Essential Ndubuisi
Former Secretary to Abia State Government, SSG, Dr Eme Okoro, has decried the economic situation in the country, saying that majority of Nigerians are poorer now than when President Muhamnadu Buhari came to power in 2015.
The former SSG who made the assertion during a press conference in Umuahia regretted that Nigeria had not recorded much progress under the current administration especially in the key sectors of the economy, security and infrastructure.
He, therefore, advocated a new trajectory where Nigeria will elect patriotic leaders with a clear vision to lead the country out of the woods come 2023.
The former SSG expressed disappointment over the quality of legislation by members of the National Assembly who he accused of failing to use their constitutional powers to compel the executive to sit up.
This is as political stakeholders in Abia North have urged Senator Mao Ohuabunwa who represented the district in the 8th Senate to recontest for the office in 2023.
Senator Ohuabunwa who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, sought re-election in 2019 but lost to the incumbent Senator Orji Uzor Kalu of the All Progressive Congress, APC.
The stakeholders who addressed newsmen in Umuahia lamented the exit of Ohuabunwa at the Senate, saying that “the zone has gone voiceless since then”.
Dr Eme Okoro, who spoke on behalf of the stakeholders, said the zone had slid into political darkness due to the absence of a vocal and vibrant parliamentarian like Ohuabunwa.
The stakeholders expressed disappointment at the quality of representation the district is currently getting, and vowed to compel Ohuabunwa to seek a return to the red chamber come 2023.
” We are pained that Abia North which was hitherto represented by the likes of Senator Gen. Ike Nwachukwu, late Senator Uche Chukwumerije, and Senator Mao Ohuabunwa – men whose oratory prowess, intellectual capacity and legislative acumen resonated across Nigeria and beyond has suddenly become a laughing stock at the 9th Senate”, they lamented.
The stakeholders further said that but for the efforts of some House of Representatives members from the zone, “Abia North would have been completely on mute at the current National Assembly”.
They said that “the district does not need to be represented by somebody who will abandon his legislative duties only to be junketing around the country collecting chieftaincy titles and being turbaned nor one who is distracted by presidential ambition”.
” Abia North does not deserve to be represented by someone who will spend six months in prison custody while serving as a member of NASS. This is a collective insult on the zone.
” Anybody that has issues with EFCC should go and resolve with the anti-graft agency first before going to represent Abia North”.
