He opined that the security situation in Nigeria requires consolidated tackling from all fronts including the engagement of locals to ensure outright victory over insecurity.
He called on Nigerians to enthrone him as President in 2023, assuring that he would unleash his wealth of experience to tackle the myriads of the Nation's challenges.
"I have the strength, I have the health, I have the energy and the training, I am a Professional Engineer and I create wealth, in Ebonyi State, 95% of the jobs are done through direct Labour, it takes a leader that is above board to lead this country and the leader that has the fear of God.
"So, I stand out by my training, by my antecedent, I am an Engineer by Profession and Engineers have not been given the opportunity to lead this Country, on the infrastructural decay in this Country, my position is that they should allow Engineers to build the Nation, then we handover to the politicians, but right now, we need a Professional to rebuild this Country.
"Talking about experience, I have been a Party Chairman for four years, Deputy Governor for four years under a very experienced man and would in the next one year be Governor for eight years, so I have the experience, I have the courage, I have the performance.
"If you check the indices of my performance viz-a-viz the rating of the World Bank, the rating of ICPC, the rating of Bureau of Statistics and the Federal Ministry of Finance, you will see that I came first, first, first and on the overall rating I came second, so I stand out but if you are considering the volume of money, I shouldn't even contest in the first place, because I don't have the kind of money many of them have, I have done the job here, I have a name and I have legacies."
Governor Umahi promised to complete all ongoing projects before his administration winds down in 2023.
"The ongoing jobs whether I will complete them, yes, the Edda Flyover project is one of the wonders of this administration, Ebonyi State and this Nation and I believe that in the next two months that job will be completed, the Amasiri flyover is also going to be done in the next two months, the Airport, by the end of August, we should be expecting the first flight in that Airport, the King David University of Medical Sciences Uburu, by the end of July, the free medical treatment we are offering to the entire Nation for the next three months would be on, so the job that may be remaining may be the Stadium because it has to be the best Stadium in this Country but I would have done that job up to 70%, of course, I am going to hand over at the Stadium next year by God's special grace and of course there will be a commitment through a contract, others that will be remaining will be a portion of Abakaliki-Enugu dualization, there will be about 15kms that would be left, I will award it and mobilize before I leave.
"The Hausa Quarters Flyover that is moving day and night would be completed, the Nkalagu flyover will also be completed.
"In all honesty, I mean well and in all honesty, I continue to pray that God should not bring a politician, promises have been made and broken and in 2023 we are not going to be relying on promises I hate promises, I want to see what you have done in your previous outing and that is what Nigerians should be asking now, and I feel so sad when elders will not be objective in their assessments.
Governor Umahi insisted that it was expedient for the Nation to concede the Presidency in 2023 to the South East in the interest of equity, justice, and fairness.
"Justice is justice, equity is equity, fairness is fairness and I have said that the body language of Mr. President is that this thing should come to the South but if it is given to the South and the equity, justice, and fairness is been denied, if I am the one giving it, I will reconsider my decision, so you will help me beg our brothers and sisters from South-South and South West to please think about tomorrow.
"I came over to APC, I have peace in APC, the President has respect for the Party and the governors are in charge of their respective States but not so in where I was coming from, you see your colleague trying to Lord it over you in your State but that is not the same in APC, we are being equally treated with respect."
He appealed for concerted efforts by Leaders of the South East to tackle the security challenges bedeviling the Zone.
"There is extreme politics in this region and it must stop, when we started especially before my defection, we were all working together and I was championing it that IPOB is not good for us because of the kind of agitations that were being meted out was not correct, first hate-speeches and from there it developed to violence and they have continued to lie to our people that our place has been infiltrated, it is a lie, it is South East killing South East people and the security people and until we are bold to say this, it will continue.
"Why is it that we do sit-at-home, we destroy the businesses of the Igbos and businesses of people from other regions and we expect that our businesses should be safe outside South East, so I use the opportunity to ask the Igbos to be wise, the sit-at-home is useless, the agitations are nonsense to me because if there were to be Biafra, Ebonyi would not be part of Biafra, we have to get to the level of our brothers in South East before we talk of Biafra, before we were taken as house boys and girls, the creation of Ebonyi State was by self-determination but we are now changing the narratives, so we are not for Biafra, we are for equitable, just and fair one Nigeria."
Engineer Umahi also solicited more patriotism by Nigerians to ensure that corruption comes to a standstill in the Country.
"Corruption is supposed to be the fight of everybody until you call a spade a spade, that is where the fight against corruption starts, Corruption fights back and that is what is happening in this country, there is no aspect of our daily living that you don't see corruption, it is as a result of the decay in our values, so when you want to liberate the people, you have to fight the people and fight those who are fighting the people, that is the way to stop corruption, so that is the fight against corruption, you have to be decisive, you have to be courageous, you have to show example and there must not be any sacred cows.
"I was created for this job and I was created for a time like this and I should be given the opportunity and you will see results, I think there is a lot for our children, there is a lot for this Nation if we can kill corruption."
Earlier, the President of the Nigeria Guild of Editors, Mr. Mustapha Isah said the group was glad to be in Ebonyi State to see firsthand the development projects of the Governor Umahi administration in the State.
"Your Excellency, the Guild takes a visit to every quarter, coming here gives us the opportunity to confirm what we have always heard about Ebonyi State, driving in from the Enugu Airport, we saw a lot of transformation."
From Francis Nwaze,
Special Assistant to the Governor on
Media and Publicity
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