Otuekong Nse Essien was one of the 26 House of Assembly members-elect presented with Certificates of Return by INEC on Wednesday 6th of May 2015. In an interview with our reporter, GODWIM SAM, he bared his mind on what his constituent should expect from him…Excerpts:-
Sir, having been successfully given the Certificate of Return by INEC to represent the people of Onna State Constituency, how do you feel?
I feel so glad, thrilled, and I’m thankful to God for marking it possible, may his name be praised.
Sir, you have worked for your people as Council Secretary and you know the challenges that your people face, what should your people expect from your representation?
I went round all the 42 villages in Onna Local Government Area during the campaign and I know that a lot of schools in Onna are dilapidated. By the grace of God I have a governor who is for my local government and who is also somebody whom I believed is going to do a lot for Akwa Ibom State. So I know that my people need hospitals, good roads, and education is going to be taken to another level. You know education is the bedrock of human development and when our children are well trained educationally, the future is certainly going to be bright for them. Being in the state Assembly, our own is to make good laws that will have direct impact on the people. My people need roads and modernization, and by the grace of God with my relationship with other members of the House and with the governor, I am definitely going to attract these things to my people. They should expect a representation like never before.I feel so glad, thrilled, and I’m thankful to God for marking it possible, may his name be praised.
Sir, you have worked for your people as Council Secretary and you know the challenges that your people face, what should your people expect from your representation?
Today you have been handed the Certificate of Return by the INEC, would you say that the elections that saw to your emergency was free and fair?
The election was very free, fair, and credible. Let me tell you my brother, even in America that we model our democracy after, you will hear incidences of “too close to call”. In Nigeria, the problem we have is that people who lost elections have refused to concede defeat. That is the only problem we have in Nigeria. My party, the PDP, we lost our stronghold in the north and even the biggest office in the land, the Presidency, and we conceded. We are not crying. But the other people do not want to learn from the example of the PDP. I can assure you that all the PDP people who left the party to APC will surely come back because they are still PDP. They all know how elections are always won.
Otuekong Nse Essien displaying his Certificate of Return with the Governor-elect, flanked by their spouses
Can you reflect on the pedigree and ability of the Governor-elect, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people of Akwa Ibom State as Chief Godswill Akpabio has done? Or even better?
He is a credible man. He’s got the track record. Somebody who has worked in the banking sector for about 20 years? He’s got a lot of experience and he has held a lot of top positions in the banking sector. This is somebody who gained the confidence of the people who gave him money to keep for them and he’s never had any issue with their monies. People have given him money to mark profit for them and he has made profit for both individuals and organizations and I believe he is going to make profit for the state.
Sir, with the APC at the centre at the national level, with Buhari as the president and APC controlling both the national Assembly, don’t you think that there will be mass defection for PDP in the state so as be in the mainstream?
If you listened to the Governor-elect speaking today in his “Thank You” speech, you would have heard him state clearly that Akwa Ibom State is totally a PDP State. In short, PDP is like a religion in the state. All the national Assembly members in the state are PDP, the governor is PDP, in the House of Assembly, only one member is APC, the rest of us are PDP so you see Akwa Ibom State is PDP completely. We are not in a hurry because we know that those who left will certainly come back and APC will be where they were before, mark my words.
You said your people are in need of education, are you not okay with the free and compulsory education of the Akpabio administration?
We are going to consolidate on the achievements of the present administration in the education sector. For instance, in a village known as Ntang Ide Ekpe, they have just one structure in the whole village primary school. We are going to build more structures for them and to rehabilitate dilapidated ones throughout the local government.
With the caliber of people in the in-coming House, what are your expectations?
I expect a very vibrant House. Intelligent men and women have been elected into the House and I believe there is going to be no dull moment.
What is your message for those who contested the elections with you and lost?
