A former director general of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, has christened President Bola Tinubu’s anti-graft war as ‘hope renewal’ and identification with Nigerian masses nationwide.

Mr Okechukwu, a founding member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), said this at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, on Sunday.

He noted that it would be pure hope renewal if Mr Tinubu maintained the anti-graft-war momentum, adding that Nigeria would be one of those that history would record as nations where change emanated from unexpected quarters.

“This renewed anti-graft-war is the surest way and means of avoiding more gruesome economic recession, the exodus of our doctors and nurses and erasing the paradox that Nigeria, the country that produced the richest African, is the world poverty capital,” he said.

He was reacting to the Economic Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) recent interrogation of the utilisation of foreign exchange allocated by the Central Bank of Nigeria for industrialisation.

Mr Okechukwu urged President Tinubu to “bail us out” from the economic stranglehold of the one per cent class of deep pockets who, over the years, mangled the petro-dollars allocated to them for industrial development, hence failed to lift millions out of poverty.

The APC chieftain, who agreed that the nation needed to bail citizens out from the stranglehold of the one per cent class, noted that the one per cent class had been feeding fat on the sordid forex market.

He said, “It is courageous for President Tinubu, whom I rank among the rich class, to evoke the ageless thesis of class suicide, albeit being a member. The president is well-heeled to wage this herculean anti-graft-War.”

Mr Okechukwu said this would amount to identification with the collective interest of masses nationwide, as most of the masses held the earnest view that Nigeria needed to recover more monies, as it was not only late Gen. Sani Abacha that stashed the nation’s monies abroad.

“When one learnt that the Ola Olukoyede-led EFCC raided the Dangote Headquarters and other big wig firms, it was with nostalgia that one recalled the famous pledge at Independence Thanksgiving Service, National Ecumenical Christian Centre Abuja, made by our dear first lady, Senator Remi Tinubu.

“Senator Remi Tinubu clearly said that – Nigeria’s wealth is the commonwealth of all; it belongs to everyone,” said Mr Okechukwu.

He appealed to Nigerians to give the president the much-needed support to pull through the anti-graft war and implement section 16(2)(c) of the 1999 constitution.

(NAN)