Reviewing the development of the Federal Capital Territory through yearly investments by the federal government since the return of democracy in the country from 1999 till date Labour Party House of Reps candidate, Comrade Joshua Chinedu Obika in this interview with Francis Nansak, revealed that so far the FCT and it indigenous people are yet to tap from the dividend of democracy, saying that they are not well represented in terms of infrastructure and human capacity development.
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You are seeking vote from electorates to represent Amac/Bwari federal constituency in the House of Reps come 2023 general elections,what are you bringing on board that would be different from the usual ?
Thank you very much for this question which seek to knowing what would I do differently if elected as member House of Representative .I will start by saying that I wish to create a difference by way of contributing my quota to the development of the Feferal Capital Territory and it indigenous people.This is because over the years there has not been commensurate legislature to better the lots of the people of the FCT, especially those we referred as indigenes. I was once elected councilor of Abuja Municipal Area Council in 1999, and during my tenure while serving as a councilor, I didn’t disappoint my constituency and that is giving me leverage of participating till today. What calls my attention to contest the position of house of representative was that during my tenure as a councilor I supported my friends and now things are not working well generally in tye country. So, FCT itself and the indigenous people, are not left behind but if elected I am going to touch them one by one. A city like FCT with so much financial investment made by the federal government, if we can go back and checked the budget from 1999 till date and put together same, it can developed a country as Cotonou, with the financial investment that has gone in here but little do we see. And, I must confess that between the military and the present day civilian administration since 1999, the military did very well and better than this civilian administration, as it relates to development to the Federal Capital Territory. Most of the roads you see today were constructed by the military.The hospitals,you see were built by the military. I mean the Maitama hospital, Garki hospital and including the National hospital,was built by Maryam Abacha ,wife of the former military head of state.From my ward here , in Jahi1 village, which is not more than 3 kilometers from Aso Rock, the classrooms of a school there are still made up of mud blocks in this 21st century, where we spent Billions of Naira from Universal Basic Education (UBE). Besides, FCT is where the president is more of our governor yet our children are still studying on bare floors in most of the schools. It is pathetic, roofs are leaking everywhere and the only thing they do is to repaint the walls, while some of the schools don’t even have toilet facilities, some teachers have to go to the bush to ease themselves. Also, some of the schools are not fenced which gives room for insecurity-leaving our children at the mercies of kidnappers. How can teachers have control on students who are in an unfenced school, the children can sneak out from any angle. During my time as councilor, I can remember when we got fertilizer, i used to pay from my pocket on order to share to farmers freely, but today, its a different ball game.When I first came here you can buy a tuber of yam for N20 but today a tuber is as much as N1000 that is if you can wvw see it. This is because the people are not encouraged to farm as things have gone so wrong in this country. When Abacha government was builing almost 100,000 housing units at Gwarimpa, labourers were working, trucks pushers and others were also working for their survival and that made the economy of Abuja then very vibrant. Today, government is no longer investing on Abuja, instead ,what is being develop walls of East and Western region and causing sharp divisions amongst us.Do you know that more than 65% of houses or buildings in Abuja does not have C of Os? As a result of this funds are being lost, whereas these funds would have been generated for the development of the FCT. If I come on board and Peter Obi as the President we shall be generating these funds internally and the government of Labour Party through the Minister will set up a committee that will bring about acceleration of C of Os inssuance and by so doing it will generate a lot of monies, where a certain percent can be invested on the indigenous people of FCT,as well as have FCT Trust Fund .This trust fund will go directly to education sector in the FCT that can fund primary school and secondary schools as well as Tertiary institutions.
Sir, from the points you have so far raised how do you intend to to bring about the needed change to the people of AMAC/BWARI Federal Constituency of FCT?
Well, I was tabulating the challenges gradually because all of them need to be tackled one after the other. So, I take infrastructure in the FCT for instance, if you must develop infrastructure in FCT then you must be committed to that because in an attempt to developing the people you must add everything together.That is why I am emphasising on transportation, the indigenous people and education sector because these aforementioned three affects everybody living in the FCT. So, if elected as member house of representative, I will be part and parcel of passing the budget into law that UBE will be using in building schools and other things that relates to primary education.But what is lacking today is that these people doing this budget at the end of the day, calls the the UBE Executive Secretary, and demand percentage from whatever the allocation for the schools in FCT. And at the end of the day they won’t even complete such projects the reason you see abandoned projects in FCT. But I can tell you with all sense of responsibility that under a Peter Obi’s led government and with me as member federal house of reps, representing the FCT, what will be earmarked for development shall be the exact amount that will be spent for the projects and should one stand as a stumbling block I will be instrumental to jailing such a person no matter who is involved. Therefore, active participation, monitoring and supervising will be my watch word. I will also ensure that there is certain incentives for teachers who have performed excellently in carrying out their responsibilities,so that they will not form the usual habit of resuming to work but go under the trees and be selling moi-moi and sweets .Just take a look at consistent traffic jam between Nyanya-Kugbo-AYA. It is surprising that since 1999 we have been having traffic problems and they are just completing the construction of the road, whereas we have road that is supposed to link from Nyanya to Apo.what is wrong with that road? How can we be building a road for Eleven years in Nigeria ? What kind of corrupt practice is that? Every year we make budget for the same projects and the projects will not be carried out .I remembered the present minister of FCT ,when he came on board went to that site and promised that he was going to embarked on the completion of that road linking Apo from Nyanya,so what went wrong after 7 years, yet we are interested in decongesting traffic in Abuja and we failed to know that there was need for the creation of so many routes into Abuja.
Put that aside, Nigeria again invested Billions of naira into having a rail track from Abuja to Kaduna ,that is still on our necks to pay back but today that rail track has been abandoned because of terrorists. So Nigeria is in a very big problem.let me say this,if that money that was used in building that rail track from Abuja to Kaduna was used in building what we called Trams ,”Trams is a kind of train that can run on the same roads as cars, like it’s applicable in abroad, you can create such in short couches ,which can be coming from Nyanya, Mararaba in Nasarawa state to the city center .you can have the one coming from Gwagwalada into Abuja,while people from Zuba can connect the one coming from Gwagwalada into the city center .This can generate more funds for development on a daily basis with not less than 200, 000 to 300, 000 people boarding it and when you multiply that by hundred naira ,I am sure you will be realizing more than what the train from Abuja to Kaduna can not doles out in a month.So we most have an articulated transport master plan for the FCT and not the kind of bus stop littered around today.
Thanks for talking to us
The pleasure is mine.
