…”Voice of Jacob, Hands of Esau.”
My dear Atulaegwu Ebere Davidson, I read your infantile missive mischievously couched as an ‘Open Letter to Senator Austin Akobundu’ and wondered how you have condescended to making yourself easily available to merchants of political desperation who stop at nothing to goad gullible elements like you to do their dirty bidding. While attacking Senator Austin Akobundu in your missive, you were full of praises for Hon. Darlington Nwokocha of all people! Wonders shall never end!
How on earth can you be this susceptible to the antics of such deficient characters who use you to peddle their falsehood, entrench their malice, and serve their selfishness while hiding their own faces? Your claim that Senator Austin Akobundu’s responsibilities as a senator “have been glaringly abandoned,” and that “There is no evidence of your presence on the floor of the Senate in defence of our challenges, no bills or motions in our interest, and no constituency engagement to show you understand or care about the daily struggles of the people you claim to represent,” smacks of gross irresponsibility on your part and presents you and your sponsors as a gang of irredeemable sophists who peddle falsehood without batting an eyelid. Because the facts on ground are both obvious and clear, yet contrary to your submissions. But before i regal you with some of Senator Austin Akobundu’s accomplishments in the senate, may I ask you, Mr Emergency ‘Cashivist’, what Darlington Nwokocha’s achievements were for the ill-fated five months he was in the senate? Have you asked him what he did with all the financial benefits that accrued to him from the Senate in the name of Abia Central for those five months? Were the monies meant for him to frolic around or they were meant to help improve the lives of people of his constituency?
Rather than build a hotel, why wouldn’t he channel funds to something more useful to the people? Or is he no longer the ideal “Saint Senator” you are advocating for? Was there a single motion or bill to his name in the senate for those five months, or was he just there to merely add to the number? Or were others not sponsoring bills and motions within the same period? How come he neither sponsored a single bill nor moved even a motion in his stint at the Senate? The answer is simple: the Senate is an institution for people of great intellect and class, and not one for ‘hustlers’ who do everything to force themselves on such a highly regarded institution. That is the kind of man you want to compare with Senator Akobundu? The same Darlington Nwokocha who did not know that the Appeal Court was the final court of judgement for electoral matters concerning the legislature but went ahead to file an appeal at the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal after the Owerri Division of the same court had rightly sacked him as an impostor? For his gross indiscretion which is too childish to so flagrantly display at that level, he was fined N5m by the Appeal Court Abuja, a fine he was supposed to pay to his conqueror for what the court aptly and rightly described as a “frivolous, vexatious, irritating, and annoying petition.”
True to his character, and out of incurable desperation, he took his folly a notch higher and proceeded to the Supreme Court over the same matter. There, he was slammed with another fine of N2m to be paid to Senator Austin Akobundu. Such a man you gleefully promote is not the type of man Abia Central needs as their senator. People who unapologetically manipulate the system to gain power lack the moral values to assume leadership positions anywhere. Empty barrels still make the most noise, obviously! Today, he is a suspended member of the Labour Party; a very “vexatious, irritating and annoying” character indeed!
Atulaegwu Ebere Davidson, I read you somewhere saying there’s no big deal in writing bills or motions, that even you as a private citizen can author bills and send to the National Assembly for consideration. That is very correct! My question is, since you have confirmed that writing bills and motions are so easy, why couldn’t your darling Darlington author even one? I mean, just one ooo…You see that Datlington is far from being the ideal Senator you are advocating for. One then wonders what is driving this your ill-advised advocacy that is dead on arrival.
Now some lessons on Senator Austin Akobundu who remains one of the stand-out senators in the southeast. His activities in the Senate for just one year and six months speak loudly of his preparedness for the job. The attempt to diminish his accomplishments within this short period for selfish reasons falls flat on its face. The major road from Umuahia to Uyo is a federal road that had not received enough attention from the federal government over the years. To say that the road has defied any holistic solution is an understatement.
