I will always defend Nsukka interests _Senator Ezea

By Aniebo Nwamu

The Senator representing Enugu North Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Senator Okey Ezea, yesterday, sworn to speak in defence of Igbo Nsukka.

He also said that he would quit the Senate any day he was prevented from doing so. He urged Nsukka traditional rulers to be courageous to speak the truth also.

At the 2nd Townhall Meeting organized by Hon. Chidi Mark Obetta, the member representing Nsukka and Igbo-Eze South in the House of Representatives, in Nsukka on Friday, Senator Ezea, popularly known as “Ideke”, said he was glad that our people’s mindsets were changing.

“Ndigwe, help us to change the politics of Nsukka zone, as we struggle to free our people from poverty, disease, infrastructure decay,” he said, advising ndi Nsukka to deemphasize party but emphasize personality and judge each person by his performance.

He recalled his early days in the Senate when he pleaded with President Bola Tinubu to give Nsukka a ministerial position. “Ogun State has four ministers,” said Ideke, but “no Nsukka person since 1999 has been a minister. No Nsukka person has headed a parastatal or agency, someone who could give contracts to people.” He regretted that, in the past, certain people were pulling down candidates from Nsukka while others worked against the emergence of a governor from Nsukka in 2007.

“Sometimes, our people don’t differentiate between the executive and the legislature,” he said in a response to requests for jobs from lawmakers like him and Hon. Obetta. “Even a local government chairman runs budgets because he gets allocation every month. Lawmakers have to lobby, beg — and that’s what we’re doing.”

On his recent achievements, he said that road construction is expensive at this time, but two small roads in Odenigbo, Nsukka, will be commissioned in a few days. The Nsukka–Lejja road, he said, was high on his list of concerns and that he was working round the clock to get that important road constructed.

Senator Ezea noted that there are currently agitations for state creation, and “if states will be created, Adada state will be one because it has passed the full tests to become a state.”