The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Abia State, Professor Gregory Ikechukwu Ibe, has taken a stock of the various gladiators hoping to take over from Governor Okezie Ikpeazu vis-a-viz their antecedents ans has concluded that he remained the most qualified for the job.

Ibe, while speaking in a media chat with journalists on the Abia Media Forum platform recently, acknowledged the enormous work expected of the incoming governor of the state but noted that none of the candidates could boast of his pedigree and how he had assisted the state before now.

“In fact, none of my opponents in the 2023 election has my kind of pedigree. First, none of them has the level of investment I have in Abia State,” Ibe declared, arguing that it would be wrong to compare him with any of his opponents in the coming contest, “and they know it.”

The founder and chancellor of Gregory University in the state, one of the best private universities in Nigeria, who is a seasoned developer and an innovator, listed the major areas he had assisted the state to include greatly reducing unemployment in Abia through several avenues like employment in his higher institution.

“Mark you I am the highest employer of labour in the state. As we speak I have more than one thousand academic and non-academic staff, as well as students numbering over 3,000.”

On healthcare, Professor Ibe regretted that the Abia State Government had earlier refused his request for land to build a 1000-bed teaching hospital in the stage, even as he also narrated how he supported the Abia State University Teaching Hospital and other tertiary institutions in the state.

“In 2003 they asked me for money to complete ABSUTH in Aba; I wired N160 million to help complete the project before the institution got the accreditation for medicine. Up until this moment, the government of Abia State is still indebted to me.

“I have upgraded the Amachara Hospital in Umuahia. At the FMC Umuahia, I am building hostels there to accommodate our clinical scholars.

“We have lost accreditation for medicine at ABSUTH, but ours at Gregory University is still on, revealing further that he had been providing free medical services, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I invested hugely during the COVID-19 pandemic, to the extent that I expected the governor to write a personal letter thanking me, but he never did. Now I am building the 1,000-bed teaching hospital at Ezinnachi, along the expressway.”

The governorship candidate also harped on security, noting that with what he had set up in the state, security also would be of paramount importance to him.

“With the amount of investment I have in Abia (especially in the Isuikwuato-Uturu axis), it is of concern to me that any road leading to Uturu should be completely protected because I am also into the security business.”

On why he left the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to be contesting on the APGA platform, Professor Ibe alleged betrayal, recounting all that he did and the failed promise by the governor.

He also recalled that while in PDP, he expressed his interest to become governor in 2013, and 2014, but that the then governor asked him to wait because he was still a young man, and since he just opened a university he should wait and nurture it. He waited and supported the party wholeheartedly.

“Regrettably, he also was up and doing for the state in the recent COVID era and other areas but when it was time for preparations for the 2023 election, the party denied him once again just like how they did in 2013/2014.

“During the recent Covid, I donated 850 bags of rice, three ambulances, and testing equipment for Covid because I was the supplier of these machines for NCDC. By the time Covid ended, or about ending, hunger was still biting. And they have not shared the budgeted food; I embarked on sharing food in every local government in Abia state with the university buses.

”I fumigated every market in Abia, with my university workers. I was doing these things and many more to endear the PDP to the people, despite their lapses.

“When it came to 2022, I came out again to run but the party denied me the opportunity so I moved to APGA.”

He noted that since teaming with APGA, he had continued with the medical outreach he started in 1991. He said, “since I joined APGA I have embarked on what I started in 1991, medical outreach in all the local government areas.

“I commenced on the surgeries, I have treated our brothers and sisters, I have given out 16000 eye glasses; I have over 400 Abians on scholarship from the 17 local governments in the university. My buses run free transport in the state, adding,” that on free transportation alone he had spent over N1billion from his purse.

Ruling out any influence of godfather, the charismatic politician said he was coming into the fray to serve Abians, explaining that at 58, he is an accomplished man.

“I am not coming into the system on the back of anybody godfather, to deny Abians their right. Nobody is propping me up. None of the persons aspiring to lead Abia is better placed than me.

“At 58, my family and I are accomplished already. So there’s nothing else I want to do than to serve my people, which is why I am offering myself for service as governor of Abia State,” he said.

He also noted that he would decentralize the governance of Abia to ensure that no community was left out.

The governorship candidate said having known and experienced lack before, he would ensure that no Abia child experiences lack, explaining that the impact of his administration would be felt.

“I have experienced lack, and know exactly how it feels not to have. Therefore, I will not allow any Abia child or citizen to wallow in lack.

“The impact of my government will be felt equally in all parts of the state,” he assured.

On transforming the state, the governor, while explaining how he intends to bring Americans to transform Aba, noted that all he needs is for the mandate to be given to him and the people would sit and watch how he would use his contacts all over the world to turn around the state in few years.

Ibe who said he had worked with all the presidents in Nigeria from Obasanjo in different capacities, and also a consultant to 15 countries of the world, noted that he weeps at the level of wastage of human capital in Abia which he said he was coming to correct, insisting that while others come to develop only their local governments, as governor he would sit with each local government, find out their strengths and weaknesses and develop them in that wise.

The governorship candidate boasted that he had done well for himself and that he was only coming to make Abia a model state for the benefit of Abians, their children and those yet unborn and not to enrich himself as has sadly become the norm.

Update news