system.

Eze said it is a wasteful venture for Hon. Osai of the PDP and his band of misguided elements, to think that halting the loan and stopping the rail project would undermine the political future of Amaechi whom he said has served the country meritoriously with astonishing results.

The APC chieftain urged the constituents of Hon. Osai to, as a matter of urgency, set in motion the necessary processes needed to recall the erring lawmaker for compromising and selling out his people, describing his actions as disgraceful to the people of Ndokwa/Ukwani Federal Constituency of Delta State, on whose mandate he rode to a saboteur at the detriment of his legislative assignment.

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