By Raphael Ekpang
The Senator representing Ebonyi North in the 10th Senate, Peter Nwebonyi has said that Nigerian Senate under the leadership of Godswill Akpabio is more united than ever.
The Senate Deputy Whip, Nwebonyi who spoke to a selected journalists in Abuja on Tuesday while appraising the achievement of the 10th Senate under Akpabio’s leadership stated that the two terms former governor of Akwa Ibom State and a former Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Godswill Akpabio has suceeded in uniting the Senators the more despite the various camps preceding the principal officers’ elections in June 13, 2023.
According to him, “I must tell you its been wonderful under the leadership of our able President His Excellency Godswill Akpabio who is also the chairman of the 10th national assembly. Like he is known as an uncommon transformer, he has actually proved that in all ramifications; in terms of bringing all the senators together, in terms of carrying all the Senators along, in terms of been a father to all the senators. There is one good thing he possess which is very rare in our contemporaries, modern leaders, he has no iota of hard handedness in him.
“Akpabio does not care where you are coming from, who you are or the party you belong to, but rather what you can offer, that is why some of us even as first timers we were given position of principal officers in the Senate. That is why in his entourage anytime, anyday and anywhere you will always see Senators from different political parties with him, of course it shows that he is a de-tribalise person.”
Nwebonyi noted that the problem of Nigeria outside corruption is nepotism, religious bigotry and so on, but Akpabio through his leadership has shown that Nigeria has gone beyond shared sentiment, saying that it is hard time we unite together to achieve the purpose of God for us.
However, the federal lawmaker has challenged Nigerians youth to put on their thinking caps because white cola jobs are nowhere to be found therefore, they can only survive if they take the alternative route by way of being creative, hustling and by engaging in self employed jobs
He narrated how he survived after his late father died while he was in primary three. And he said, it took his mother and his determination to become who he is today because he never depended on anybody except the work of his hands.
He said, “Let me use this medium to advise Nigerian youths, nothing good comes easy, you must pay a prize for you to be great, don’t wait for government to make you great, or make your children great, you can achieve it, if I did it and I am a senator today, you can also do it even better.
On the minimum wage, he explained that the 10th Senate is strongly behind the struggle of the organised labour because with the current realities in the country sixty two thousand naira (N62,000) salary can’t buy anything in the market, that is why they are appealing to the executive to look onto the plights of the Nigerian workers and increase their minimum wage upward again.
“We are standing by the labour, the prices of goods in the market has triples as such N62,000 cannot buy any reasonable thing in the market again, as a person for a long time non of my staff received less than one hundred thousand naira (N100,000) as salary because I am reasonable.”
However, Nwebonyi discarded insinuations making the round that the 10th Senate was a rubber stamp to the executive, saying that they are not, while citing the case of increase of electricity tariff which they fought against and similarly the ongoing labour vs the FG minimum wage negations which he said they are completely behind the labour.
Senator Nwebonyi rolled out his projects after one year as a senator of the federal republic of Nigeria under the leadership of Senator Godswill Akpabio, according to him, “within my one year in office I have done a lot of empowerment in my senatorial district; and most of the empowerments were through my hard earned money in my farm and company because it’s my resolution before God not to sit and watch poor people getting poorer while the rich getting richer, I intend to breach that gap since God has blessed and is still blessing me. Within this period, I had empowered my people with over 100 motorcycles, ten cars, I have completed 75 houses unit across Ebonyi North senatorial district, I took down home parliative we were given by Mr. President and shared to my people about 8000 house holds across villages, on like others, I shard rice seedlings to over four thousand farmers and herbicides as well as fertilizer, all these is to make life better for my people and move them away from the poverty stage. In addition I cuffed out N50m and paid school fee of some indigent students who are studying medicine at the Federal University, Ebonyi and about nine of them are not Ebonyi citizens not to talk of from my senatorial district but I did that to extend my hand of fellowship across the Niger.
On the corruption in Nigeria, Nwebonyi stated that he has come to make a different, set a standard in governance, adding that the present generation of leaders should stand up and join hands with him so that they can change the narrative in governance.
He said that few days back he accompanied the Senate President Godswill Akpabio to inspect Dangote Refinery in Lagos and what he saw there was a mind blowing and which goes to show that there is hope for Nigeria, and indeed Africa, but blamed our problems to bad leadership in the past. According to him, “if one man can build a refinery of such magnitude then the federal government can do more and that takes you to the turn around maintenance that have been done in the past in our refineries, I called on Nigerian journalists to investigate that, we as parliamentarians we are going to look into that. Over fifty thousand billion dollars has been invested to repair the refineries, yet our stories have not change because certain individuals did not want to let Nigeria off the hook, but I want to assure you the 10th Senate under the leadership of Senator Godswill Akpabio, Nigeria must be let off the hook,” Nwebonyi declared.
Meanwhile, the elated Nwebonyi attributed his victory at the 2023 parliamentary elections poll to the Minister of Works David Umahi who believes in him and supported him to become a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria despite opposition from people greater than himself. He also commended the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio whose effort he emerged a principal officers of the 10th Senate despite been a first timer, “I am eternally greatful to His Excellency Dave Umahi who picked me up, believes in me and supported me to become a senator, and also my Senate President Godswill Akpabio who took over from where Umahi stopped and made me a principal officer in the 10th Senate. I will never disappoint the trust they bestowed in him,” he said
