Ikenga Imo’s Effective Representation, His Defence Of His Party And The Quest For Strong Opposition
By Gerard Okalla
Since Hon Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere’s emergence as a federal lawmaker in 2023 courtesy of his trouncing of the incumbent Dr Pascal Chigozie Obi in what was adjudged as an electoral landslide, there was berthed a new phenomenon in Opposition Politics on Nigeria’s legislative canvass.
Prior to his emergence and in the 9th National Assembly to be precise, the lawmakers from the opposition parties including the Pdp had had no outstanding voice and it was a free ride for the ruling party, APC, which was wont to carry out its mandate with a conqueror’s mentality.
As a result, the opposition parties and their elected lawmakers were found to be unable to coordinate themselves in such a way as to form a strong opposition with a strong voice through which their grievances, impunity and perceived wrong doings of the ruling party, manifest erosion of democratic principles and other elements of constructive critiques could have found expression.
The much the opposition could muster in strengthening democratic principles and offering panacea for good governance in all strata of the society was primarily championed from the purview of the civil society groups and Hon Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere then was pivotal to its acclaimed renown and measured success.
With his eventual electoral victory thereafter, it was only natural for Nigerians to expect Hon Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere to continue in his trajectory of being a stop gap in the offer of viable opposition that would keep the ruling party on its feet, this time leveraging on his membership of the Federal House of Representatives. That Hon Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere has not failed in this task is clear for all to see.
Unlike a typical Nigerian politician who shirks off the toga of activism he exuded once elected into political office, Hon Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere refused to follow the road most traveled, choosing to be more strident in his call for government attention to his constituency which he eminently represents in the Green Chambers and at the same time being vociferously assertive in the defense of his party, PDP, from centrifugal and centripetal forces threatening to tear it apart.
Although, it may not be Uhuru yet as the PDP’s Damagun-led leadership is still bidding its time before it leaves the scene, but credit should be given to Hon Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere’s open abhorrence to inequity in power distribution within the party’s leadership echelon which was said to favour the North Central Zone but was railroaded by those with vested interest.
His insistence that the current leadership should vacate office to usher in someone from North Central Zone in adherence to his party’s constitutional provisions is note worthy.
He has argued that the anticipated change of leadership will help strengthen the party and cause it to become a bulwark it may need to reclaiming its position as a viable option for a Nigeria in distress now that APC led government has only succeeded in running the country aground.
Those who have chosen to disparage Hon Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere amidst a plethora of encomiums over his activities as a federal Representative and for his advocacies in defence of his party and some of her elected governors from purveyors of political chicenary perhaps are bad students of constitutional democracy, legislative functions and Dynamics of Party Politics.
Credited with a remarkable journey as a budding politician whose peak is yet to come, Hon Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere’s political accomplishments are foretaste of his present stoic but messainic dispositions. Taking Rivers state as a case study, it is only one with naivety of political thought that would let his party to be intimidated by a chameleonic Wike.
It is also unaguable to posit that Gov Fubara’s stint as governor of the oil rich state would have been history had Hon Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere’s led Opposition Lawmakers not given Wike and his rampaging boys what they bargained for. Granted the fact that the battle for the soul of the state fiercely rages on between Wike and his successor, it smirks of dishonesty and vacuous reasoning for anyone to spew gibberish on Hon Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere for always daring to call a spade its name when many would capitulate.
It is intriguing to also note that as his advocacies are yielding results far off, his constituency is feeling the impacts of his representation in no small measure.
Recently, Hon Ikenga imo Ugochinyere took delivery of a Trailer load of Urea fertilizer from the FG and through his impeccable channels distributed same to his people seamlessly.
His interventionist work at Umuchima Erosion site has also given the residents and road users a glimmer of hope that someday soon the disaster shall be brought to an end.
The scholarship program capturing an hundred wards in its maiden year and another tentative hundred envisaged in his second year in office, fashioned for indigent students of his Constituency is an eloquent depiction of a man who loves his people.
His Light Up Ideato Initiative and Operation Water For All Communities when fully consummated will certainly make a folklore, and then a fairy tale too phantasmic to happen in Ideato!!.
It therefore smacks of misinformation taking too far for one Akwa akwuru Umuobom to begin to throw darts at the representation being offered by Hon Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere to Ndi Ideato. One thing is sure: the people will not be deceived again by such character who will not see anything good coming from his Representative.
It amounts to faux patriotism and pretence for someone like Akwaa Akwuru Umuobom who tends to rise vigorously and wail over government abandonment of his people but look the other way when those issues are tackled head on by no other person but his Representative of barely one and half years in office, Hon Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, Oje Ozi Ideato.
It further becomes foolhardy temerity on his part for speaking ill of a performing Federal Legislator when the governor of Imo state and other elective officers from Ideato nation had kept a conspiratorial distance in the midst of the existential threats being faced by the people, with him, the Nze, Dr Modesty Ezenwa, Akwaa akwuru Umuobom keeping sealed lips in the face of their deafening silence.
One thing well known is that the impacts of Hon Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, Oje Ozi Ideato’s legislative representation of his constituency will continue to speak to the needs of his people and rise in defence of his party anywhere, anyday along with like-minds in his quest towards galvanizing a strong opposition. This is his utmost desire .
*Comrade Gerard Okalla is an Umueshi born Economist, Grammarian and Thought Provocateur. He writes via WhatsApp.
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