Hon. Chidi Obetta, member representing Nsukka/Igboeze-South Federal Constituency, Enugu State, is of the Labour Party (LP). He spoke to a team of editors on his agenda at the National Assembly, what it holds for Enugu and South-East generally and why the country must change its attitude at marginalising the South-East zone. Excerpts of the interview by EZE CHIDOZIE in Abuja.
Do you think Labour Party could satisfy the expectations of Nigerians in the 10th Assembly?
We are 35 members of Labor Party in the House of Reps out of 360 members. We have just spent two months and some few days after inauguration, and we have been on long recess and we plan to resume on September 26th. Committees have just been constituted and from there, a lot of work will start. What I want to promise Nigerians is that all that we promised them, we will try our possible best to deliver on all of them.
For me as the member representing Nsukka and Igboeze-South federal constituency, I will focus on three cardinal areas. One of such is infrastructure development. As you’re aware, we are legislators, we are not the executive. But we can attract development infrastructure to our place and to Enugu State at large via our constituency projects, what they call zonal intervention projects, and also talking to the MDAs – ministry, departments and agencies that carry out the functions of development to ensure that whatever they are doing for Nigerians, cuts across every constituency and every state.
The second area we are going to be looking at is the area of agriculture. Our people are primarily agrarian in nature. I’m already designing a structure where we are going to put them in cooperative societies, because for you to access some of the federal government agricultural schemes and programmes and also grants, you will need to be in a group or in the corporate society, which is most times a condition precedent to accessing these grants and schemes. So we have already put the template on ground. From next month we will begin to form this corporate societies and we are also taking it down to the grassroots, to the ward level. At the grassroots, we shall have cooperative societies that position themselves for anything that is going to come, any scheme or grants or programme that will be championed by this new administration.
On the areas of youth and women empowerment, we are also going to look at building different skill acquisition centers, civic centers, and also empowering our women, in the SMEs in the small and medium scale enterprises. You know our people also traders. By the time they come out from their farms, they go to different markets trying to sell their wares and their farm produce. So we are also going to see how we are going to encourage them and empower them.
Enugu is fast losing its status as the economic hub of the South-East. What will you and other members in the National Assembly do to reverse this trend?
The first thing we need to ensure that we achieve in Enugu is security because without security, you will not get investors coming into Enugu. We are working on that and the current administration, the governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mba is already doing a lot and engaging with the security agencies to see how they can restore peace and end insecurity in Enugu State.
Another area is road infrastructure, without good roads people will not come to Enugu; people will come to Enugu for different programs or investments. Because even if you come as an investor, you will need to move your goods, you need to move raw materials, you need to move finished goods, you need to move your goods to the market. So, we must ensure that the three key roads that connects the South East with the South South, the North and the entire South East, which is Enugu-Onitsha through Awka, the express road that is unpassable now – the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway, the Enugu-Makurdi expressway. These are very important routes that connect us and moving agricultural produce from the South East to the north, you have to pass through that route. From the north to the South East you have to come through the Makurdi axis or come through Ajaokuta-Lokoja and connect to Otukpa-Obollo-Afor. This is the major road that connects the north to the south East. So this is the second area we must work on.
Then we also have to create an enabling environment. We must work with the executive to ensure that we create that enabling environment for investors to come. Once investors come in, I tell you that Enugu will open up again.
We also need to decongest the Enugu metropolis because it is already congested. We begin to look towards the expressway where you have Nkanu East and West, the Enugu-Abakaliki expressway. We will also look at Ugwogo Nike axis, which they have started a lot of estates. These areas will decongest the Enugu town and open up the state.
What are the specific plans you and your colleagues have to address the issue of insecurity in Enugu State?
There was a motion moved in the House on the issue of insecurity in the South East and our colleague, Hon. Obi Aguocha from Abia State was made the ad-hoc Chairman on the issue of insecurity in the South-East.
South-East used to be known as the bedrock of peace in Nigeria. If you are looking for any zone in this country that had the most peaceful atmosphere, it is the South-East but today, all that is changing and we are not happy about that because it has affected a lot of activities in the South-East. We cannot go back home to bury our loved ones without being scared of kidnappers, the threats of insecurity and all that.
That committee is working now and we are also expecting the report of that committee to be out in first week of September. When the report comes out, we are sure that we will comply to whatever recommendations that the committee comes out with and they are doing it jointly with all the security agencies – the army, the police, the Navy, Air Force, the Civil Defense, the paramilitary agencies, to see how we can stop this insecurity that is going on in the south east.
Power distribution has remained a challenge in the South East despite the act that allows states and individuals to generate power. Enugu DisCo has the highest tariff in Nigeria. What are doing about this?
The issue of power is one of those areas that affects industrialisation in Nigeria. In Enugu, power should be stable and affordable. We have brought the issue before the House and this House is going to be very robust, very interesting because we have a lot of young people and about 270 new members. That tells you that a lot of fresh minds and a lot of energy has come in and a lot of young members below 40 (years of age), more than 50. The people who really understand the problems of this country are in the House today. They need to open the act to allow more independent people to generate and distribute power and make it more accessible to everybody just like what is happening in the petroleum industry sector. So the same thing is going to happen in the area of power.
The issue of overbilling is also a very critical area. A lot of villages (and) communities in Enugu State today don’t have meters, they are not being metered. It is an aberration and something has to be done about it. We have to fight it to make sure that if you must bill people, you must meter them as well so that they know what they are paying for.
How did you weather the PDP storm in Enugu State to emerge from Labour Party?
A lot of mistakes were made in the past but that does not mean that it is a general thing. There are some members that did very well from the South East.
In Enugu State, we have eight House of Representatives members, seven is Labour and one is PDP. Before the campaign, the only one that returned to the House, Hon. Nnoli Nnaji brought out his score card of what he was able to achieve in the four years of his first tenure as a Rep member. I think he was sleeping on the day of election and his people voted for him because he worked for them. For him to come back, I am sure it was because of what he did. I saw his score card and it was a big challenge for me. I said, if this guy can do this, then as first timers, we should be able to do more than that.
The bar in Enugu State actually is so low that if you just put little effort, you will be able to set a new limit, set a new bar.
You also know that our people were tired of bad governance, we should be able to say these things as they are. We will pray for Gods grace, wisdom and understanding to be able to navigate the terrain. Some of these things, you lobby to get them to your people. So we will try our best, we will try as much as we can to achieve whatever goals the people has set for us. Governance is not for one person. Sometimes, we don’t even know where to start from and you have to guide us. So the challenge is enormous, but it takes a dogged fighter to be able to overcome these challenges. I will definitely do it.
The leadership of the House of Representatives just constituted committees. How do you assess the allocation of position with regards to the South-East?
The South-East has not been treated fairly in terms of committees. Out of the 133 committees in the House, the South-East got only 12 chairmanship position and Enugu State got only one. This is very unfair. And I think the leadership of the House should look into it, and do justice to the South-East. We cannot say that we are one Nigeria, we are preaching for one Nigeria, one nation, and the South-East is not being carried along in the activities of the house. So I call on them to use their good office to do the right thing and make sure that the South-East is fully and adequately represented.
