Arochukwu/Ohafia Deserves Representation Beyond Solar Panels and Farm Tools
Four Major contestants
When the people of Arochukwu and Ohafia come out to complain about the low-quality representation they receive from those representing them in the National Assembly, please do not tell them to shut up. They know what they are saying.
As more and more of our people openly complain and demand a change in those representing them in the National Assembly, beginning with the 2027 general election, we are now witnessing the agents of the incumbents masquerading some of what they describe as the achievements of the politicians.
They are posting up and down about how their man brought a transformer to Aro, distributed farm equipment to farmers and carried out other empowerment efforts. They share these things with so much seriousness and zeal, saying they are showcasing their achievements and challenging candidates from other political parties to present their own achievements.
One of the claims is that others are only publishing promises, while they are showcasing what they describe as great projects already executed.
When I look at all these, the first thing that comes to mind is how uninformed they are, and indeed, their naivety about the responsibilities of a lawmaker in the National Assembly.
How can a lawmaker go to Abuja to represent a constituency like Arochukwu/Ohafia, which is challenged by so many problems requiring federal attention, and return home after four years to tell us how he provided chairs for schools, installed solar panels or distributed farm tools?
This is a constituency whose major access road has been bad from time immemorial. If not for the road constructed by Akwa Ibom State, which provides a shortcut to Arochukwu, people of Arochukwu would have even greater difficulty accessing their communities. Assuming there is a war between Akwa Ibom and Abia states, it means Aro people could be trapped.
A relatively short journey from Umuahia to Aro that should take about one hour by vehicle can take people up to four hours because of the bad road. Some portions are even impassable.
Apart from the road problem, Ohafia and Arochukwu have a large population of farmers who depend on agriculture for their survival. Because of the bad roads, these people cannot seamlessly transport their farm produce to Umuahia and Aba for sale. And because there are no adequate storage facilities in place, a large portion of these perishable goods gets spoilt.
The implication is that our people labour so much and yet continue to languish in poverty.
Aro and Ohafia are also blessed with mineral resources, including limestone, sandstone and some precious metals and stones used for building. Foreign investment in these resources could bring more income and opportunities to the people. When such investments come, at least we can expect them to demand and support the infrastructure that our people desperately need, especially roads.
Aro and Ohafia have also been facing serious security challenges. Our people in Ohafia have faced serious tensions involving security operations, while in Arochukwu, attacks by fighters from neighbouring Cross River and Akwa Ibom communities have affected our people, with several villages in Isu community sacked.
That situation has subjected the people of Isu to severe famine, hunger and starvation.
The once-vibrant Isu community, which was a food basket of Abia and hosted interesting fishing festivals, has become a shadow of itself. Places where politicians such as Senator Orji Uzor Kalu and others once went to campaign and scout for votes have today become no-go areas because of insecurity.
Isu people have now crowded themselves into the little space they can hold on to, struggling to survive. Many people are said to have died from avoidable circumstances.
Imagine mature men and women dying from cholera because the road is too bad to transport them to where they can receive treatment. Those who can still make it to health facilities outside Isu cannot afford the cost of treatment.
Where will the money come from when their farms are inaccessible and fishing activities have been brought to a standstill because of attacks?
With these fundamental problems confronting our people, it would sound like an insult and ridicule for anyone to come and tell us how they have donated solar panels, constructed desks or distributed farm tools.
Where will the tools be used when the farms themselves are not accessible?
For crying out loud, Aro and Ohafia are not begging lawmakers to give us anything from their personal pockets. No.
Aro and Ohafia sent them to Abuja to represent the people. That means performing the core functions of the legislature, including making laws, representing the interests and concerns of constituents, exercising oversight over government institutions, participating in the budget and appropriation process, and pushing for federal attention to issues affecting the constituency. These are established functions of the National Assembly.
It is about attracting federal projects and federal presence, not merely projects personally executed by lawmakers.
If a lawmaker gives something personally, it is welcome. Nobody is rejecting it. But the emphasis should be on using the office to attract meaningful government intervention and development to the constituency.
Let us look at the difference.
Some of the projects they claim to have executed may cost only a few million naira. But when a lawmaker successfully attracts a major federal project, we are talking about investments running into hundreds of millions or even billions of naira, depending on the project.
Earlier this week, I was a guest at the commissioning of a forty-million-dose vaccine facility in Agege, Lagos, designed to serve livestock farmers across the South-West.
That report, which also involved similar projects in other geopolitical zones, was funded by the Federal Government with support from the World Bank. The total programme cost was put at five hundred million dollars, which, when translated into naira at the applicable exchange rate, represents a very substantial investment.
When divided across the six geopolitical zones, the scale of investment becomes even more significant.
Interestingly, the House of Representatives member representing Agege Federal Constituency, Hon. Tasiu Olawale, was at the commissioning. He spoke about his efforts to position himself to attract similar projects with significant impact.
That is the kind of intervention I am talking about.
Such a project has the potential to create jobs through direct employment and indirect opportunities for transporters, service providers, farmers and other businesses.
That is how a people develop.
But in the case of Arochukwu/Ohafia, we are seeing people who, because they lack the capacity to engage at the highest level, use their personal money to do one or two things, some of which appear designed for political campaigns.
Once they win re-election, their priority may then become recovering their political investment first.
From Agege, let me also take you to Ikorodu, still in Lagos.
Hon. Babajimi Benson, representing Ikorodu Federal Constituency, has, within his tenure, been associated with efforts to attract federal interventions to the constituency, including an immigration office, road projects, school infrastructure, scholarships and empowerment programmes for transporters and artisans.
That is the difference I am talking about.
It is obvious to me that those there do not have the capacity to engage at that highest level.
There is no problem.
We have one who can do the job.
Hon. Orji Kanu Emmanuel, aged fifty-two, has come to the rescue.
A man who rose without a godfather, but through sheer hard work and consistency, to become the National President of the Association for Formidable Educational Development, AFED, with a large membership across Nigeria, can do the job for Ndi Arochukwu/Ohafia Federal Constituency.
A man who is not in government, but has used his position in AFED to attract foreign opportunities, including scholarships for teachers and opportunities for educational investors, can make a difference in Arochukwu/Ohafia.
A man who has directly facilitated scholarships for more than one thousand Nigerian children and, through advocacy and humanitarian efforts, contributed to opportunities reaching many more, can bring a different kind of representation to Arochukwu/Ohafia Federal Constituency.
A man whose political ambition has attracted the support and encouragement of dignitaries and people from different walks of life is, in my view, the kind of person Arochukwu/Ohafia needs at this time.
His wealth of experience, backed by his academic and professional background, makes him, in my assessment, well positioned for the job.
Orji, till date, remains the first and only Igbo man to occupy the position of National President of the Association for Formidable Educational Development, AFED, an umbrella body of low-cost education providers in Nigeria.
Orji also has an organic support base following his identification with the masses, including some of his classmates and associates with whom he grew up and whom he has continued to support.
His particular interest in addressing communal and interstate boundary disputes affecting the constituency has also endeared him to many people.
For someone who is not a card-carrying member of the APC and is not affiliated with the party, to have been appointed by President Bola Tinubu to a strategic federal board overseeing education-related matters is, in my view, another indication of the confidence placed in his capacity.
That capacity should be deployed for the benefit of Ndi Arochukwu/Ohafia Federal Constituency.
Orji is capacity, efficiency, purpose and commitment.
Indeed, his is “More Than Ambition.”
Support Hon. Orji Kanu Emmanuel of the ADC to bring Ndi Aro/Ohafia the much-needed dividends of democracy and the effective representation they have never gotten.
By Innocent Onoh
