Why Ukwa federal constituency needs true representation – Nwoke

Engr Adinigwe Nwoke is the Ukwa East/ Ukwa West Federal Constituency candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for the 2023 elections. In this interview with EMMANUEL IFEANYI, he speaks on the problems of oil-rich Ukwa land and solutions to them as well as his programmes to ensure quality representation of his people

Why would a successful engineer like you venture into the much-talked-about muddy waters of politics?

I was raised here in Owaza. My primary and secondary school were done here. My parents were teachers. This place is my home and I have always had the dream of making my land a better place not just for me, but for everyone. So, as a people or as an individual you get to a point where you have to stop talking and work the talk.

I believe we’ve talked a lot and by talking too much without actions, we’ve allowed the politicians to give us their best but we’ve never gotten what we needed. We’ve given the politicians opportunity to give us the best side of governance but unfortunately, we’ve not gotten that.

From 1999 till date, instead of things getting better for our people, it’s rather on the retrogressive lane. So, it gets to a point where someone will have to stand and say no. What’s wrong is wrong and what’s wrong cannot continue. That’s why I decided to join politics to serve my people and serve them the way it should be done. I know I’m in the best position to serve them better than all other candidates.

What gives you that belief that you’re the best candidate for Ukwa people?

The number one reason why I know I’m the best of all other candidates in this election is that I’m a youth. Not just a youth, but a responsible one who knows the challenges my fellow youths are facing in this environment. A lot of youths in Ukwa Federal Constituency are graduates, a lot need skills, a lot of them already have the skills but need proper empowerment to start good businesses. As an individual, I know how far I’ve gone to help. However, I’m aware that I can use my position in power to change the story of so many Ukwa youths, who are currently suffering serious neglect.

I know where it pinches them most. I’m an entrepreneur. I build men, I build capacity and materials. So, as an entrepreneur, it will easy for me to translate what I’ve been doing all these years as a private person if I get into power, which is to teach more of our people how to catch fish and not give them fish to eat whenever they’re hungry.

That’s one of the things I have which most of the candidates may not have. Most of them are professional politicians, who probably may not have anything to do except politics and you can’t give what you don’t have. Another reason I’m the best candidate is that I’ve studied the Ukwa East/Ukwa West Federal Constituency environment very well. A lot of our people who said they want to represent our people in the House of Representatives have been around in the corridors of power, partaking in the looting that kept our people in this terrible condition.

Because they’ve been around for so long in politics and our place is like this, they’re part of the problem and it will be difficult for them to solve problems that have been benefitting them in one way or another other. I have experience and knowledge of the problems we have here because I was also raised here. And with all I’ve studied, experienced and seen here, I have developed a manifesto that has programmes in place to help our youths, our women, our education system, and our elderly and to make laws that will have direct positive impacts on the well-being of our people.

If you win, you’ll not be the first to represent Ukwa, so what are you going to do differently?

I’m not the type that dwells in the past. I can stay here and talk a whole lot about the past but what matters is what I bring to the people. A lot of people must have represented our people with their own style and may have given their best, but let me reiterate that I’m coming to give the best because I know my people better. The problem of our people is not just about the House of Representatives; leadership all around us needs serious changes.

There’s a huge difference between representing one’s self and representing the people. A whole lot of people who claimed to have represented our people in different capacities had rather represented themselves only. When you see a person who does not hear from the people, a political leader who doesn’t know what the people need, how can such a person help to address the problems of the people? That is why I know I have a lot of work to do because the problem is enormous.

One of the things I’ll do differently is that I must engage our people, must hold town hall meetings and must interact with our people regularly to identify their needs and address them accordingly and directly. It’s not about what I think I can do for the people. Having plans of what I can do for the people is different from what the people want me to do for them. So, one of the things I’ll do differently is to always call on my people to know the gap between what I want to do for them and what they want me to do for them.

Why do you think Ukwa remains far from development despite its huge oil and gas?

One challenge a lot of us are having is the negative impact of oil and gas. Most times, one wonders if the oil has come to destroy our people. However, this underdevelopment is not limited to my constituency. it affects the entire country. Look at Nigeria generally, are we not an oilproducing country? Of course, we are but we’re seriously underdeveloped.

The problem trickles down to what we’re seeing here, where the government is neither productive nor creative to think of what to do except leveraging on the oil in the land and nothing. I can say that we’re like this because the government has impoverished the people that the oil is coming from their land.

Let me be frank with you about this place, what has been happening all along is that it is either they bring on their stooges, who will claim to be representing the people or they marginalize the people grossly and then take the oil, the proceeds and varnish. Nigeria is not bereft of enabling laws to make sure that oil-producing communities get benefits from the oil. It’s all about implementation. If you look at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Act, it stipulates that about 60 per cent of what comes as revenue to NDDC for every state should get to the oil-producing communities.

About 20 per cent should go to places where pipe-lines transverse, while another 20 per cent should go to other councils in the same state. However, when you come here, you don’t see up to five per cent of the oil proceeds coming to the local government, where the oil comes from and nobody questions these bad actions.

I read the other time in a newspaper where a governor was accusing an agency under his leadership, saying that he released a whole lot of money to that agency and he doesn’t even know how that money was dispensed. He’s claiming ignorant of how the money was dispensed in a system where you have the executive and the legislators that should have oversight function on what happens here.

That’s what they do here and that is why Ukwa land is like this. They just misappropriate the funds meant for the development of this place with their political powers and at the end of the whole thing, they’ll be seeking to go to the Senate, where they will go and remain in power. I’ll not allow such to continue here. If there are laws, we must abide by them. We even need more than what the laws have stipulated but at least let’s abide by the existing laws and their stipulations because I’m sure that if we do that, whatever is coming here will be enough to take care of both Ukwa West and Ukwa East.

Do you think that APGA has what it takes to stop the ruling party in the state, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Ukwa?

It’s not about me and my party having what it takes to stop the PDP. But the PDP as a party has agreed that it did not do anything for our people. They’re not coordinated and they’re in shambles. And as God may have it, the electoral system has changed. Nobody can decide anything anymore except the people. The good thing today is that the victory of every candidate in any election has left the hands of some people who think they can decide and have returned to the hands of the people to decide.

Do you subscribe to the notion that Ukwa people are marginalized?

We’re marginalised truly and that’s one of the reasons I decided to come out. The reasons are many but one is that we don’t have pan-Ukwa representatives in political positions. We must learn to love our land no matter what. Those we call leaders are after personal and family interests. A whole lot of them can be said to be hungry.

I apologise for using the word hungry, but I want to use it to say the truth because if they’re not hungry, why will an Ukwa man, after several years of oppression and marginalization, still goes back to support the person who is oppressing him? That’s not how things should be, but that’s the kind of thing we see. A whole lot of them are gagged with little peanuts that they’ve refused to say no to an obvious marginalisation.

But this time around, it’s no longer the same. We now have a good number of youths who have decided to change our history. These youths have come up to the consciousness that we’ve been marginalized all along and have decided to say enough is enough. A whole lot of elders are also out and are feeling the same way. Our women are not left out.

They feel the same as well. We go to the same market and the suffering is biting every household. A whole lot of our people have now realized the dangers we’ve put ourselves into by joining the bandwagon of politicians who have refused to say the truth and make Ukwa a better land.