HERE ARE THE ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTION Nkemdirim Okereke HOW DO WE, AS A PEOPLE MAKE OUR LEADERS BECOME MORE TRANSPARENT AND LESS GREEDY? All in all, I reckon that it is followership failure that plants and nurses leadership failure. The former births and nourishes the latter. Make no mistakes about that. Truth be told, man is innately evil; it takes the people to insist on irreducible minimum standards of performance for leaders to be kept on their toes. It is only in isolated cases you find a Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Sankara, Yitshak Rabin, Ehud Barak or Julius Nyerere in power. Secondly, the people must find the will-power and discipline to despise ill-gotten wealth – however hungry we are, because that is what is responsible for the long queue we are all on – waiting for our individual turns to steal our society blind! We need to restore our cherished values that elevate integrity above questionable wealth. Zimaria Nigeria Linited HOW DO U INTEND TO FIX ABIA? I am not running for governorship. But suffice it to say that the surest way of rebuilding Abia is to restore faith in the Abia Dream. Take it or leave it, there is very little any good leader can do in Abia if the people of Abia refuse to buy into his vision. The greatest task facing Abians today is pervasive loss of faith in the system; so, we need a new crop of leaders whose track record and accomplishments will serve as sufficient basis for the people to take a step away from extreme pessimism and embrace the prospects of change. When this is done, the right calibre of people will naturally be drawn to government/public service and I can assure you it is the ordinary people of Abia who will drive the change process with their leaders providing the roadmap. The current waste of abundance of creative energies in Abia shows quite clearly that Ndi Abia possess the inherent capacity to make Abia truly become ‘God’s Own State’. Give Abians who they can trust, and they will run the shop. Blessing Ukelonu WATS UR VIEW ABT LIFE AFTER DEATH? I believe we are all blind on this physical planet. Put differently, I think we are all dreaming; that it is when we die that we will wake up, begin to live and begin to see. I strongly believe that for as long as we have flesh as our bodily covering, that the true us (our soul) will continue to snore away. That is why I am of the opinion that we should within the limits of our abilities as man genuinely seek, at all times, to do right, so that when we wake up on the side of life, we would have cause to jubilate and be accordingly recompensed by our Creator. Blessing Ukelonu HOW WELL ARE U GOING TO REPRESENT US AS DE NKO ABIA OF ABIA STATE? My commitment to doing things differently is an obsession I cannot possibly extricate myself from. In all humility, I love fame & I also do realize that the pursuit of it requires a certain measure of discipline that can only diminish your chances of being wealthy. Do not forget that God does not give man everything. That is perhaps why rather than build one house, I have written 2 published books with the 3rd one ready for public consumption soon. First, as a lawyer that seeks the job of law-making, I think I am primarily suitable for it. Second, I have a conspicuous contempt for filthy lucre. More than anything else, my philosophy of life is that ‘A LIFE WORTH-LIVING IS THAT LIVED ESSENTIALLY FOR OTHERS, BUT THE WORTHIEST OF LIVES IS THAT LIVED TO PLEASE GOD’. Now, to specifics: I do not see why, for instance, I should not engage the relevant authorities to rehabilitate National War Museum Umuahia – which is a federal government facility. As the only war museum in the country and given the prevailing security situation in the country, I will, as Senator of the FRN (God-willing), propose a collaboration between the museum and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). A collaboration that will make it compulsory for all corps members to visit the museum before passing out to witness first-hand the havoc that comes with fighting of war, so that when they go into the world, they will be persuaded to do only things that promote peaceful co-existence and harmonious living. I will propose further that in addition to this touristic utility value of the museum, a National Institute for Peace Studies be attached to it; this way, corps members can quickly run a 2-week crash programme in the institute and walk away with a Certificate in Peace Studies. And it will all be very much within the precincts of the philosophy behind the Youth Service policy initiated by the Gowon government to fast-track national integration. Now, imagine the unending traffic arising from the influx of batches A, B and C corps members in Umuahia! Imagine how many hotels that will have to spring up to cope with the crowd! Imagine how