A stakeholder of the All Progressive Congress in Nkporo Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State, Chief George Nnanna Kalu Orji has blasted Honourable Mandela Obasi for his inability to present a bill in the House for the past eight years of representation stating that Ohafia North State Constituency needs quality representation.
Chief Kalu stated this on Friday at the reception held in honour of Honourable Otuwe Kalu who procured the Expression of Interest and Nomination Form for Ohafia North State Constituency.
He revealed that the people want a representative who will serve and not feel that the people are a burden. A representative who will state the predicament of his Constituency with the urgency it deserves.
Speaking further, Chief Kalu stated that if Honourable Obasi has the desire to seek a third term in the House, then the people will have to check his achievements for the past years and decide if he will be elected or not.
“Today we have just come down from Umuahia where Honourable Robinson Otuwe Kalu procured his nomination expression of interest form to represent Ohafia North State Constituency in the State House of Assembly. Having procured his form, we brought him to his wards where every member of this state representing each ward is assembled where he will tell them that he has procured this form. The next thing is to feel the form adequately and submit it back to the party-state office. They will go through a screening process before the primaries before we go into the main process of campaign and election.
With the primaries coming up, what are the chances that Honourable Otuwe will emerge with the party ticket?
First of all, if other aspirants have also procured their EOI and Nomination forms we will know before the closure of the exercise of procurements of forms. We’ll not be after who else emerges from the aspirants but will have the responsibility of packaging and preparing our aspirants to present to the Constituency. We will have to take him around and market him to the delegates who will do the voting in the primaries.”
When asked if he thought Honourable Otuwe can represent his Constituency, he stated that he was qualified, “he’s eminently qualified. If it’s measured in educational qualifications, then he’s eminently qualified. If you check in eloquence and present bills to the house, then he’s capable of doing that. If it’s in being in communication with his constituents to know what their needs are, whereby he will present the problems to the house and also in law-making and attraction of projects which is called dividends of democracy.”
Speaking about his expectation from the Constituents, Chief Kalu revealed what the party is going to do to win the acceptance of the delegates and constituents subsequently.
“Apart from getting the party ticket which is the first hurdle. We will put him as the party candidate visavis the other candidate from the other party. In a situation whereby a candidate emerges because Abiriba and Nkporo are brothers and sisters so these things rotate between the two communities. We have had an Abiriba man represent us for the past eight years so now that Nkporo people have said that they want to try their own, it’s not way off the chart. The only thing is if the person they want is eminently qualified visavis the other party and I believe he’s eminently qualified. If the person representing us still wants to go for a third term then we will have to measure his achievements for the past eight years while he has been there compared to what we think he should be doing there.
On one hand, there’s Honourable Mandela Obasi from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who is a businessman just like Honourable Otuwe. Most of the time he’s spending it on his business and not representing us and he has never presented any bill for the past eight years.
We have had situations like the erosion site at Abiriba for these past eight years. How many times has he presented it as a bill of urgency on the floor of the House? We don’t need someone who will think it’s an inconvenience to represent us at the State House maybe because the person is well to do. It’s a call of service and in this case, you don’t see yourself as the boss but as a master-servant. And we need to change the narrative from what we have to a new representation. That is what we are branding and packaging Honourable Otuwe to beat notwithstanding the incumbency. We are all tired of the same old story so that is how it’s going to play out.”
