… Who Understands Good Governance and Legislative Roles Above Other Candidates
A short perusal at the abridge biography of the Accord Party candidate for Owerri Senatorial Zone will convince you that experience is the best teacher and applied knowledge is power.
Michael Chika Kwazeman Egbujuo Nwachukwu (Mpi Dike, Egbulu Obube) is the flag bearer of the Accord Party for senate Owerri Zone come 2023. He hails from Umuokpaa Egbulu Obube in Owerri North LGA of Imo State.
Making a comparison of all the contestants for this enviously elevated position, it is not a gainsaying that Mike Nwachukwu is who the cap fits.
Apparently, he has acquired a high level of education. This has made his leadership capacity incomparable overtime which has in turn made him successful in the world market.
Career wise, he has over ten years experience in the banking and finance industry. This is obviously a plus to his finance management skills.
Politically, he is no novice in the game of Nigeria politics and economic stability.
It is worthy to note that Mike Nwachukwu will floor his opponents in the poll owing that the good people of Owerri Senatorial Zone has become politically aware beyond vote buying and election rigging
Hear him as he confidently outlines his job descriptions below.
THE JOB
1. It is the responsibility of the National Assembly to make laws for the good governance of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
2. It is the responsibility of those that we send to the National Assembly to represent us to participate in that process of law making, but from the prism of the interest of his / her Constituency.
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And so any law that will have a positive or negative impact on his Constituency must be of concern to him.
3. As I have often said in the course of my engagement with nde Owerri Zone at various fora, the single most important law-making function and responsibility of the National Assembly is the consideration and passage of the annual Appropriation Act (or Budget, as we lay men often call it).
4. That Appropriation Act is the Act / Law / Document that defines how the resources accruing to the Federal Government in any given Fiscal Year is distributed among the competing units and problems of the Federation.
5. The Fiscal Appropriation process usually commences in March of every year with a Circular from Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to the various MDA’s (i.e. Ministeries, Departments and Agencies) calling for their proposals for the coming years’ Fiscal Appropriation.
6. Therefore, between March and June / July the MDA’s will put together their respective expenditure proposals – Recurrent & Capital and submit same to the Federal Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.
7. Between June / July and September / October, the Federal Ministry of Finance will aggregate and articulate these proposals in the way and manner that Mr. President will place same before the National Assembly.
In between, they would have explained to Mr. President the highlights of the proposed Appropriation, detailing such matters as the total Recurrent & Capital Expenditure, critical Capital Expenditure Heads and more importantly the availability or otherwise of funding for the implementation of the Appropriation.
If there will be a deficit, then they’ll explain how that deficit will be funded etc.
8. How is this process of concern to our Senator / Representative in the Red Chamber / House of Representatives respectively?
9. The primary responsbility of the Senator / Representative of Owerri Zone / Owerri Federal Constituency is to:
i. Identify and Understand the problems of his / her Constituency.
ii. Aggregate, Articulate and Dimension these problems in a “bankable” way and manner.
iii. Present these problems that have been aggregated, articulated and dimensioned to those who have the levers of power and are involved in the annual process of distributing and appropriating the resources of the Federal Government of Nigeria among the competing units and problems of the Federation!
10. Under the circumstance that we, nde Owerri Zone find ourselves, you will agree with me that our SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT PROBLEM IS THE SORDID STATE OF OUR ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE ACROSS EVERY NOOK AND CRANY OF THE ZONE!
Should I be elected Senator for nde Owerri Zone, addressing this sordid road infrastructure deficit issues will be the focal point of my sojourn in the Senate!
11. This explains why I have recently traversed the lenght and breadth of the 104 Electoral Wards that make up Imo East (Owerri Zone) Senatorial District to do a re-assessment of the state of our road infrastructure.
I had done this exercise in 2018 in the run up to the 2019 election.
But four years is a long time and so I and my team needed to do a repeat assessment.
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12. And so how will this exercise be of value to nde Owerri should I, by the Grace of God be elected Senator?
I and my team will gradually and painstakingly in a phased way and manner front-load these road infrastructure deficit issues into the Fiscal Appropriation Proposals of the relevant MDA’s that will come back to the National Assembly as part of the overall Executive Branch Appropriation Proposal of the Federal Government.
13. There are about ten Road Infrastructure Construction & Rehabilitation MDA’s viz (in no particular order)
i. NDDC
ii. Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs
iii. Federal Ministry of Works
iv. FERMA
v. Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
vi. Border Communities Development Agency
vii. Ecological Projects Office
viii. Federal Ministry of Environment
ix. Anambra-Imo River Basin Development Authority (Federal Ministry of Water Resources)
We shall on actively and robustly engage these MDA’s and build relationships with their key officers, with the intent of front-loading through them the projects that are of interest to nde Owerri Zone into their annual Appropriation Proposal.
15. Once the projects have been front-loaded and become part of the Appropriation proposal, we sit back in the National Assembly and await the presentation of the Appropriation Proposal by Mr. President.
16. Because I and my Team have a clear strategy and pathway to “deliver the goods” for nde Owerri Zone, I shall by all means possible find myself in the Senate Committee on Finance & Appropriation amongst other key Committees – this will be helped tremendously by the fact that I am a retired Banker. And so we will be in a vantage position to chaperone all that we have managed to put in the Appropriation Proposal of the appropriate MDA’s and in this way ensure that they remain there by the time the Appropriation Act is passed and commences it’s journey back to the Presidency for Presidential Assent.
Let me also note that in practice the National Assembly hardly removes anything that comes from the Executive Branch. On the contrary, they seek to add (or is it pad?) and this is especially the stock-in-trade of those Legislators who do not know what we know and are therefore not prepared.
17. Once the Appropriation Act is passed, we’ll turn our attention to the Federal Ministry of Finance and Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) as they are in possession of the key to where the
money to fund the budget is! The idea is to ensure that we secure the funding required to execute the projects we have put into the Appropriation Act.
If in a given Fiscal Year we achieve 25% to 30% to 40% success rate, we close that one up, and repeat the same process the next Fiscal Year.
In this way, we shall over the period of one term, turn Owerri Zone into a huge construction site with various projects at various locations and at various levels of completion!
We will in this way keep WINING for nde Owerri Zone until our four years is due.
If we have delivered in our first term and are found worthy for a second term then head back into the ring!
The above Sir, is what representation in the National Assembly is all about! It is about;
i. Identifying and Understanding the problems of your constituency.
ii. Aggregating, Articulating, and Dimensioning these problems in a “bankable” way and manner.
iii. Presenting these problems that have been aggregated, articulated and dimensioned to those who have the levers of power and are involved in the annual process of distributing and appropriating the resources of the Federal Government of Nigeria among the competing units and problems of the Federation and engage them in a way and manner that will enable you to secure the resources to deal with and solve these problems.
18. And so If I am privileged to become the Senator representing nde Owerri Zone in the Red Chamber, I will not pretend that I am going there to become the mouth piece of Nde Igbo or Nde Imo State. I shall focus my attention on solving the infrastructure (particularly road) deficit issues prevalent in Owerri Zone!
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19. As for Empowerment, we shall effectively work with such Agencies as Small & Medium Enyerprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) and Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) to drive Empowerment Programmes that are geared towards Human Capital Development.
Yes! Occasionally Rice and Beans, Motorcycles, Keke Napep’s, Maize and Egusi Grinding Machine’s, Agwada’s for frying Garri, Hair Dressing Equipment, Sowing Machine’s etc will be distributed to deserving persons but quite frankly such gestures do not define representation at the level we are talking about!
Indeed representation at this level requires a CERTAIN LEVEL OF INTELLECTUAL RIGOR that is not picked on the streets of Owerri or Lagos or Abuja or Portharcourt!