Hon. Chukwuemeka Anohu represents Ihiala federal constituency of Anambra State on the PDP platform. He expressed his views on the leadership crisis rocking the party and performance of the 8th Assembly in an interview with selected journalists. ADEBIYI ADEDAPO was there for LEADERSHIPThe 2017 budget is before the House, we are all aware of what transpired during consideration of the 2016 budget, how do you think the House can redeem its image before Nigerians'Appropriation bill is exclusively a prerogative of the House of Representatives, the Senate have the right of confirmation, the House has the right on Appropriation. I have never heard anything like budget padding, I dont understand what it means, but in order not to dive into issues of the past, we are going to move-on and we intend as a House to assert our authority with regards to this appropriation bill. By next week, we will vacate for two or three weeks, to be able to do justice to the Appropriation Bill, and I can assure Nigerians that they are going to see a difference with this 2017 Appropriation Act.Members now have copies of the bill, what is you assessment of the budget proposal' It must be sent to the appropriate committees for proper scrutiny. Secondly we must take our time to allow proper budget defence to take place and if there are changes, and there are few that the economy requires attention of the people, it is our duty to accept that feeling, do justice to the bill and send it back to the executive.What is your view about the sectoral allocation of projects'We are looking at all those, we are looking at proper distribution of resources without fear or favour, I can assure you that Nigerians will see difference in the 2017 Appropriation Bill.Do you have reservations about the MTEF and FSP, the House complained about the projections and eventually endorsed it with slight adjustment' Governance is about give and take, we cannot continue to oppose the executive all the time, just because we want to, the masses will suffer. If we have expressed our views on certain aspects of the MTEF, we believe that the executive have taken note of that and we believe that they will act on it as well, and for us to be able to move forward there must be compromise on both sides, and as such we have left that alone and we will continue to move forward for the betterment of Nigerians.You chair a very sensitive ad-hoc committee of the House, which looks at activities of federal government owned Development Finance Institutions ( DFI), what should Nigerians expect from the committee' It is very interesting, because if you dont dive, you wouldnt know. On interviewing and having interactive session with this these agencies, we understand that some of our monies are being misused, primarily because there is no structure on ground to channel those funds to get to the people that actually require those funds. Investigations and interactions are still ongoing, recently, we had presentation from NERFUND and we discovered a lot from that interaction. How can a manager say somebody was hired to recover funds already expended' It means that the primary objective of setting-up those DFIs have been defeated, because you are now going to look for money, you are not directing the money to help boost the economy when it is in recession, so it is a floor. We will also hear from Bank of Agriculture, NEXIM Bank, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria etc. The investigation is still on and I can assure you that we will unravel miseries where they areas.There is a general allegation of under performance by the 8th Assembly, and Ihiala federal constituency is no exemption, how do you intend to restore the hope and confidence of your people' For you to begin to assess a legislature where there is a change of power and a change of government, modalities have changed, how they do things have changed. We are looking at the new government in power. I am a member of the PDP, total opposition to the government of the day, we are looking at strategies to at least keep the hope alive for my constituents.I am of the opinion and I believe in rendering free health care services to my people, with or without constituency projects, I believe in assisting people with education purposes, infrastructural development will come from the government, no individual can develop a town with his personal fund, it is not done anywhere. I can assure you that as soon as we start settling down with the releases of our constituency projects to our community, life will be a lot easier for my people, I assure them of proper representation in the House, I assure them that their son is not last, I am in the game and I understand what is happening and I assure them that all their entitlements will be given to them in die course. If you look at the budget of 2016, which has not been implemented fully, look at Ihiala and compare it with other budgets I leave you to judge the rest, but is quite early to start judging performance level, it is early. Most of our people a:re still thanking God for allowing them to be here, but I have not done mine, I am still waiting for a reason for me to thank God, so my thanksgiving will be a bang in Ihiala local government, my people should wait and relax, thins are coming.The committee received presentation from the Bank of Industry (BoI) , what are your observations' Well, we asked for documentation prior to our interactive session with the BoI, and we were supplied most of the information required. But we went further to request more direct information, which wasnt given to us, so we had an interactive session and told them to produce those documents before February 1st and they agreed to do that, so that we can be able to continue and let the public know exactly what is going on. The documents tendered were not enough for what we are doing, so we have asked them to go back so that we can get the documents as we requested.Does that apply to all other agencies you have received documents from'Oh yes. You represent one of the most sensitive constituencies, Ihiala federal constituency, which has the largest local government areas in Anambra state.What are your achievements so far'For a start, I will say an offspring of Okija by the special grace of God has been elected as a member of the state assembly to represent them in the House of Representatives, which probably has never been done, power has shifted from constituency 1 which comprises of Uli, Amaoka and Ihiala. I got elected through a very rigorous and troublesome journey, the election was conducted and won, we went through the tribunal, the Court of Appeal and again, God affirmed my victory. But coming into the 8th Assembly, as a first timer, it was difficult for me to understand the workings of the Assembly, but as God will have it, I got lucky and was made the Deputy Chairman, Committee on Basic Education and Services, and ever since then we have been trying to understand the power play.Our first budget which would have impacted positively on the life of our citizens is being delayed by what they called budget padding and all that, even as at today, we understand that money have been released to MDAs, we are still yet to get the people to get the contract to intervene on the constituency projects for the progress of our people. So we are still waiting and praying that these monies will be released so that we can achieve what we told our people we are going to do. I am still hopeful that before the month runs out, we will start our constituency projects.Your party, the PDP is facing series of internal wrangling, both at the state and the national level, what is your fate, do you intend to defect to seek re-election' That is a very important question in the lives of those who belong to the PDP, we will continue to serve the party that gave us the ticket to run for an elective position, we also understand that we have internal crisis, so as other political parties, but if you are a member of the PDP, you will know that the party has all along been saddled with characteristics, but my personal opinion is that it is high time we call a spade a spade, it is high time we look into the problems of the PDP and address the matter.
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