Abia governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu has urged the incoming National Assembly members to support President Muhammadu Buhari to actualize his vision for the country.
He said that such support should transcend membership of political parties.
Ikpeazu urged the legislators to see themselves as Nigerians irrespective of political parties; hence the need to be mindful of their central mandate of supporting Buhari in the vision that is good and for the benefit of Nigerians.
The governor stated this Thursday during a national television programme monitored in Lagos, entitled ‘Good Morning Nigeria.’
Ikpeazu also faulted Adams Oshiomhole’ stance on how the legislators should choose their leaders in the incoming National Assembly, saying that the chairman and members of the ruling party should work towards creating a family and earn loyalty through superior logic and not by coercion.
The governor also said that the Executive Arm of Government should accord the Legislative Arm its due respect.
“The person that is playing from the flank of the executive should approach the legislature first with utmost respect. Second, he should go with the strength of his vision and canvass it because even in the family, you can’t lead your children by the nose.
“So that is why I think going forward, I am not quite happy with the approach of the National Chairman of the APC, with due respect. Mr. President needs the support of the legislature; it could be people from the PDP, APC or any other party, all of them are Nigerians and they have the first mandate of supporting the president in the vision that is good and for the benefit of the rest of us.
“But even in doing that, the only way to convince adults is to tell them, ‘this is where we are going, this is how to get there,’ and not to say ‘this thing we are going to do now, nobody from the PDP should be allowed to come here.’ It has nothing to do with party supremacy because even the people in the PDP know that the APC is in charge. I mean it is APC’s Federal Government.
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“The party also got the majority in the house but some of other people in other parties may be sympathetic to the policies of Mr. President, you don’t shut such people up. They could become the most vocal people in the House supporting the policies of the Federal Government,” he said.
Ikpeazu also urged members of the National Assembly to support the things that are good about the policies of Mr. President stressing that if they were going to criticize and make an amend, it should be the better and not standing against them for the fun of it.
Ikpeazu reminded elected leaders that they have the burden of transforming the country and urged them to be mindful of the tasks before them.
“We have an assignment in our hands in Nigeria. One can criticize the system from here to heaven but the burden of changing the country is on our shoulder,” he said.
He added that he has created the platform and enabling environment for investors in Abia in line with his first promise to the people of the state.
He said, “My greatest assets are my people and not the crude oil or anything else but my people, they have enormous capacity to do things with their hands; take them to the desert, they can create things there.
“We have had the greatest Diaspora intervention in Abia in three years than we have had in the past 15 years put together because it had offered us the opportunity to talk to our people to bring home their expertise. I will create the enabling environment and provide the security and it has been working.”
The governor maintained that he has been running an inclusive government in Abia, noting that he had brought some of his political opponents on board. “Even in the midst of these days of long drawn battles in the court, I took people from the camp of the opponents and appointed them into the government,” he said.
