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| Ifeanyi Francis Ugwu. |
Accord Party’s candidate for the Amuwo-Odofin Federal Constituency in the forthcoming general elections, Ifeanyi Francis Ugwu has hinged Nigeria’s social, moral and economic progress to the election of courageous people that will be brave enough to confront the various hindering our progress as a nation.
Hon
Ugwu, in a press statement, lamented the election of people whose understanding
of the powers and potentials of the legislature are suspect, saying that
without strong and vibrant legislative houses, the true values of participatory
democracy would continue to elude the people.
The
legislature, he said in the statement, “is the intellectual warehouse of the
entire country, and should be populated by people of sound intellect,
unimpeachable morals and unquestionable broadmindedness, who would embrace the
job of thinking for the entire nation, fashioning policies without regard to
who would benefit from them and designing the future long before it becomes the
present.”
While
he identified corruption and self-centered politicking as the bane of national
unity and development, the banker-turned politician said only Nigerians can redeem
the situation of the country by voting quality and competence against other
parochial sentiments.
“Nigeria
is a blessed country. We have enough human and natural resources to be one of
the greatest nation’s on earth. But the challenge is that we have unwittingly
to electing low quality leadership, leading to the worst of us leading the best
of us. This must change if this country will move from its current
developmental retardation to measurable progress and properity,” Ugwu stated.
He
described as unfortunate the designation of the Nigerian National Assembly as
retirement homes for failed former governors, warning that a continuation of
the trend would continue to push the country away from growth.
“Legislators
lack the courage and will power to speak out the truth during parliamentary
debates, not because they do not want their voices to be heard, but mostly
because they do not have a point-of-view to share. At other times, they would
have soiled their hands conniving with the executive for one form of unethical
commitment or the other, and this, if people with my kind of orientation and
disposition are elected into the House of Representatives, Senate and even in
the state Houses of Assembly, must stop,” the Accord Party candidate said.
He
said he is in politics to impact the quality of debates that lead to good
governance and invited Nigerians, especially those living in his Amuwo-Odofin
constituency and interested in change, to lend him their support.
He
advised Nigerians to shun ethnic and tribal sentiments in the electoral
process, lamenting that decades of playing ethnic politics have not benefitted
the ordinary Nigerian.
Said
he: “During elections, our political elite would remember the poor and begin
playing the cards of tribalism and even religion. But the truth is that there
are only two classes of Nigerians: there are the rich and there are the poor.
These are the only mutually exclusive social and economic classes we have and
until we free ourselves from their political choke-hold, we will not be able to
be truly free as a people.
On
what he promises to change if elected, Ugwu said his focus will be improving
the quality of parliamentary debates in such a way as to enhance the overall
functions of the executive, adding that while he will be mindful of the
constituency that elected him, he also is of the view that Nigeria has to be
regarded as a unit, whose collective wellness has been hindered by bad
leadership.
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