In this interview with REGIS ANUKWUOJI, the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) House of Assembly candidate of Awgu South constituency, Maduabuchi Obasi, younger brother to Patty Obasi, vowed to restructure and ensure the development of Awgu if elected. He told BusinessDay that it was the turn of his community to produce the next representative. Excerpts:
May we know you Sir?
My name is Maduabuchi Obasi from Mmaku in Awgu Local government Area of Enugu State. I am the PRP candidate, contesting for Enugu State House of Assembly under the platform of People’s Redemption Party (PRP).
Why do you still want to contest again as the sitting House of Assembly member is from your community and we learnt you practise rotation in your zone?
Thank you very much for this question, it is this rotation system that I want to talk about, however, there were no formal arrangement between the people about the zoning, the zoning formula you may be talking about could be that of PDP.
For my party PRP there is nothing like that, even at that, my brother Johnson Chukwuobasi contested in 2019 and won, served for only on tenure, on the 21st of May when he supposed to go for his second tenure he was removed by the party and his ticket was given to another person from Ugwueme for no reason, and it was his right to at least serve for second tenure.
This attitude by the party did not go down well with the people of Mmaku, the people are seeing it as an insult, he should have been given the second chance to serve out the second tenure, that is why I am in the race, it is the right of Mmaku people.
You may ask why? Let me tell you a short history and why it is the turn of Mmaku. In the year 2011, one Awgu man who is late now, popularly known as ‘Angle 90’ contested for state House of Assembly under the platform of PDP; served for a tenure but unfortunately died in a ghastly motor accident along Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway and did not go for the second tenure, his brother In-law, Nelson Uduji replaced him and served for another two tenures total of 8 years plus the 4 years of Angle 90, making it 12 years from Awgu.
So you can see that Mmaku did not complete their 2nd tenure. So, I think it is the right of Mmaku people to ask for their right and complete their own tenure before moving to another community.
That is why I am seriously interested not minding my challenges, it has nothing to do with what I can contribute in the house, and also use this to correct the wrong done to my people.
If you win; what would you do differently?
My promise is that I can do all things through Christ who is sending me. I am not the person that is going to do it but God. You see, I have a lot of ideas in my mind.
We don’t have any bank in Awgu, this can not come without a standard market, I am going to assist the chairman of the local government to construct and change Orie Awgu market to a daily market; it is one of the oldest markets in the state; I am equally going to work with EEDC on how to have stable power supply in Awgu; this will encourage small Scale medium Enterprises, welders and other small business activities will be attracted down home.
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I will also discuss with some of our businessmen and women, how they would think of bringing some of their industries home since the local government can boast of sustainable power.
If you don’t talk about electricity you don’t talk about establishing industries in any place. If making sure of a sustainable power supply that would attract industries in Awgu is what I can achieve so be it but, that is just one of my cardinal ambitions.
On December 12, 2022 I was invited to Abuja by the Albino Foundation of Nigeria for a day programme. The event was for other Nigerians with disability, especially those contesting for elective positions. From that conference, I learnt a lot of things that are encouraging my movement to the house.
It was in that confab that I fully discovered that there is ability in disability and I discovered again that there are lots of things I can offer to my people despite the fact that I am visually challenged.
