By Emmanuel Iheaka

OWERRI – A socio-political organisation, the New Nigeria Group, has urged Nigerians to vote for only competence and character in the forthcoming 2027 general elections.

Convener of the group, Pharmacist Sam Ohuabunwa, who stated this during a chat with journalists, said time to reposition Nigeria has come.

Ohuabunwa submitted that Nigerians are yearning for a country that will work for all irrespective of tribe, religion and status, adding that it was worrisome these aspirations have not been actualised in spite of the nation’s abundant human and material resources.

He said the realisation of such a nation is the mission behind the New Nigeria Group.

“Those are the two main components of the vision — a productively developed nation. We have been regarded as a third world country since I was born and up till now we are still regarded as a third world country. And I have been asking myself when we are going to get to the second or even the first world country position.

“My vision of a New Nigeria is aimed at creating a first world nation; and to become a first world nation, it must be a productively-driven nation. GDP must grow, per capital income must grow, education must grow and all the factors of production must grow phenomenally.

“The second is to promote strong unity in Nigeria — make it a country that everyone would love to belong to, a country that people would love to die for. Now who wants to die for this country? Nobody — even soldiers are running away because the nation doesn’t care for them. So we need a nation that cares for the people, so that in turn we will expect the people to show allegiance to the nation.

“We need a country where we will be treated fairly irrespective of your religion, tribe, education, creed, age, colour, etc — a country that caters for you from birth, till when you enter school, graduate, get work, through your career, through your retirement and unto death. A country where you have a fair and equitable representation and distribution in all that the government does. This is the New Nigeria we are talking about.

“After my primaries in 2022, we continued. Our desire was to look at the people running and their different manifestos to see those who had the same vision and we aligned with them. As we go back to 2027, the New Nigeria Group is coming back; the tenets are going to be reframed and properly relaunched. Remember the NNG is nonpartisan and it’s made up of politically-minded people. We are a conglomerate of people from different political persuasions. However, when we decide to support a group we will do that irrespective of our party affiliations because our loyalty is first to Nigerians before party and any other considerations”, he stated.

Ohuabunwa noted that the group will engage in voter education and sensitisation to ensure the electorate choose the right candidates.