My message to them is peace. Without peace there can be no meaningful development. Politics is about give and take and if you don’t give you will never be given. We must learn to know that in any contest there must always be a winner and a loser. But I don’t see those who contested with me as losers, I see them as those whose time is not yet. Two people never take first in any contest. There must be a first and a second, and so on. People must learn to live and exhibit the spirit of sportsmanship. My winning this election is not winner takes all, it is a win-win situation. I call on those who contested with me to come and let us work together to bring the dividends of democracy to the people of Onna. After the election there should no more be party divisions. I don’t go there to represent only PDP members in Onna Local Government Area, but to represent all the people of Onna. So I call on all of them to come and let us build Onna together.
Sir, people have referred to the outgoing House as a rubber-stamp House, always doing the biddings of Gov. Akpabio, would you say that allegation is true?
I was not there so I cannot talk about what I do not know something about. But what I can say is that people like the outgoing Speaker of the House, Hon. Sam Ikon who has been there and whom his people see fit and send to go and represent them on a higher capacity in the Federal House cannot be seen as people who do not know what they are doing. There cannot be rubber-stamping people. Maybe they would have expected them to go and be fighting with the executive. Is that proper? How can you have meaningful development when there is fighting? Or when the legislature is always at daggers-drawn with the executive? Do you think that is what the people expect? No that is not what the people expect.
Congratulations once again Sir.
Thank you.
He is a credible man. He’s got the track record. Somebody who has worked in the banking sector for about 20 years? He’s got a lot of experience and he has held a lot of top positions in the banking sector. This is somebody who gained the confidence of the people who gave him money to keep for them and he’s never had any issue with their monies. People have given him money to mark profit for them and he has made profit for both individuals and organizations and I believe he is going to make profit for the state.
Sir, with the APC at the centre at the national level, with Buhari as the president and APC controlling both the national Assembly, don’t you think that there will be mass defection for PDP in the state so as be in the mainstream?
If you listened to the Governor-elect speaking today in his “Thank You” speech, you would have heard him state clearly that Akwa Ibom State is totally a PDP State. In short, PDP is like a religion in the state. All the national Assembly members in the state are PDP, the governor is PDP, in the House of Assembly, only one member is APC, the rest of us are PDP so you see Akwa Ibom State is PDP completely. We are not in a hurry because we know that those who left will certainly come back and APC will be where they were before, mark my words.
You said your people are in need of education, are you not okay with the free and compulsory education of the Akpabio administration?
We are going to consolidate on the achievements of the present administration in the education sector. For instance, in a village known as Ntang Ide Ekpe, they have just one structure in the whole village primary school. We are going to build more structures for them and to rehabilitate dilapidated ones throughout the local government.
With the caliber of people in the in-coming House, what are your expectations?
I expect a very vibrant House. Intelligent men and women have been elected into the House and I believe there is going to be no dull moment.
What is your message for those who contested the elections with you and lost?
My message to them is peace. Without peace there can be no meaningful development. Politics is about give and take and if you don’t give you will never be given. We must learn to know that in any contest there must always be a winner and a loser. But I don’t see those who contested with me as losers, I see them as those whose time is not yet. Two people never take first in any contest. There must be a first and a second, and so on. People must learn to live and exhibit the spirit of sportsmanship. My winning this election is not winner takes all, it is a win-win situation. I call on those who contested with me to come and let us work together to bring the dividends of democracy to the people of Onna. After the election there should no more be party divisions. I don’t go there to represent only PDP members in Onna Local Government Area, but to represent all the people of Onna. So I call on all of them to come and let us build Onna together.
Sir, people have referred to the outgoing House as a rubber-stamp House, always doing the biddings of Gov. Akpabio, would you say that allegation is true?
I was not there so I cannot talk about what I do not know something about. But what I can say is that people like the outgoing Speaker of the House, Hon. Sam Ikon who has been there and whom his people see fit and send to go and represent them on a higher capacity in the Federal House cannot be seen as people who do not know what they are doing. There cannot be rubber-stamping people. Maybe they would have expected them to go and be fighting with the executive. Is that proper? How can you have meaningful development when there is fighting? Or when the legislature is always at daggers-drawn with the executive? Do you think that is what the people expect? No that is not what the people expect.
Congratulations once again Sir.
Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment