HON. BETHEL AMADI’S PERFORMANCE AS A LEGISLATOR IS SUPERLATIVE

The President of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) and Member representing Mbaitoli/ Ikeduru Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, His Excellency Hon. Bethel Nnaemeka Amadi has been widely acknowledged as an outstanding Legislator whose superlative performance is recognized and appreciated even beyond the shores of Nigeria. A press release by Engr. Oluchukwu Ibekwe from the Office of Honourable Bethel Amadi described as baseless, a story which appeared in the Thursday September 13, 2012 edition of the Imo Trumpeta with the caption “Group Blasts Bethel Amadi over Non Performance” in which an unknown group which called itself Concerned Citizens of Mbaitoli/ Ikeduru for Good Governance made frivolous and baseless allegations against Hon. Bethel Amadi. Amongst the allegations are that Hon. Amadi is yet to make his mark in his constituency; that when the Honourable Member was “elected into the Pan African Parliament (PAP), the people had hoped that it would improve their lot, instead, Amadi has been busy flying over Africa while his constituency suffers”; that Hon. Amadi is yet to draw the attention of the Federal Government to the Ekemele Akabo bad spot of the Owerri – Okigwe highway and that Hon. Amadi does not hold constituency briefings.

According to the release from the Hon. Members Office, it is untrue that Hon. Bethel Amadi has not been able to draw the attention of the Federal Government to the Ekemele Akabo bad spot on the Owerri – Okigwe Highway. It noted that on Thursday August 9, 2012, His Excellency, Hon. Bethel Amadi visited the Head Office of Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) in Abuja and had a closed door meeting with the top management of the Agency led by the Chairman of the Board, Engr. Ezekiel Olajide Adeniji (PhD), the Managing Director, Engr. Amuchi and the Executive Director (Operations), Engr. Ikpowen after which they assured Hon. Amadi of FERMA’s commitment to rehabilitate that  Ekemele bad spot and other damaged spots, promising that FERMA will carry out a comprehensive repair to avoid future flooding. According to FERMA Management, they had made previous attempt to effect repairs on that portion but withdrew when the Imo State Government moved in and took over the site. The news of Hon. Amadi’s meeting with FERMA was also aired on Heartland 100.5 FM News as well as the local tabloids including the Imo Trumpeta. An enquiring mind would want to know if “Barr. Linus Nwachukwu and Chief AnslemOnyema” are indeed bona fide indigenes of Mbaitoli/ Ikeduru Federal Constituency and live in Imo State and whether they listen to news on their radio and read local papers? Or has FERMA ceased to be a Federal Agency? May God help us all.

On the second allegation of not meeting with his constituents , it is on record that Hon. Bethel Amadi meets with his constituents regularly, and the last meeting was even as recently as Sunday,  August 19, 2012 (just last month), during which he launched an economic empowerment and poverty alleviation programme. This programme is intended to enable the beneficiaries acquire skills that would allow them start their own businesses. The first phase of that programme resulted in the empowerment of twenty four (24) individuals from each of the 24 wards in the Federal Constituency selected through an open ballot system of shortlisted candidates. The second and third phase will entail the empowerment of an additional one hundred (100) individuals. Interestingly, the news story on this event was carried by Heartland 100.5 FM as well as some of the local tabloids. It is the likes of “Barr. Linus Nwachukwu and Chief AnslemOnyema” and their fictitious organization that appear to be out of touch with the people they purport to speak for.

On the benefits of Hon. Amadi’s position as the President of the continental Parliament, the release noted that Nigeria is one of most populous nations in Africa and if integration of the African continent is achieved, Nigerians and Ndi Igbo in particular stand to benefit immensely from an economically integrated Africa. Igbo people have the highest level of migration in Africa and most of our brothers and sisters in those African countries are illegal immigrants which should not be. Hon. Bethel Amadi believes that Nigerians should not need visa to travel to fellow African Countries and that no African should be treated as an alien in Africa. We have a lot of unemployed graduates in the five Southeast States of Nigeria and an economically integrated Africa will enhance employment opportunities because in some Africa countries today, even manual labourers are hired from Asia. Indeed, there are countries in Africa where skilled teachers are lacking and we have enough skilled teachers in the Southeast who can take advantage of such employment opportunities in other African countries. A situation where youths from the Southeast in particular suffer or even die trying to cross the Sahara desert and  the  Mediterranean sea to Europe in search of greener pastures and even when they get there once their travel documents expire, they are sent to prison should no longer be acceptable.

In the area of trade, intra African trade stands at about 12% and an additional 2% trade among African countries will spiral into more than $200 billion annually, an amount which is five times what Africa receives as foreign aid from development partners. Hon. Amadi believes that Africans are better off trading with each other to improve their economies than depending on hand-outs from donor countries, and no sane African can quarrel with this.