By Michael Etok
A Front line aspirant for Akwa Ibom North-East Senatorial District in the 2023 general election, Rt. Hon. (Barr.) Usenobong Akpabio has avered that he is the best man for the job
Barr. Akpabio who gave the hint during a chat with newsmen in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, recently, noted that a careful look at his antecedents would reveal that he has been well and properly equipped for higher legislative responsibility.
He pointed out that his years in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly between 2003 and 2011 brought a new lease of life for the people of Uruan State Constituency, as evidently reflected in various life-touching programmes and projects which he initiated across the constituency, stressing that his immense contributions to the passage of some critical Bills into law during the said period, was not in doubt.
His words, “I may not be able to complete state all we did legislatively in the House of Assembly but the records are there. You know, as a parliamentarian, your core function is to make laws for your people and for the state, so I would start with that. As we speak today, when we talk about the Anti-cultism law, I was the one who sponsored it.
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It was a Private Member Bill- you know Bills come to the parliament as Executive or Private member Bill. I proposed that and it was passed into law, what we call the Anti-cultism law today. I wish we are in a clime where when it happens like that the law would be named after you. Now no one would have asked who did it.
And someone might think it was an Executive Bill. It was a Private Member Bill and my name is there. If you go and check you’ll know that I am the one who proposed and it was passed into law.
And also during my stay in the House of Assembly, I proposed a law regulating oil servicing companies. The reason was that even when I was Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, it was difficult to access taxes from those companies, the reason being that, you must have to go to Lagos to meet them because most of those companies do not have functional offices here in Akwa Ibom. So I decided to come up with a Bill which was passed into law to make sure that for all the companies that are operating here, for them to give any contract or subcontract to oil servicing companies, one of the conditions was that they must have functional offices in Akwa Ibom State.
With that, you know, you can walk into their office and do whatever you want to do without having to travel to Lagos to get the tax that is due to you. It was really something that was meant to bring revenue to the state and cut the expenses of tripping into Lagos and other places” I also co-sponsored the local government law, I co-sponsored it.
Beyond that, there were various motions that my name is attached to and I can say that as far as the legislative function is concerned, I did my best to represent not just Uruan, but made sure that I made valuable contributions to help reposition the state legislatively.”
According to him, ” the reason I have decided to aspire to represent the people of Akwa Ibom North-East Senatorial District in the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly is that I have a lot to offer as far legislative business is concerned. After I finished from the House of Assembly I went to brush myself up in so many places and also enrolled for advanced legislative studies.
I may not be able to function very well in the Executive position, but you know, the legislature is where I cut my teeth. The Legislature is where I know I can do much better. In the Legislature, I’m a round peg in a round hole. I can remember when I went to consult someone and he said to me, “for what you did in the House of Assembly, people like you should be encouraged to go higher and higher”.
After the State Legislature, the next stage is the National Assembly, it could have been the House of Representatives, but I see that I will best function in the Senate. It’s still the same thing, just that one is the lower while the other is the higher, but they are doing just about the same thing- law making”.
He, therefore, called on stakeholders as well as the people of Uyo Senatorial District to shun sentiments and give him the needed support that will see him through the party primaries and the general elections to enable him to achieve set goals.
