How God resolves Orumba North And South Tense and heated up political Climate ------Hon Ernest Igboanugo

Have you seen a community without light in the last 11 months? The community has no Secondary school,  and, have been cut off to the rest of the communities sequel to a collapse of its bridge even there is no road into the community in the past 7 months sequel to rainy season . The Community is Ndiokpaleke , in Orumba North local government area of Anambra state.

Coordinator, Orumba North Presidents General Association and the President General of Ndiokpaleke Community, Hon Ernest Elochukwu Igboanugo bared his mind on the problems of neglect.

And despite that Hon Alphonsus Muogbuo , Chief Reginald Onyeka and Br Ikweto  among others are contesting for the House of Assembly , Hon Igboanugo insists that Hon Romanus Obi remained the best candidate to represent the Orumba North constituency in the state House of Assembly.

Hon Igboanugo , an Immediate past Transition Committee Member of Orumba North council area spoke about zoning in Orumba North among other political issues in this Exclusive interview with Odogwuemekaodogwu.com. Excerpts:

How can you assess the presence of Government in your community?

I can say there is no much government presence in my community since 1999.  And even the only assess road to my community and other communities like Ndiokolo leading to Ogboji which is about 7 kilometers have been cut off , the bridge collapsed and we have written so many letters to the Local government and the state government over the suffering of the people of the area to no avail.

We started writing this letter from the Governor Peter Obi’s adminsitartion and now to Chief Willie Obiano’s administration to at least have a palliative measure on the road for our people to have access to their communities.  The major thing now as Christmas approaches is for the road to be done even palliative work to enable our people return for Christmas. We park our vehicles in other communities before trekking home whereas the problem of the road can be fixed. Our school children trek about ten kilometers to Ajalli to attend to school because we don’t have a secondary school yet.

Luckily for us , during the August tour of local government areas and visit to Orumba North local government by Her Excellency , Chief Mrs Eberechukwu Obiano promised us that our road would be done within 12 months from the date of her visit. The Ndiokpaleke town union have already written her thanking her for that pronouncement while appealing to her and her husband Chief Willie Obiano to fulfill the promise.  We believe the government would favour us more because the road is the major problem of my community. And you know that road is the major means of development and growth to any community. So with a road to our community, other developments would come in.

Do you know we have only a boy’s quarter as a Health center by community efforts and we have a nurse who comes to work at will and the only government presence is the Central Primary school Ndiokpaleke.

What has the House of Assembly member done in this direction?

Before I talk about that let me tell you that lawmaking is different from Executive powers but as that may be , our House member assured us he would join forces with the local government leadership in canvassing for attention on that road and bridges over the road.

He promised to do it at the floor of the House by calling attention of the state government to that road and we have written him officially about the road and the 3 mini bridges and one of the bridges collapsed rendering the rural folks without access to other communities by motor but by trekking even though the other two are in bad shape.

The chairman of the local government, Hon (Chief) Okey Enekwe did a palliative on that road last August by providing stones to fill many bad spots because our area is a swampy zone. That really assisted movement then and he said they have written the state Government for a construction of  Bridges over the road especially the collapsed one and the other two but have not gotten approval.  He assured that once approval is gotten, the bridges would be constructed.

How then would you assess his performance in the state House of Assembly?

Hon Obi has performed creditably well and since 1999 , no House of Assembly member performed better than him in Orumba North. This is the only House of Assembly member that carries the Presidents general of communities along in constructing his constituency projects. Wherever he wants to work in any community , he would first notify the community in writing about his intentions and await for their reply on whether the project he wanted to embark on is the preferred project, if the answer is in the positive he embarks on it but if otherwise , he changes to what the community wants as far as it is within the range of the budgeted cost.

In my own case , Ndiokpaleke wanted a low tension cable extended to a village in its community and he wrote us and we confirmed it is most needed project before he embarked on it and today there is no part of Ndiokpaleke without electricity even though we have been in darkness for over 11 months now and the EEDC is not doing anything about that. Other House members before him only do culverts without consultation but Hon Romanus Obi consults the communities before doing any project.

He has rehabilitated about 10 schools in Orumba North and built a Computer center in Omogho , renovated Ajalli Library and so many other projects. And as we speak , he is not doing as if he is leaving the House of Assembly in matter of months , as his project is ongoing at Awa, Ndiowu and Ufuma communities to complete his projects in all the 16 communities of Orumba North.  This is why I said Hon Obi has performed more than any other House Member in Orumba North. He has moved so many motions and sponsored Bills that really affected the lives of our people positively like the construction of Aguluezechukwu-Ogboji-Ndiokpaleze –Ajalli road among others.  

Zoning system because he is campaigning to come back to the House?

