Unmasking Plot Behind Miriam Onuoha’s Electricity Summit

By Chidiebube Okeoma

Few days ago, the member representing Isiala Mbano/ Onuimo/ Okigwe federal constituency of Imo state otherwise known as Okigwe North Federal Constituency at Nigeria’s lower chamber of the national Assembly, Miriam Onuoha, assemblied a town hall meeting she tagged ” electricity summit”.

The lawmaker organized the submit with an unrealizable promise of ending Power supply woes of her constituents and their communities therein.

Every sane mind in Okigwe North Federal Constituency and beyond is worried by the female lawmaker’s panic attitude, lately. Her recent approach in organizing smoke screen engagements just to deceive people that she was performing is now very suspicious. She is no doubt doing these to hoodwink people into voting for her for an underserved second term in office come February 25, 2023. God forbid!.

If not for political benefit, tell me why it took her almost three years in office and few months to the general elections to organize an electricity summit for the first time since her reign?. Who is she deceiving or who does she wants to deceive?.

At the electricity summit, Onuoha as a government ( public) official came with a private electricity company, Enugu Electricity Distribution Company. Yes, EDDC is a private company. It doesn’t belong to the government and not working for any agency or institution of the federal or state government.

At the summit, the federal lawmaker failed to tell her audience and or the people of Okigwe North Federal Constituency and indeed the public the negotiations she entered with the private electricity company on behalf of the people of the federal constituency.

At the summit which was more like a political jamboree she failed to disclose how she was going to activate the moribund sub- station in Okigwe. At the electricity summit, she could not tell ndi- Okigwe North what she was going to do to restore power in most communities in her federal constituency.

Is Onuoha not aware that Okigwe town which is the headquarters of Okigwe North she represents in the green chamber of the national Assembly doesn’t have electricity supply for years?. Will our representative claim that she is not in the know that many communities in Okigwe North Federal Constituency have been suffering total- blackout for years now?. Even the village this writer hails from in Anara community hasn’t had electricity supply in years now. Could you imagine?.

What has she done about it?.  What did the summit which she “magically” convened discuss about energizing the power sub station at Okigwe for the optimum use of our people?. Having brought a private electricity company, it is her duty to disclose the kind of a negotiation structure she entered with them. What is the business analysis of bringing EDDC when she as a lawmaker doesn’t have a volte for such a project?. Shall we be deceived more by white elephant projects by politicians who seek to remain in office while they underperform?.

The truth of the matter is that our lawmaker has no simplest idea of what an electricity summit is for a public Office holder. What she described as an electricity summit was a political jamboree. A popularity seeking event to launder a candidacy that won’t fly.

Okigwe North desperately needs infrastructural development, an area our lawmaker had repeatedly failed since 2020, she was sworn into office. This becomes more depressing when one considers that it was on this basis she campaigned and was voted for.

It was unfortunate that Onuoha used such a summit that is so dear to our people to gather people for politics. An electricity summit that is well organized and intended to ending Power outage in our domains is what our people need. The female lawmaker as a smart politician knew that our people earnestly need restoration of power supply in our areas leveraged on it to revamp her fading political influence.

But the truth of the matter is that our people knew that the essence of the failed summit was for political gains. For almost three years running, our lawmaker was “playing national politics” by making sure she appeared on every national television screen of All Progressives Congress events than working for her employers( the masses). She had thought that getting APC ticket was all she needed to go back to the federal parliament but it had dawned on her that the people are wiser now.

While it is now like a taboo to fly APC ticket In our area because of the party’s copious failure in governance,  Onuoha is now doing everything possible to regain the confidence of the people, but little had she realized that you can only deceive some people sometimes and can’t deceive everybody all the times.

Let me quickly advice our dear sister to stop  her emergency empowerments programs, claiming of projects not linked to her, organizing summits to promote her and other jamboree kind of programs. The people of Okigwe North Federal Constituency have seen her and her capacities to deliver. We can’t fall for cheap blackmails and empty promises again. We understood that the national Assembly overwhelmed her. Her performance is before average.

Our federal constituency is in dire need of a representative who understands the principals of an indirect legislature. A representative who will from day one know that he or she is deeply accountable to the people and that servant leader will be elected on February 25, 2023.

Okeoma writes from booth 027 Anara/ Osuama ward- Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of Imo state.