By Michael Agbaji
The Senator representing Ebonyi North senatorial district of Ebonyi State Peter Nwebonyi said working under the leadership of Godswill Akpabio is wonderful because the 10th senate are working under the man of uncommon transformer.
According to him, its has been wonderful under the leadership of our able President Godswill Akpabio who known be as uncommon transformer, he has proved that in all his activities in this 10th Senate to bring all the senators together, carrying all the Senators along, he has show that is the father to all the senators in respective of religion,tribes, or any where you come from.
Senator Nwebonyi stated this on Tuesday while speaking to journalists in his office in Abuja as 10th Senate marked one years in the office under Akpabio’s leadership
He said, Akpabio does not care where you come from, or the party you belong to, but he only care want you can offer, that is why some of us even as first timers we were given position of principal officers in the Senate.
He entourage us anytime, any day and anywhere you will always see Senators from different political parties with him, of course it shows that he is a de-tribalise person.”he said.
Sen.Nwebonyi say the problem of Nigeria is corruption , religious bigotry and bad leadership but sen.Akpabio and president BolaTinubu 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.
He However, challenged Nigerians youth to put on their thinking caps because he example of youth who believed that be a successful person didn’t come essay but through had work.
Sen.Nwebonyi also said,he the senator for the poor and he is out to help the poor,according to him, his office has spent over fifty million to help some medical students of Ebonyi State University who can not paid their fees which most of them are not from his constituency or Ebonyi state.
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 having be part the senators that accompanied the Senate President Godswill Akpabio to visited Dangote Refinery in Lagos and what he saw there 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,” Sen Nwebonyi declared.
Sen.Nwebonyi thank 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 thank 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 grateful 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
