We are determined to get Orlu State –Senator Uzodinma

Posted by admin Imo, Legislature, Senate, State News Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

Senator Hope Uzodinma fought a long drawn battle, stretching to the Supreme Court, before emerging as Senator representing Orlu Zone in Imo state. But he has put the political battle, which he describes as ‘survival of the fittest’, behind him to face the duty of legislation and pursuit of better things for his people. His new preoccupation as he told this reporter, is to get Federal Government to declare South East a disastrer area as well as actualisation of creation of Orlu state. below are excerpts of the brief chat.

Background
My name is Senator Hope Uzodinma. I am from Omuma in Oru East local Government in Imo state. In the past I have been a private business man. In public service I was Chairman of Imo Marketing Board and at the federal level I was chairman of the board of Mass literacy Education. In 2003 I ran for the governorship of Imo state under the Alliance for Democracy. It did not work out. In 2007 I ran for Governorship again under the PDP but there was an inconclusive primaries, it was a stalemate created by the then leadership of the PDP at the centre. This time around I contested to go to the senate and after a protracted struggle it became successful. Now I am the senator representing Orlu zone in the senate.

After what you describe as protracted struggle what do you say to your political opponents
At a point the whole thing became some kind of survival of the fittest. However, the struggle is about coming to serve the people. Now that I have emerged as senator I am duty bound to ensure that my tenure is service driven and the entire people of Orlu will be happy that good representation will be given to them. So I call on everyone to come on board with me so that we shall render service to the people.
You moved a motion in the senate recently asking that the south east, with special reference to orlu should be declared a disaster area. What motivated that motion.

I moved that motion because of the menace of erosion in the South East, especially in Orlu zone. The incidence of flood and erosion is a clear and present danger to the people in the South East, especially in Orlu. It now threatens the future existence of my people. And I will not wait until it begins to kill people in hundreds as we have seen in certain parts of the country before we do something about it. There is urgent need to draw Federal Government attention to the matter, which was why I moved that motion. Also a fellow senator from Lagos cried out about the situation in his state which, in all honesty, is not as severe as what we see in my area. It is just that we may not have been drawing enough attention to the situation. Lots of families have been displaced, many have lost their homes, farm lands and even lives. This happens on a regular basis.
You are representing the south-east in the bpe probe committee in the senate. What do you think about the revelations from your sittings so far.

We are not probing BPE. We are probing the privatisation exercise implemented by BPE. Some of the things that happened are condemnable while others are not as bad as people make them out to be. We are still on it. But we have to visit the enterprises to see things for ourselves and compare what we see with the memoranda we receive from Nigerians then we can determine the true position of things. It will be too early to know our position because we have not even gone half way with the work at hand.

But the figures coming out give the impression that some of those outfits were litreally given away to people.
It is still too early to reach that conclusion until we go and see the companies and take stock.As you probably know some of these companies were built many decades ago, some 30 and even 40 years ago. There is bound to be depreciation. However, I cannot reach any conclusions now until we come to the end of the probe. We have to see those companies and know how they were when they were sold and what assets they had at the point of sale. Let us be a bit more patient and not reach hasty conclusions.
Lets talk politics. How come the pdp lost elections in imo.

What really happened.
As far as we are concerned the gubernatorial election was inconclusive. In the elections of 26th April, I can tell you that the PDP won, both in Oguta and Ohaji Egbema local councils. These are very large local councils. But INEC said it had cancelled the results and ordered fresh elections. But the question is this; does INEC have the powers to cancel an election? What it ought to have done is to count the votes of 26th April and announce the results. If there are anomalies then the tribunal will address them, not to unilaterally cancel elections. It is the tribunal that will say whether an election is valid or not. We are still in court and I believe that at the end of the day all the injustice done to PDP will be addressed.

Opponents in orlu zone
What I have in Orlu zone is a movement and my opponents know it. The PDP in Orlu will be inanimate without people and I have the people. There is no doubt that I am popular in Orlu. My people are with me just as I am with them. I have said it severally that all I want is stable polity in Orlu zone so that we can work together and develop the place. In line with that thinking we inaugurated Orlu Elders Consultative Assembly the other day. The reason is to bring everybody together so that we can accommodate all shades of opinion and fashion out things in the best interest of the zone.
Ibb-obj face off
[long laughter] I know both men well and I can tell you that they are not quarrelling. They are just entertaining themselves. I wont say anything more than that.

Your views on single tenure proposal
I don’t think it is a bad idea. It depends on how you want to look at it. In my view, one of the stumbling blocks we have had in driving democracy in Nigeria is that immediately someone is elected into office, rather than concentrate to work, he would rather start scheming for a second term. That thing always derails many elected officers, except those who are properly focused. But if an elected official knows that he is there for one tenure it would be up to him or her to do well and write good history for himself or do bad and history will also judge him. From this point of view I believe it is good, especially at this our level of national development, to allow people do one tenure and show what they can do and not be distracted with the politics of second term. After that tenure the person can serve in another capacity if he has distinguished himself and as we get matured in democracy then we can do two terms or more. At this level of our democracy I believe that single term is commendable.

Some of those who propose it say they do so for power to quickly go round the groups in the country.
That argument is sentimental. I am a pragmatic person. I think we should grow into a point when things will be judged on merit and not ethnic sentiments. If we see somebody who is determined to work and is ready to deliver on his promises within a specified time and becomes an honourable person before Nigerians, we should support such a person and possibly give the person opportunity to serve in another capacity without minding where he or she hails from. Whether he is a Northerner or southerner who understands the business of driving Nigeria to resemble other parts of the world, I will support the person. The most important thing is performance, We need people who can turn things around for the better.

Agitation for orlu state.
My people are really determined about getting that state. I am also committed to anything that will bring about the creation of that state as soon as possible. I do not think there is any senatorial district as large as Orlu in population and even land mass. There is serious underdevelopment here and this will attract faster attention with the creation of a state. It will bring some autonomy, which will in turn attract direct investment to the new state. If viability is the sole criteria of creating states, then Orlu qualifies. Even now I know that there are some existing states that are not as viable as Orlu senatorial zone. We are very enterprising people and we have a lot of innovative and creative thinkers. We are committed to the creation of Orlu state and we shall remain committed to the maturity of that pursuit.

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Posted by admin on Sep 6 2011. Filed under Imo, Legislature, Senate, State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry