TD This cry is all over Anambra State. And it is loudest among our people in the rural areas.
#BringBackUcheEkwunife
#BringBackUcheEkwunife
Everywhere you go, old mamas and old papas are moving up and down, shouting and asking for Uche Ekwunife to return to the Senate. It is as if someone is holding her hostage in Sambisa Forest.
Across Anambra Central, pressure groups, youth groups, and student organizations have all added their voices.
But what touched me most happened in my village the other day.
I went to the market to buy fruits and vegetables. A lady walked in wearing a wrapper branded with Uche Ekwunife’s face.
The moment the market women saw her, they surrounded her.
“Tell Iyom we love her. We want her back in the Senate,” they said, as they hugged her.
I stood there, dumbfounded, watching true love in action.
They danced. They cried.
Then one very old woman, about 80 years old, walked up to me quietly and asked,
“Is she Ekwunife?”
“No, ma,” I replied.
“But they are still calling her Uche,” she said.
That was what touched me the most.
They were using that woman as a contact point to show love to the woman who gave them life when they thought they had been forgotten.
They have not seen her. They have not seen her posters.
But now, they believe it is time to pay her back.
In that moment, I realized something:
We don’t need to buy jeeps before people follow us.
All they need is love.
Love goes a long way to heal old wounds.
Love is life.
And they are not the only ones whose lives were touched by Uche Ekwunife.
That is why almost 80% of the people are crying out for her to come and contest.
Respected leaders and stakeholders across the zone have also joined in, urging her to come out.
Yet, up to this moment, there has been no positive response from Uche Ekwunife to the growing plea to return to the Anambra Central Senate race. Or better still, to return to the Senate, where many believe she truly belongs.
We all know Uche Ekwunife as a principled politician.
She has never failed her people in any position she has held.
She is a fearless defender of the people’s rights.
She has always stood for justice and fairness, and worked hard to attract federal projects and programs that improved the lives of her people.
She is also someone who believes in herself, and never gives up on any goal until she achieves it.
During her time in the National Assembly, she performed exceptionally well.
There was nothing good she didn’t bring to her constituency.
Today, many people in Anambra Central, and across Anambra State, believe that none of those who succeeded her in the House of Representatives or Senate has matched her record of achievements.
As another Senate election approaches, I strongly believe, just as many others do, that no other candidate can serve Anambra Central as effectively as Uche Ekwunife. Her record speaks, and her connection with the grassroots is unmatched.
I therefore appeal to political leaders, elders, and other respected stakeholders in Anambra Central to join in persuading her to answer the call of the people.
I am personally ready to lead a delegation to meet her and plead with her to return to the Senate and continue the work of developing Anambra Central, which slowed down after she left office.
We remember the many kilometers of roads she built across Anambra Central.
We remember the hundreds of people she helped secure jobs.
We remember her contributions to improving security.
We remember the development projects she carried out even outside her senatorial district.
There was hardly any sector that Senator Uche Ekwunife did not touch positively during her time in the Senate.
Let God be my witness: the day Uche Ekwunife agrees to answer the call of our people and contest for the Senate again, I will go to the Altar of God and make a covenant.
#BringBackUcheEkwunife
By Mazi Omife Omife (Mbuze Mbaukwu)
