National assembly, Abuja
The Warri Federal Constituency comprises Warri North, Warri South and Warri South West Councils, and the ethnic groups include Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo. Out of the three ethnic groups, only the Itsekiris have occupied the seat since 1999 to date – Hon. Temi Harriman 1999 – 2007 and Hon. Daniel Reyenieju 2007 – to date. Upon completion of Hon. Daniel Reyenieju’s 3rd term which will terminate in 2019 together with the previous years, the Itsekiris would have spent twenty (20) years in the Warri Federal Constituency. It is therefore in the spirit of equity, justice and fairness that we demand that the Ijaw in the Warri Federal Constituency be considered and the other ethnic groups should throw their weight behind the Ijaw aspiration to represent the Warri Federal Constituency come 2019.
Unfortunately, there is no Federal project commissioned in the Warri Federal Constituency in the last twenty (20) years of democratic rule in Nigeria, despite having representative in Government. The best we could get were some miserable projects from NDDC, mainly to siphon funds on one hand and on the other hand, NDDC projects meant for oil producing/impacted communities are sited in far away upland cities/towns where our so called leaders have their mansions by depriving our people of their fair share of the national cake.
The conclusion of our people therefore is that the Federal Government is not fair to oil producing/impacted communities, or better put as “marginalized” people. This is far from the truth. The truth is that Government as an entity has structures through which development can be brought to the people. For instance, each of the three tiers of Government has specific roles to play in shaping the destiny of Nigerians as clearly stated in the 1999 constitution as amended. But failure on the part of our people who were privileged to serve in the Local, State and Federal Government is partly responsible in our ‘sorry’ state of affairs, especially oil producing/impacted communities.
What brought this sorry state of affairs is ineffective representation due largely to the corrupt electoral process which has made it inevitably for people without vision to man the affairs of governance which translates to high cost of living, insecurity, corruption etc which the electorates are the end victims. Whatever suffering in Nigeria today is a political decision by our representatives in Government. Therefore, what we need is a principled and disciplined parliamentarian that beyond lawmaking and over-sight functions, will ensure that Federal projects are evenly distributed for the benefit of all.
Furthermore, Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo suffer same fate in terms of oil activities in relation to benefits: employment, infrastructures and others. The Federal Government on its part took advantage of our poor representation in Government to deliberately deny the constituency of development. It is in recognition of this undeniable fact that Unit- to-Unit Campaign Council solicit the support of the electorates in the three (3) Warri Local Government Councils on our project tagged ‘EQUITY 2019’.
Project Equity 2019 if elected into Federal House of Representatives come 2019, will ensure that:
- Federal projects due the constituency are evenly distributed where everybody will feel a sense of belonging. This excludes projects from intervention agencies like NDDC, MDGs and others which primary responsibility is to develop specific areas of needs in addition to Federal Government projects.
- A functional constituency office will be established in the heart of Warri and a number of liaison offices in remote areas within the constituency to enable our people to participate in the affairs of the constituency where each of the ethnic groups will have a representative.
- A yearly constituency briefing on activities of the Federal Government in relation to the constituency and inputs/views of the constituency will be defended in the overall interest of the constituents.
- Youths, Women and Elderly ones will be a priority in terms of empowerment and other benefits from the Federal Government. Also, critical stakeholders in the constituency will determine the use of constituency projects fund if any before such is allocated unlike the present leadership where hundreds of millions were collected as constituency projects without input from the people who elected such representatives. It was alleged that each member of Federal House of Representatives collected the sum of one hundred Million naira, one hundred and ten million naira and one hundred and thirteen million naira in 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively as “Constituency Funds”.
- Finally and most importantly, consultations will be made with critical stakeholders i.e. Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo periodically before decision will take in a manner that is fair to all.
POWERED BY:
Unit-to-Unit Campaign Council
Project Equity 2019
The Movement for New Political Order in Nigeria
