LP’ll dislodge PDP cabal holding Enugu down –Obetta, Reps candidate
The Labour Party (LP) candidate for Nsukka/Igbo-Eze South federal constituency of Enugu State, Chidi Obetta, speaks on the governance trajectory in the state under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) since 1999, the problems in his immediate constituency, and the solutions he intends to apply to reverse the lamentable situation, in this interview with Cajetan Mmuta
What are your chances of victory in the February 25 election considering the general perception that your party, the LP, doesn’t have any structure?
I can tell you without blinking an eye that my chances of victory in the election are more than 100 per cent guaranteed. My candidacy has the support of over 90 per cent of the eligible voters in my constituency. These are people who will determine the ultimate winner of the election. And if you are talking about the entire people in the constituency, more than 95 per cent of the people want me to go and represent them in the House of Representatives. I know that the structure you are talking about is like the PDP which had been ruling the state for about 24 years now. So, it has a former governor and incumbent governor, several former senators and incumbent senators, the same thing in terms of the House of Representatives and state assembly, local government chairmen, and councillors. But I can tell you that these structures will work against the party and its candidates in the elections. The PDP has used the structure to hold the Enugu State down for the past 24 years now. The structure had been a cabal, and that is what Labour Party is coming to dismantle and replace with a people-oriented democratic governance structure. And just like I pointed out earlier, the real structure that will determine the outcome of the election is the voters, those who have PVCs. Over 90 per cent of those who have PVCs in Enugu and the Nsukka/Igbo-Eze South federal constituency are behind the LP and its candidates in the forthcoming general election.
The PDP government claimed it developed the Nsukka zone. What is your view on this?
Well, this is the most laughable claim, anybody could make, to say the least. We are all witnesses to the situation in Nsukka in all sectors. Most communities in the Nsukka zone lack virtually any infrastructure you can think of in this modern society. For instance, during every rainy season, every community in our area will always become flooded because of heavy flood water flowing from the Enugu road. Some such communities, include Alor-Uno, Obimo, etc. The multi-million naira Ada Rice project if it had been completed would have given hundreds of jobs to our people apart from turning Nsukka into a food- basket of Enugu state. So, tell me what anybody who is claiming that the PDP government has done well in Nsukka is pointing at?
What are your plans when you are elected?
Well, I hope that you know that the job I am asking the people of my constituency to hire me to do for them is legislative. Which is a job of law-making, oversight of the executive, and serving as their veritable voice on any issue affecting them for the attention of the federal government and the world at large. However, if you were present at the Catholic Diocese of Nsukka Justice, Development and Peace/Caritas Commission political enlightenment programme, I stated clearly in my presentation and, during the question and answer sessions, the major problems facing my people of Nsukka/Igbo-Eze South federal constituency and how I intend to solve them. I will just state briefly what I said during the engagement here. For instance, I made it clear that among the greatest challenges, my people are grappling with are poverty, unemployment, especially among the youth, dearth of physical infrastructure like roads and health facilities which I noted is responsible for the high rate of death among our women during child-births, increased child-mortality rate, challenges of acquiring quality education, environmental hazards like flooding, as well as, a high wave of insecurity. As part of the solutions, I pointed out the need to assist our women to form co-operatives under which they will be linked to accessing loan facilities of the federal government from an institution like the Bank of Industry, Central Bank of Nigeria through designated commercial banks to help improve their agricultural practices. I also emphasized the need to encourage the construction of dams where the flood water flowing from the Enugu road and submerging our communities will be channelled into. Then Ponds will be constructed and youth who may have an interest in fish farming will be selected and trained on fish farming techniques so that they will later be empowered with the necessary facilities to use the ponds for fish farming. That way, our people will not only be self-sufficient in producing enough fish for our consumption but also sell to people outside our constituency. I also said that the health centres constructed in our constituency under the National Primary Health Scheme will be made functional to provide efficient health services to our people by making sure that they are properly equipped with facilities and manpower employed to provide prompt services, especially to pregnant women and children. On roads, we shall lobby both state and federal government agencies using our contacts to attract roads and also strengthen security in our area. I made it clear that as a youth, with age at my advantage, full of strength, bobbling with fresh blood, and passionate about the affairs of my people, l will make sure that I bring anything due for my people from Abuja.
What are the chances of your party in the February 25 and March 11 elections?
Labour Party will sweep the poll in the national election coming up on February 25. It will also be a walk of my party in Enugu State during the March polls because of the quality candidates we have for the Governorship in the person of Chijioke Edeoga and candidates for the state Assembly constituencies. Nigerians are tired of the leadership failure they have been passing through for the past 24 years in the hands of the PDP and APC in particular. And they have made it clear that they want a new Nigeria where there is unity among the various people of the country irrespective of their ethnic, geographical, and religious differences; where there is security, employment, and a strong economy, no corruption where the rule of law prevails, etc. And they have made it clear that they have found the hope in Labour Party where Mr. Peter Obi will be president and his running mate, Dr Yusuf Baba Datti-Ahmed, who will be supported in the National Assembly by legislators who are also elected under the Labour Party platform in both the Senate and House of Representatives.
What is your assessment of the measures put in place by the INEC ahead of the polls to ensure that the exercise produces credible outcomes?
So far, I will say that the Commission has done enough to convince us that the election will be conducted in a free, and fair and that the result will reflect the votes cast by the electorates. I commend particularly the introduction of BVAS and the policy that the results will be transmitted electronically from the polling units to the INEC’s central server in the presence of political party agents who will also be given hard copies of the transmitted results.
How do you address the leadership inequality in Enugu state as it relates to the Nsukka zone?
I am not bothered about where the person occupying a leadership position comes from. I am more concerned about the kind of leadership such a person is providing to the parts of the state. What worries me is that Nsukka has not benefitted what is due to it from the various governments in the state, particularly since the inception of the current democratic era in 1999. Nsukka zone had given the PDP the highest votes making it the sole ruling party in the state for about 24 consecutive years, but, if you look around the zone it is clear that the zone is abandoned in terms of provision of infrastructural development facilities. Today, there is no pipe born water in any part of Nsukka, no tarred road networks linking neighbouring communities, virtually all the communities are in darkness due to lack of electricity; the health sector is comatose in the zone, and the same applies to the education sector. Most primary schools and secondary schools have dilapidated structures. So, for me, it is not necessarily how many leadership positions we have occupied or occupied both at the state and the federal level. After all our bother has been on the saddle as the Executive Governor of our state for close to eight years now. Has far has he developed the zone? If you ask some people among our people they will even tell you that our area saw more development during the regime of Governor Sullivan Chime who hails from Udi in Enugu West senatorial zone than under the incumbent regime of our brother, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.
What are your plans for youth development in your constituency?
The youth in my constituency is part of my priority. As you can see, I am a youth. It pains me the number of unemployed youth I see around. . Already, I have provided opportunities to many. I have been involved in organising football tournaments where those of them who have soccer talents are selected, and, I have been making plans to send them overseas to become professional players. I have gotten jobs for so many of them at the federal level. I have provided scholarships to many. If you come to Jerry Marriot Hotel, you will notice that all the staff members are youth. That is also how I engaged them in my other ventures outside Nsukka here because I have other businesses located in Abuja and other states in the country. This is why I said in my social contract with my Nsukka/Igbo-Eze South federal constituency that my reason for seeking their mandate is to have a pedestal that will allow me to touch more lives.
