The Abia State PDP 2023 governorship candidate, Chief Okey Ahiwe has extoled the rare leadership endowment of elder statesman and former governor of Abia State, Distinguished Senator T. A. Orji (Ochendo) who marks his 73rd birthday anniversary today.
In his birthday message, Chief Ahiwe remarked that Ochendo is one of the very few Nigerian leaders who has cultivated and sustained a sublime pedestal of statesmanship not diminished by his exit from the exalted Offices he has occupied in recent years.
According to him, “Distinguished Senator T. A. Orji has consistently distinguished himself over the years as a quintessential public servant, visionary Nigerian patriot and leadership institution who personifies the archetypal standards of statesmanship in universal contexts. As governor of Abia State, his courageous and uncompromising tenacity to the revolutionary objective of establishing equitable balance of power within the Abia polity, fundamentally contributed to ushering in the glorious era of priceless peace and security for which Abia became an exceptional example across the country. His uncommon insights, forthrightness, candour and dignified humility has elevated the status of statesmanship and marked him out as an oasis of wisdom, consulted from far and near on ways out of the pervasive leadership conundrum we have been confronting as a nation.”
Chief Ahiwe, while wishing Ochendo a very happy birthday and God’s continued blessings in the years ahead, emphasized that young people should make conscious efforts to learn from him as a leadership role model, and challenged Abians, particularly the Ibeku Nation, to explore prospects of instituting special programs to mark Ochendo’s birthdays in the future.
Victor C. Nwokocha, ANIPR
Media Adviser to Chief Okey Ahiwe
November 9, 2023
