By Okechukwu Onuegbu
As Anambra State populace prepare for the 2025 governorship election, there is need for the electorate to consider the capacities of the respective individuals or candidates on the poll. The candidate should be judged by what they have been able to achieve individually with their wealths, not with public coffers. There is a popular saying that a man who is able to achieve a lot with little will achieve more with many. Also, a man who fails to take care of his family needs not seek a leadership position. Can anyone compare a man who nearly divided his community to a man investing in the peace and progress of his community since he was born?
Of all the candidates aspiring to govern Anambra State this year, Ozo Jeff Nweke of Action Alliance (AA) stands out as the best. Born on September 26, 1970 to late Ozo Aforka Nweke family of Awka, Jeff's steering qualities and chances is not in doubt. He is a youth, visionary leader, very enterprising, hospitable and accommodating.
As one of the leaders of Ezinano community,comprising 24 villages in Awka, Ozo Jeff Nweke has never slept with his two eyes closed. He is actively involved in protecting his community from land grabbers even when the law enforcement agents abandoned them. This made some women from the community to go stark naked in protest against some land grabbers shielded by the law enforcement agents while maligning the image of their illustrious son of the soil in the year 2023.
Ozo Jeff did not stop there. He is always busy empowering women, youth and men with skills, food items and millions of Naira to get them going amidst the devastating impact of Nigeria economy. Nweke has also convened series of security meetings and stakeholders engagements where the youths were convinced to renounce cultism and other anti-social lifestyles, and got reintegrated back to the society with multiple legal streams of income. His interventions brought to a barest minimum, if not total end to cultism and other violent crimes, which the government of Professor Chukwuma Soludo of APGA could not address.
In a similar vein, Nweke as a security expert has never withheld his services to the people. His Blue Shield is a top-notch; one of the leading security outfit in the country. He has also consistently offered free security consultancy to the people from far and near, leading to the various awards he has received from communities, organisations and good spirited individuals. You can begin to imagine what would happen if he becomes the governor of Anambra State.
Nweke's leadership quality is also noticeable in his ability to manage businesses and provide employment to the people. His security company, Blue shield, including Mango and Lion Properties Limited and other business conglomerate, have employed hundreds of people from all over the country. Can you compare a man from private sector who has created employments to someone who neither owns a company nor employ a single soul but always jumping from one government position to another? Should Anambra State remain in the hands of a man who castigates breweries and private companies that create jobs just because he managed to renovate a government house whose structures were acquired by his predecessors?
Also, unlike governor Chukwuma Soludo who always run to renovate and occupy an existing house/political party, Ozo Jeff Nweke is not. While Soludo's political trajectory has been from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and now APGAPC, Ozo Jeff Nweke moved quietly to build a relatively unknown political party,AA. Anambra populace voted for APGA in 2003 when it was newly registered and relatively unknown. Therefore, the choice is theirs now to make same move for a greater Anambra, given to the party's ideology of making workers welfare a top priority. Nweke has assured Ndi Anambra of his resolve to provide them with security, employment, infrastructural development and improve welfare once voted into power.
Similarly, if there is any need to talk about zoning, it favours Ozo Jeff Nweke. He is from Awka, the Anambra State capital which is abandoned by various governments, including Soludo's administration. If given opportunity to govern Anambra, Nweke will no doubt uplifts Awka to a true capital city because it is his home town. He will also develop all parts of the state because he has the political will. He who wears the shoe knows where it pinches, is a popular saying; meaning that a son of the soil will most likely develop his town much better than a man who considers himself as a stranger. Yes. Can you compare the development ongoing at Ekwulobia today to what is happening in Awka under Soludo? Why? Your guess is as good as ours.
FactcheckNg wishes the Anambra State electorate what they wish themselves as November 8, 2025 gubernatorial poll draws closer.