Nigerian Professionals in Las Vegas Express Support for Atiku, Obi

Nigerian top professionals in the medical, legal, finance and other fields living the Las Vegas, United States, have expressed concerned about the state of the Nigerian state, and therefore back the Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi candidacy to coast to victory in the 2019 elections and restore the country’s glory.

When the Medical Director at Grand Desert Medical Services in Las Vegas, hosted the Assistant Director (South East) of the Atiku Campaign Organisation, Hon. Sam Egu, last week at a ‘meet and greet event’ at her home in the exclusive Summerlin suburb of the city, these Nigerians took the opportunity to discuss the way forward and how they can contribute to the imminent turnaround of the Africa’s most populous country.

As guest speaker, Egu stressed the importance of Nigerians in diaspora, whose financial remittances have been the major back bone of Nigerians back home.

He said: “Your influence on the people you support with money back home is a major asset, therefore, you can easily influence more people back home to vote for candidates you believe in.”

Egu further urged them to take more interest in and participate in Nigerian politics.

Furthermore, it was learnt that some of the burning issues on the minds of the Nigerian professionals abroad bothered on the re-structuring of Nigeria, free and fair 2019 elections, turning the economy around and voting rights for Nigerians in the diaspora.

The issue of restructuring Nigeria, according to Egu, is of interest to majority, “with the hope that devolution of powers to the states and local governments will create more sources of income for the country as a whole, instead of the total dependence on oil states will be forced to develop other sources of income. Therefore, Atiku has been favorable to restructuring of Nigeria.”

While fielding questions from those who attended the event, the campaign director said: “As a northerner and businessman with interest in many states across the country, Atiku is one of the most liberal politicians in Nigeria. His clamour for restructuring dated back 15 years ago. He understands the need that more states can get to develop its resources instead of waiting for the monthly allocations from Abuja.”

Egu emphasized that such system is working perfectly in the US, where the states and counties are in charge of education, agriculture, power and others, while the federal government is saddled with few responsibilities like security, customs, immigration, interventions and a few others.

Meanwhile, the Medical Director of Apex Medical Centre, one of the largest centres by an African in Las Vegas, Dr. Dolue Ezeanolue, expressed concern that many Nigerians in the diaspora are skeptical of the ability of the present government to conduct a free and fair election in 2019, considering feelers from the international observers over the just concluded elections in Ekiti and Osun States. But Egu however allayed the fears that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has concrete plans on ground to make sure that 2019 elections are free and fair.

He added: “Atiku’s choice of Obi as his running mate is premised on Obi’s track record as a pragmatic and result-oriented person, who will bring a lot of experience to bear on the economic team, the way the presidential candidate made great choices of Nigerians in the diaspora when he was vice president to former president Olusegun Obasanjo.”