many entertainment centres, restaurants, beer parlours and what have you that will come on stream to cater for the leisure needs of the corps members! Imagine how Nigerian Breweries & Guinness will compete to outdo each other in Abia! Imagine banks lobbying Abia government to Build, Operate and Transfer an Airport in Umuahia to cater primarily for the transportation needs of the children of the well-to-do who MUST come to Umuhia for them to Pass Out! Imagine how many jobs, permanent & casual, that would have been created. This is what I mean by the NKO (Fishing-Hook) philosophy. That way, people are armed with NKO and thought how to fish, as opposed to situation where we give graduates 2nd-hand cars and call it ‘empowerment’ only for them to come cap-in-hand to the same source 6 months after asking another ‘empowerment’ to maintain a vehicle that has approached its winding-up stage. In a nutshell, I hope to give Abia Central robust, responsive representation by thinking outside of the box, reviving FG projects in our district, attract new ones as well as continually tour ministries, departments & agencies (MDAs) in search of Abia Job Slots and ensuring that our teeming jobless but employable graduates fill such vacancies without undue delay. Please note that for equity effectiveness, I will be the 1st Senator to maintain 6 liaison offices in the 6 LGAs consisting Abia Central, so that the Liaison Officers will permanently be on ground to articulate the dynamic needs of my constituents and forward them to me for prompt action. I will be available, accessible and accountable – both at home and in Abuja. My past will speak for me on this claim. Just ask around. Blessing Ukelonu WE HOPE ON U TO BRING GOOD CHANGE IN ABIA&NDIGBO GENERALLY? By the grace of God, I shall endeavour to be an excellent hybrid of of the best of Michael Okpara, Chuba Okadigbo and Odumegwu Ojukwu. Blessing Ukelonu WE BELIEVE HE WILL KEEP HIS PROMISES? Keeping my promises, in this instance, is my covenant with God, with my constituents! Johnson Otuechere Okite HOW CAN YOUR PRESENCE IN THE SENATE EFFECT CHANGE, PRECISELY IN ABIA CENTRAL? Please refer to my answer to the 4th question above. However, let me add that I also intend to work in synergy with both state and local governments, to ensure harmony in the development process. As a Senator (by the grace of God), I will vigorously push for a special summit for all Abia leaders in politics, civil service, military, academia, trade/industry, business, media, entertainment, science/technology as well as elderstatesmen, youth and women leaders, for the purpose of charting a definite course for Abia – through the procurement a NEW ABIA MASTERPLAN with 100 years life-span and reviewable after every decade. Johnson Otuechere Okite WHO IS A GOOD REPRESENTATIVE AND WHAT INSPIRE YOU TO GO FOR SENATE? A good representative is a qualified, capable, diligent, conscientious and God-fearing person whose only pre-occupation in office is to meet the needs of those who sent him on errand in Abuja whilst what inspired me to seek election into the Senate was that I am convinced that the sufferings of my people are largely man-made and bothers on mediocrity and absence of fear of God. . Johnson Otuechere Okite WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH OUR LEGISLATURE? The way our legislature is structured at present caters for the needs of the legislators instead of their constituents. And to my mind nothing can be more illogical! There is need for reforms that will make law-making less attractive to people who ought to be in regular business of buying and selling. The business of legislation should be attractive only to people who are service-oriented and not capitalist whose cursed appetite always crave for profit maximization at the expense of the people. Johnson Otuechere Okite HOW CAN WE SEPARATE RELIGION AND TRIBALISM FROM NIGERIA POLITICS? I have dealt with this issue extensively in my latest book (Voluntary Union: A Centenary Imperative). You can look it up on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. But in the meantime and at the risk of repeating myself, let me say that NIGERIA IS A COUNTRY OF NATIONS. We are not a nation. And Nigerians are a wonderful portrait of Hypocrisy. So, to deal with the issue of tribalism and religion, we must first found a nation. The notion of a Nigerian nation is a broad lie! Part of my motivation to go to the Senate is to push for the founding of a true nation, because the Nigerian project isn’t working! Note however that Nigeria is a very doable project. For us to achieve this, we need to show mediocre leaders the door, because they are the ones that employ religion and tribalism to perpetuate themselves in power.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 11:42:48 +0000
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