….Say Nigeria will Collapse in One Week  under his Presidency
By Jude OPARA, Abuja

Less than 48 hours after he declared his intention to contest the 2023 presidential election, the Association of Ebonyi Indigenes in the Diaspora (AESID) has warned Nigerians against giving Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi state the opportunity to govern the country, saying the country will not survive a week under the “dictatorship style of Governor Umahi” as president.

AESID said instead of dreaming to become the President, Umahi should rather give account of his stewardship in the past seven years.
Recall that Umahi had on Tuesday met with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa where he also announced his intention to succeed the president.
But in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Thursday, AESID President Ambassador Paschal Oluchukwu, who said Umahi has the constitutional right to contest, nevertheless argued that the governor has failed to secure Ebonyi State and wondered how he will be able to manage a more complex nation like Nigeria.
Oluchukwu said; “As we speak, thousands who were displaced by communal war in Effium, Ohaukwu Local Government Area of the state are yet to return to their ancestral homes, needless to speak of receiving any succour whatsoever from the Umahi administration.
“The thousands of victims who were also displaced in three communities in Ezza north LGA where he is lavishing public funds in building an International Cargo Airport remain displaced as they are yet to be duly compensated by the Umahi administration. Hunger and poverty has been weaponized by his government such that all might come to beg for crumbs on his table.
“Any wonder Ebonyi is now officially rated the poverty capital of the entire Southern Nigeria by the National Bureau of Statistics.”
In opposing Umahi’s presidential ambition, the group added: “With the way and manner he has handled the State’s House of Assembly which is ordinarily a separate arm of government, are we not certain that a National Assembly under an Umahi Presidency would be worse than the current rubber-stamp legislative arm that we have in Nigeria? 
“Will Nigeria truly survive just a one-week reign of a Dictator like Umahi?
“AESID would wish to ask; which impact and mark has Governor Umahi made in Ebonyi’s critical sectors such as, Education- given we are classified as Educationally-Less-Developed, Health- given our poor maternal mortality rate and Agriculture-given our rich potentials in this sector? What about the State’s Civil service he has left in its shadows, including Lecturers in our State-owned tertiary institutions whose salaries he has withheld and pays any pittance he feels like? Is it the retirees some of who have died in their pains and agonies over non-payment of their due entitlements or their sorrowing relatives that would drum support for Umahi’s touted 2023 Presidential ambition?
“Mysterious deaths such as the sudden ‘disappearance’ of some five NELAN contractors sometime in November last year among other cases of suspicious demises all points to alleged diabolic and wicked extent the government has gone in its dealings with the now beleaguered Ebonyi masses. 
“Rather than provide jobs for our teeming populace, what the Umahi government specializes on is to appoint, through proxies, our vibrant youths who daily sing it’s praises on the Social media for some pittance.” 
While the Ebonyi group regretted that the Igbos have not been fairly treated on the issue of Nigeria’s presidency, they insisted that only credible people with the right qualification should dream of occupying the coveted seat.
“Drawing reference from the age-long cliché that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, we are not in any doubt that a more absolute power for an Umahi could mean arming a man who has ran amok with a knife to enter the market place.”