By Cajetan Mmuta,Awka
The Incumbent Senator representing Anambra’ Central and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senator Uche Ekwunife said on Wednesday she has nothing against the Presidential ambition of the Labour Party (LP) candidate for the 25th February 2023 general elections, Mr. Peter Obi.
She noted that as PDP senatorial candidate for the February poll, there was no way she could divert attention from the onerous task of consolidating on her mandate of completing all the ongoing human oriented projects and other programmes aimed at improving the welfare of people of the sensorial zone, the state and country even as a member of the PDP and to begin to work against the candidate of the Labour Party Presidential candidate.
This is as she insisted on the autonomy of the coubtry’s 774 local government areas to enable them cater for the needs of people at the grassroots and to help checkmate the spate of insecurity ravaging the citizenry and communities in the southeast and other parts of the nation.
Ekwunife stated this while fielding questions from journalists as a special guest at the Secretariat complex of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Anambra’ state council in Awka the state capital.
She urged members of the public to disregard all the deceitful, malicious and false publications in some section of the media as they were lies by opponents meant to tarnish her image.
“As a sitting senator I can’t imagine myself using my letter head to start writing and castigating Peter Obi. Peter is running for President and I am running for the Senate, they are making it to look as if I am running for president with Peter; I am not. My opponent in Labour Party is Victor Umeh. So, if I go for campaign my opponent is not Peter.”
“They are fabricating those things to pitch my head against Agulu people, against Peter and my supporters. Those things did not emanate from me, not at all. I am a member of PDP, running election under PDP and proud to be a member of PDP,” she declared.
Ekwunife who is also the chairman, Senate Committee on Science and Innovation said that she wants to go back for a second term on office in order to consolidate on gains of her achievements and to ensure that bills and motions presented on the floor of the red Chambers about the welfare,development and progress of people of her constituency and the nation are on line are passed and implemented accordingly.
“I still want to go back to consolidate on the gains,to consolidate in terms of the bills and motions that are on the line. I have some bills that are very dear to me, like the local government financial autonomy bill; the local government and chieftaincy autonomy. I am very passionate about that bill because I feel we have to prevent the ecumberance of governors on the local government admonistrayion.”
We have three tiers of government, the federal, state and local government. While the federal government is enjoying its own turn of administration, the same thing with the state but the local government is being eccumbered by the state governments and this is the government that is closest to the people; we need to remove those obstacles so that the local governments can stand on their own. That’s the government the people can feel, that’s the government that’s closest to the people and that’s the government that can open up our local communities.”
“Today, we are having pockets of kidnapping and all forms of insecurity here and there. It’s not happening in the urban areas, it’s happening in our local areas and the local government that are supposed to deal with them are not functioning. I feel that bill must be the people’s bill, must be one thing that Nigerians must yearn for. Every local government has its own money every month, so let those local governments determine what they do with their own money.”
“A situatoom where the local government chairman will not have the capacity to enter different communities within their jurisdictions is shortchanging in terms of insecurity, to curb insecurity, reduce poverty and open up our local populace, what type of local government is that? What we have today is transition,some three months, some six months and some one year and once somebody knows that he is there for three months he will be so sycophantic and so what does one want so they can renew his tenure,” she stated.
“I am working today to satisfy my constituents; I am not a product of any government and no government brought me on board, not state, not not federal government it’s just by the people and that’s why I am working hard to ensure that iearn the trust, solidarity and support of the people. I listened to somebody saying I will match her dollar for dollar and naira for naira; what I want my opponent is to match me bills for bills, motions I have sponsored, projects for projects, employments for our youths, roads etc. We need healthy competition.”
She also disclosed that senators and governors from the five Southeast geo political zone are working collaboratively towards ensuring that what are due for the zone in terms of development and improvement in the overall socio-economic wellbeing of the people of the area are guaranteed in line with the vision and programmes of the Southeast Development Commission.
