Godwin Maduka, an aspirant for the November 6 Anambra gubernatorial election he was inspired to vie for the state’s chief executive job because of the need to improve on the lives of Anambrarians with functional infrastructure.
Speaking shortly after a stakeholders meeting which had all 16 aspirants and leaders of the party in Abuja, he ruled out the possibility of a consensus arrangement.
According to him, it’s late for any of the aspirants to step down now, given the proximity of the primary election.
He said that having lived and worked in the United States of America for 40 years; such will give him an edge to negotiate good things for his state from outside the country.
The pain physician stated further that it is time for him to return home and make Anambra a model in development across all fronts.
He said: “ylYou hardly see anyone like me interested in going into politics in Nigeria. But then, you don’t have someone like me that dream every night at the age of 13, 15 and no matter how much I struggle to get out of it, it is not just possible.
“Being in government will allow you to be able to even solicit for help outside Nigeria. If we start that in Anambra, I believe it will go to other places in Nigeria. I want to serve my people and my people are not limited to only Anambra people.
“I am going for governorship and I don’t plan to lose it because I have been praying hard to be able to change the things I don’t like. I can’t just go ahead and change my town and the rest of the people are suffering.
“I want to start a movement in Nigeria to end tribalism. I don’t want to wait until all those tribalistic people are dead.
“Even though I have been in America for 40 years, I have been coming home for the past 30 years. Sometimes, I come home more than those that live in Abuja or Lagos. My town (Umuchukwu) had nothing before but today, we can boast of running water, electricity, roads and bridges, places of worship both for Anglicans and Catholics and if there are Muslims, they will have their own. There are civic centres too.
“The greatest thing that happened to my town was when I was able to build magistrate court, high court and the Police Divisional Headquarters. We followed it up with Civil Defence and SARS (now defunct). We were able to build barracks for them as well as officers mess.
“82 per cent of the people that went to college or still going to college in that town, I have been training them. Lawyers, doctors, you name them! There is no more single thatch house in my community anymore. God gave me the vision to be able to build hospital, equip it and people can come in there.
“I was saying that there is no thatch house in my town because we build houses for everybody. They don’t have to go outside to use the toilet anymore because they have in-dwelling toilets. It is the work of God but the greatest thing I have done is when I built schools –elementary and secondary. I am going to adult education because a literate community is a healthy and wealthy one.”
Maduka said that he’s prepared for the primary coming up on Saturday, adding, “I have been prepared all my life because this is part of who I am. I have never really changed. Preparedness in politics is knowing the people you are coming to serve. In Anambra today, everybody seems to be enjoying my company. It is not politics, it’s like a carnival. That is because I am among my people. I don’t like sadness in my life. I have the capacity to run my own campaign.”