We don’t have anything like zoning system in Orumba North House of Assembly because since 1999 , I can tell you the history of the Hosue of Assembly.  Hon Uchenna Onuogu from Ajjali which is zone 1 represented Orumba North in the state Hosue of Assembly from 1999 to 2003 and he came back to run for a second term which he did not win with AD then having pitched tenth from PDP to AD with then Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju.

Then Uchenna Okonkwo-Okom from Oko which is zone 3 took over from him from 2003 to 2007 , he also ran for primaries for his second term in PDP and lost but contested the election in another party, which he did not win. The entered Uchenna Ogbonna from Ndikelionwu which is zone 2 who contested in 2007 to 2011 and contested for primaries for a second term in PDP which  double candidate then before Hon Romanus Obi  emerged as winner under APGA in 2011.

And as you can see, if you go by this analysis, assuming we have zoning system, it is supposed to go back to zone 1  not zone 2 or zone 3 but there is nothing like zoning. And as you can also see from the analysis , in every election year, all the zones in Orumba North is contesting in different political parties , so what we should be emphasizing on is the performance of the lawmaker or anybody we sent to represent us and not his zone in the state House of Assembly.

As a matter of fact, Romanus Obi has performed creditably well and deserve a second term so that other would learn how to represent the people in the House and not representing themselves. And as you can see , from the aspirants in APGA, nobody is contesting from zone 1 while we have three aspirants in zone 2 and Romanus Obi in zone 3.

And in the Federal House of Representatives almost all the Aspirants  is from zone 2 and one of the Senatorial Aspirant is also from Zone 2, so does it mean that all these positions are zoned to 2? If I may advice, I will say let us give Romanus Obi the second chance to consolidate all his achievements in the House which I believe APGA as a political party will like to fly such a person as a candidate because no political party or candidate can beat him in the general election because of his performance in every community in Orumba North communities.

I can only tell you that it is the Federal House of Representatives that Orumba North and South have proper zoning system which was signed by stakeholders from every community that made up Orumba North and South . Now Chief Ben Nwankwo is about to complete his tenure in Federal House , it is the turn of Orumba Notrh to produce the next House member to represent he federal constituency irrespective of the political party. God has His way of solving this problem from time immemorial because some have tried to violate the zoning formula but God’s intervention always correct the injustice thus keeping the brotherly agreement. I believe this time God will not allow Orumba North and South to tear apart and I advice my brothers who are coming out from South to exercise a little patience until four years when it would be there turn.

Was that why Orumba North President Generals became political and endorsed him?  

I will tell you the truth , the President Generals of the various communities in Orumba North in a meeting conveyed by Hon Romanus Obi to render account of how he has served and represented Orumba North for the past three year. After rendering of his stewardship account before the President Generals in that meeting , he asked the PG’s to refute anywhere he lied during his presentation but they could not fault his claims. They accepted he did well and all he claimed he did was true in the communities and the President General of Ndiukwenu community Hon Chidozie Okoli moved a motion before the floor asking Romanus Obi to come out and run for a second term that the PG’s will support him which all the PG’s supported.

I can tell you that  this is exactly what happened with Chief Willie Obiano’s election when the former Governor , Mr Peter Obi came to the PG’s meeting with Obiano and the PG’s on their own after assessing the performance of the immediate past Governor  and the credibility of the then candidate of APGA , Obiano compared to others in the race , gave him an unanimous endorsement through a similar motion.  And that endorsement gave him 50 percent of his victory in that Governorship election.

I can tell you that the town union as the fourth tier of government is the only body that can assess performance of anybody in administration and they are also the mouth piece of their various communities.

What is his possibility of Hon Romanus Obi winning other APGA aspirants despite the PG’s endorsement?

We have done our own beat as PG’s of the communities he is representing. We can also advice delegates from our various communities to vote with their conscience in the primaries because we know that the Aspirants would like to induce them with money but they should also remember that the future of their communities is the best by putting their community’s interest first than pecuniary interests. 

And you know these delegates are from our communities where Romanus Obi has done his constituency projects. So I am not seeing the possibility of anybody defeating him on the day of the primary if there is free and fair primary. As I said before APGA should be careful with selecting their candidate because they would face other political parties in the main election.

But nobody has gone for a second term in Orumba-North House of Assembly?

That is why I told you that we should look at the performance of our leaders or representatives after any election before sending them to recontest. Almost all the House members that represented Orumba North did not do one quarter of what Romanus Obi did . And one Igbo adage said ,’’ Ochiri mma , ga achi ozo’’ which means he who did well in his first appointment should be given another chance to continue doing what he knows how to do best, literally.   You can also remember that since the history of Anambra state nobody has done second term as a Governor of Anambra state until Peter Obi came in as a Governor.  So I believe that Romanus Obi will break the jinx.