However, on the 11th of December 2024, Senator Akobundu moved a passionate motion on the floor of the Red Chamber for the Senate to consider the plight of the people by intervening and cause an expeditious rehabilitation of the Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene Federal Road by the federal government citing the fact that “the Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene Road, a major link between Abia State and Akwa Ibom State through Ikwuano LGA, has been in a deplorable state of disrepair for over 30 years, and that despite efforts by successive governments at both federal and state levels to provide remedial interventions, the road has remained in poor condition for reasons that appear inexplicable.” Based on his motion on that day, the Senate passed the following resolutions:
i. Urge the Federal Ministry of Works to immediately release funds for the completion of the Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene Road during the current dry season; and
ii. Mandate the Committee on Works to urgently investigate and unravel the causes of delays, and determine the extent of failure and report back to the Senate within two weeks for further legislative action.
True to their commitment and arising from Senator Akobundu’s passionate motion, the sum of N14bn was released by the FG in February for the continuation of work on the road.
That road will soon be fixed. Senator Akobundu is a man who defies defiance to achieve his goals. Gentle but highly strategic and effective.
Below are some of his other achievements in 18 just months.
i. Scholarship to select undergraduates
ii. Sponsorship of 113 constituents to the National Teachers Institute on a full 3-year scholarship
iii. Sponsorship of training of over 400 secondary school students in Embedded Systems Engineering, Robotics, and Artificial Intelligence
iii. Sponsorship of training of youths in farming and sewing and gifting of empowerment items for their start-up
iv. Sponsorship of training of youths in paint making and cosmetics production with cash awards for their start-up
v. Sponsorship of youths to acquire digital skills in UI/UX, Web Design, Professional Graphics Design, Cyber Security Systems and Operations, Digital Marketing, Forex Trading, Software Development, and Data Science
vi. Capacity building programme on peace and security for traditional rulers, community leaders, and other stakeholders in the traditional institution on conflict prevention, management, and resolution
v. Ongoing construction of 6 skills acquisition centres, one for each LGA in Abia Central Senatorial District
vi. Ongoing construction of roads:
a. Oloko-Amizi road project
b. Oloko-Ugbuebulle road project
vii. Installation of streetlights in select markets across the Senatorial District as follows:
a. Apumiri market, Umuahia South
b. Ahiaukwu market, Umuahia South
c. Obikabia market, Isiala Ngwa North
d. Nkwo Nsulu market, Isiala Ngwa North e. Ahiaeke market, Umuahia North
f. Ekeonyeugba market, Isiala Ngwa South
g. Nkwo Ebe market, Umunkpeyi Nvosi, Isiala Ngwa South
h. Ariam market, Ikwuano
i. Ndoru market, Ikwuano
BILLS AND MOTIONS
1. A bill for the establishment of an Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Umuahia
2. A bill for the establishment of a Federal College of Health Technology, Ikwuano
3. A bill for the establishment of National Sport University, Nsulu
4. A bill for the establishment of a Federal Institute of Entrepreneurship and Technical Skills Development, Osisioma
5. A motion for the Appropriation of sufficient funds in the 2025 budget for the speedy completion of the Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene Federal Road rehabilitation project.
These bills, when passed, will have positive multiplier effects on the people in terms of employment, access to higher education, ease of doing business, and safer commuting, among other socioeconomic benefits to the people.
Senator Austin Akobundu will soon kick-off the second phase of his project implementation across the entire Abia Central Senatorial District. It promises to be even bigger and better!
One final advice to you, Atulaegwu Ebere Davidson, stop talking and acting as if you own 2027. Nobody owns tomorrow not to talk of 2027. Before then, many people, including politicians and ordinary folks, will die; many will fall and many will rise. It is a reality of life. A word is enough for those not averse to wisdom.
Jude Chijioke Ndukwe
Umuahia North, Abia Central Senatorial District
08/05/2025
