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Raymond Ozoji, Awka
Ahead of the inauguration of the 7th Anambra State House of Assembly, the legislator-elect for Orumba-North state constituency Chief Emeka Aforka has said that Orumba-North suffered eight years of poor and ineffective representation at the state assembly.
Aforka explained that the people of Orumba-North were not involved in the said representation at the legislature which he said resulted in the execution of contituency projects that were completely not in consonance with the needs of the communities by the outgoing representative.
The former Orumba-North council chairman who spoke with our correspondent in an exclusive interview at the country home of the national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Amawbia, Awka-South local government area yesterday, explained further that he was going to the legislature to bestow Orumba-North the type of political representation it required at the state assembly.
He said, “We are poorly represented in Orumba-North. Somebody will wake up from sleep to site poorly constructed culverts in one or two places and you tell me that you are doing something in the communities. You don’t decide what you will give to the communities. Let the communities decide what they need.”
Aforka therefore noted that effective representation was when the people were carried along in the scheme of things and not the contrary. He however pointed out that political representation was a social contract between the representative and those being represented at whatever level of governance.
According to him, there were people who went to the state assembly to represent Orumba-North and such persons attracted roads as well as other social amenities to the area due to their relationship with the executive arm of government but expressed worry also that some people only went to the legislature to foment troubles and to warm the seats at the legislative chambers to the detriment of their constituents.
He alleged that most of the culverts constructed by the outgoing representative as constituency projects had collapsed stressing that such was not the type of representation the people of Orumba-North envisaged.
The legislator-elect therefore noted that he had collated and compiled the needs of his constituents realising that the needs vary from one community to the other. He said while some communities clamoured for well-equipped primary healthcare centres, others requested borehole water facilities, good drainage systems and a host of other community-driven projects.
Aforka also mentioned that some communities requested the renovation of primary school buildings; while some others made case for the construction of roads in their domains as well as institution of skill acquisition centres, noting that the needs were peculiar to each of the communities in Orumba-North council area.
The House of Assembly member-elect however assured his constituents that the needs would form his template of representation at the state assembly just as he said that he would lobby as well as romance the executive arm of government to ensure that the needs of his constituents were met to improve their living conditions and for the betterment of the entire state.
