Abia Governor, Chief TA Orji has been conferred with the champion leadership award,2012 as the icon of democracy.Speaking at the award ceremony at the Nike lake Resort hotel, Enugu the governor,Chief Theodore Orji said the honor presents him as a champion of democracy and a role model worthy of emulation.He said he values the honor not just as another prized jewel to his cap but a great tribute to the people of Abia state who bore the burden of the past leadership impunity and distorted democratic values.
The governor stated that when he commenced his tenure as governor of Abia state, he met a state where the political playing field was not equal and citizens were prevented from exercising their civic obligations within the dictates of democracy which his administration fought very hard to unravel and democratized it.
According to him,the political elites of the state were divided as either Abuja based and local political elites pointing out that his government has been able to weld together the political interests of Abians.
In his speech,the chairman of the occasion, Alh. Bamanga Tukur who is also the national chairman of the PDP associated itself with the champion newspapers on its efforts in the enthronement of democracy in the country.
Alh. Tukur who was represented by the national publicity secretary of the PDP, Barr Olisa Metu said the choice of Governor Orji as icon of democracy is apt because he has succeeded in enthroning the greatest tenets of democracy in the state and congratulated the governor for making PDP and Abia state proud.
He hoped that the award will spur the governor to greater accomplishment and appreciated the effort of the Nigeria media in advancing democracy in the country.
Conferring the award on the governor, the chairman, champion newspapers group, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu said the award was conferred on the governor because he has done well in the transformation of the state noting that despite the meager resources at his disposal he has managed things well.
He stated that prior to the emergence of Chief TA Orji’s administration, Abia was regarded as a pariah state, a situation he observed has been turned around by Chief TA Orji, adding that Orji is the first governor from the south East to be so honored.
