Of the sixteen gubernatorial aspirants hoping to clinch the ticket of the People’s Democratic Party ahead of the November 6 Anambra gubernatorial election, Lady Chidi Onyemelukwe has been singled out as being markedly different from the rest.
Women leaders from the 21 local government chapters of the PDP in the state made this observation when they conferred with Lady Chidi Onyemelukwe at her Nnewi country home on Monday.
According to the women, Chidi Onyemelukwe, the first daughter of second republic Vice President and one of the founding fathers of PDP, Late Dr. Alex Ekwueme, is well-refined and better suited to offer purposeful leadership to Ndị Anambra.
“You know we have other women also aspiring to clinch our party’s ticket. But Lady Chidi Onyemelukwe is markedly different. She has home training. She is polished and she carries herself with decorum, dignity and poise befitting of a woman and a public office seeker.
“Her beauty is easy to see, but much more important than that is her character. Chidi is virtuous. Hardly will you see this kind of virtue, administrative experience and beauty packed into one human being. My only appeal is for fellow delegates to prayerfully consider our options before casting that primary election ballot come June 26.”
On whether a woman can govern Anambra state, the women argued that the time is ripe for the state to dismantle all gender-based barriers and engage the best of hands to manage its affairs.
“If you look around, you will notice that we are having an off-season election. It is so because Anambra blazed the trail on election litigation in Nigeria. Mind you that we have also had the first female governor in Nigeria. Also, two out of three serving Anambra Senators are females. Anambra, I am sure, will once again lead the charge on dismantling undue gender-based barriers so our women and indeed the whole society can blossom fully,” one of the women enthused.
On her part, Lady Chidi Onyemelukwe, former Special Assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo on SMEs and the 2017 deputy governorship candidate of the party, thanked the women for their kind words. She reiterated her commitment to “implement political and gender-based equity in elective and appointive positions based on a 60:40 ratio.”
The former Board Chairman, Federal Housing Authority assured the women leaders that she posses requisite street and administrative experience to drive her broad vision of restoring Anambra on the right path to progress. She then sought for their prayers and support even as she intensifies consultations ahead of the upcoming party primaries.
