By Emmanuel Jonathan
One of America’s foremost democrats cum Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, defined democracy as a system of government in which citizens elect their leaders and participate in the governance of their nation.
According to Lincoln, democracy is founded on the ideas of freedom, equality, and representation.
Democracy comes in various forms, such as Option A4 in which voters queue behind their preferred candidates to cast their votes. Another is representative democracy, in which voters choose representatives to act on their behalf.
The story of Senator Okey Ezea in politics can best be likened to that of Abraham Lincoln. This is because both Lincoln and Ezea have similar experiences in politics, their beliefs on the powers of true democracies among other similarities. Both also bear same experiences to have lost elections a number of times but won the most difficult one in the long run.
Lincoln lost almost all the elections he contested right from his entrant into politics, but later won the most difficult election as President of the United States of America in 1860. Senator Ezea, who can be described as the leader of opposition in Enugu state politics, to the surprise of many, won the most difficult election amongst all the election he had contested for in the past two decades or thereabout, to emerge the Senator representing Enugu North senatorial District.
The 2023 Enugu North Senatorial District election was the most difficult election he has ever contested, because he contested against a sitting Governor of the state as at then.
Ezea’s victory in that election was drawn from the strength of a majority of the electorate that make up the number of voters in Enugu North Senatorial District. The victory was also a product of huge trust on Ezea’s ability to make a wonderful representation of the people.
The victory was equally garnered from the foundation of equity and justice bearing in mind that it was the turn of Igbo-Eze South/Nsukka Federal Constituency to produce the Senator of Enugu North Senatorial District in line with the rotational principles, and in particular the turn of Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area judging from the fact that Nsukka has had her fair share of occupying the Senate seat in the past through Senator Fidelis Okoro.
Both Ezea and his greatest rival in that election, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, are revered leaders of Enugu North Senatorial District. The same way the people of Enugu North Senatorial District massively voted for former Governor Ugwuanyi during his first and second tenure elections is the same way they voted for Ezea massively in the 2023 Senate election for the zone. The wisdom one should take home from this experience is that, ‘in a true democracy, power resides with the people and they choose whom to support at any time they wish’.
However, the problem with these types of victories and trust, which occurs ones in a century, is that it comes with huge expectations from the electorate which should be very much understood.
Since his emergence as the Senator representing Enugu North Senatorial District, Senator Ezea has effectively manned his duty post. Despite all odds, he has continued to provide a national voice for the people of Enugu North Senatorial District.
Shortly after the inauguration of the 10th Senate, he held the Senate to a standstill during the Ministerial Screening by calling on both the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to factor the interest of Enugu North Senatorial District in their further consideration of Ministerial Nominees, on the grounds that no person from the zone has been made Minister since 1999.
This singular action of Ezea attracted so much commendation from men and women of goodwill as this is about the first time since 1999 that a Senator from Enugu North Senatorial District will stand bold on the floor of the Senate to speak against the marginalization of Enugu North zone in the area of ministerial nomination from Enugu State.
In the area of provision of quality and accessible infrastructure, Senator Ezea has recommended some internal roads within Enugu North Senatorial District for Federal Government’s intervention and this will commence with the implementation of the 2024 budget.
Ezea has also put in so much legislative action to see that the Obollo Afor-9th Mile section of the Makurdi-Otukpo-Obollo-9th Mile road is motorable via the Federal Government intervention programme.
While remaining appreciative of the efforts of other well-meaning sons and daughters of Enugu State to see that the Federal Government makes Obollo Afor-9th Mile section of the Makurdi-Otukpo-Obollo-9th Mile road motorable, Ezea on assumption to duty added a stronger voice by mobilizing his colleagues from Enugu State and the South East at large to draw the attention of both the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, and Minister of Works, Senator Dave Umahi, to the importance of the road which is a gateway to the Old Eastern Region.
It is pertinent to note that the action of Senator Okey Ezea is beginning to be fruitful as the meetings of Enugu and South East Senators gave birth to a resolution which added more weight to the call for the reconstruction and construction of a dual carriage way on the all-important Makurdi-Otukpo-Obollo-9th Mile road project.
To back up the resolution with practical and true condition of the Makurdi-Otukpo-Obollo-9th Mile road, Ezea personally set up a fact finding group to survey the road from Makurdi to 9th Mile, to get pictures and videos which were handed over to the Senate Committee on abandoned roads.
He equally took the album showcasing the condition of the road and the resolution of the Enugu and South East Senators to the Senate President and got him convinced that the road is actually the gateway to the South East and South South and so should be seen for what it is as the food supply corridor from the North to the East and South.
To show how serious the road is to his people, Senator Ezea pushed further to meet with the Honourable Minister for Works, Senator Dave Umahi, who was also concerned about the suffering of the people, and the Minister immediately contacted CHINESE HARBOUR ENGINEERING COMPANY LTD to discuss the areas that needed palliative measures before the yuletide season while awaiting the President’s approval for the commencement of the major reconstruction and full construction of a dual carriage way of the road.
Despite all these interventionist actions by Senator Ezea, he has never claimed that it was his Constituency Project, rather he is more concerned with ameliorating the pains of his people. It is important to note that the contract for this project was long awarded to RCC LTD but cancelled and concessioned to Chinese HARBOUR Engineering Company Limited, by former President Goodluck Jonathan’s Administration.
The good news now is that all the efforts ignited by Senator Okey Ezea are yielding positive results as President Tinubu has approved the full construction of the dual carriage way from Makurdi-Otukpo-Obollo-9th Mile.
The Honourable Minister for Works, Senator Umahi, had, on Thursday 25/01/24, in Makurdi, flagged off the construction work for the dualization of the Makurdi-Otukpo-Obollo-9th Mile road project, which is being handled by Chinese Harbour Engineering Company Limited (CHEC). Umahi said that the Abuja-Keffi-Makurdi of the road has been dualized from Abuja assuring that same will be the case of Makurdi-Otukpo-Obollo-9th road.
In the area of water supply to Nsukka urban and its environs, Ezea is also doing so much by providing legislative actions and interventions to see that the Adada Dam project is fully put to an operational condition according to its original master plan to supply water across Nsukka urban and it’s environs.
On employment, he is making in-house movements to get our people employed in Federal ministries like he did when he was a board member. There are many Nsukka indigenes currently working with federal establishments coming to Ezea’s office for him to help them get promotion opportunities among other demands. There are many other interventions by Senator Ezea that cannot be put out to the public for now.
The Bible doesn’t tell us to only pray for leaders with whom we agree; instead the scripture calls us to pray for everyone who is in authority. This can be a tall order, but an important one. Ezea is poised to succeed and make Igbo Nsukka and Enugu State at large proud.
Emmanuel Jonathan, JP, Esq, writes from Alor-Agu in Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area of Enugu State.
