APC CHIEFTAIN CANVASSES IMPROVED INFRASTRUCTURE IN S/EAST; RETRAINING OF POLICE FORCE
REPORTER: CHRISTIAN NWANGENE
A former governorship aspirant under the All-Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra State, Chief Azuka Okwuosa, says the turbulent period in the fiber of the Nigeria’s political system, vis-à-vis the global pandemic require individuals with the right intellectual power to navigate.
Chief Okwuosa, who spoke with Radio Nigeria in Enugu, encouraged Nigerians not to despair in the face of the harsh economic situation in the country, emphasizing that hope remained the panacea to the distress situation the country found itself.
He expressed sadness with the state ofInfrastructure in the southeast, insisting that governors in the zone must work together to improve on them.
“Infrastructure decay in the southeast is not something that started overnight, it has been a consistent and gradual rot from military dispensation to democratic regime which we are experiencing now, it did not even start with the present administration.
“There are other infrastructural development, which I believe are very, very necessary: power generation and water supply.
“One thing you have to know, the Igbos in particular and even beyond, they don’t look for government to embark on housing projects for them, they don’t look for government to build factories for them, all they needed from government is to provide basic infrastructure, they can do the rest for themselves.
Chief Okwuosa mentioned issues of electricity and water supply as major challenges affecting the development of the southeast region.
“I remember with pride the time of the late Chief M.I.Okpara, when we had power generation very much effective in the whole of Eastern Nigeria, we have the Oji power plant which was being powered with coal from Enugu and you have a kind of conveyor that moves coal direct from Enugu to Oji and that even powered a lot of industries in the past, such as, Iron and steal industry at Emene, the Nkalagu cement factory, Umuahi ceramic industry and even the Golden Genninue, but today most of those industries are moribund because of the absence of power generation.
“You see most of these industries trying to generate their own power, spending more than 40% of their capital outlay to generate electricity and you expect them to compete with goods imported with almost 0% tolerance in terms of power generation abroad, it’s no longer feasible.
“So, I believe that the issue of infrastructural deacay must be addressed in the entire southeast, power generation, and power supply.”
“In the past, the public taps were functional, but today, we see the relic of the whole pipes, today I wonder if we can drill oil in the Niger Delta, and move it through a pipeline to Kaduna refinery to process, why can’t we drill and have water within our states and be able to reticulate it within a state,” Chief Okwuosa lamented.
On the insecurity, Chief Okwuosa, tasked the government to take decisive and incisive decision to curb the malady, noting that it would help a lot.
“We have to retrain the police force and make them more compliant to modern day challenges, even train the local vigilance groups and make them also to assist in terms of local policing, very important!
“And you also look at other major issues, that needed to be put in place like the issue of CCTV at different flash points to help in combating crimes.
“The difference between Nigeria and developed world is still the same crime everywhere, but the issue is that, in developed world, they’ve a way of tracking down criminals and making it uncomfortable for them to perpetrate the act, whereas here in Nigeria, they have field day, they pepetrate crime and get away with it.
“So, with CCTV at different flash points, it will help the security agents to monitor and at the same time make sure that once a crime is commited, the criminals would be apprended, making it also uncomfortable for them to embark on such ventures.
The former APC governorship aspirant advised the government to find a way around insecurity and growing youth unemployment, which pose serious danger to the transformational development of the country.
“Without security, you cannot develop, so the problem of insecurity must be addressed and to be able to make sure that the security of lives and property will be guaranteed for all Nigerians, I think that would give us launching pad towards making Nigeria a better place.
“And another area also when I talk about holistic arrangements, there is immediate and long-term solution to the problem, the long-term solution is job creation, once you creat jobs for our teaming unemployed youths, the issue of crime would be reduced, because there is this saying that, “an idle mind is devil’s workshop.” When the youths are unemployed, most of them tends to embark in crimes there by trying to further endanger the system.”
“So, we need to make sure that the area of job creation will go a long way in combating this problem, so it is a holistic and incisive approach, which will enable us to solve this problem once and for all,” Chief Okwuosa concluded.