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Hon Uzoma Nkem-Abonta, a lawyer, former lecturer represents Ukwa East Federal Constituency of Abia State in the House of Representatives, in this chat with Thenewsguru .com, (TNG) Emman Ovuakporie spoke on various national issues ranging from post Covid-19, restructuring of Nigeria, post civil war and other knotty issues, excerpts.
What is the way forward post Covid-19? Bearing in mind that before and even after civil war we seem not to be getting it right.
Let me start by talking about manufacturing sector of the Biafrans. They had five refineries, and we learnt from history they refined all the crude they needed to prosecute the war. We were told they made a temporary oil plant at Onu which they used throughout, they maintained the aircraft, they had sophisticated military things, so how come we could not move forward on that.
They launched submarines and so many other things, but by now we cannot even manufacture double barrel guns in Nigeria. What the military is doing in Kaduna is too late for us. We failed to incorporate and tap what we have.
So I should also think that our science and technology alongside agriculture must be given to serous minded persons not based on political appointment. Our science and technology must be manned by no less than persons who have the scientific required knowledge.
I make bold to say, the best person apart from Bill Gates is a Nigerian, the best brain in computer not even Bill Gates is a Nigerian. So how come Nigerian sustains Europe, America and all what not in these critical areas yet at home we cannot get them.
We were told that out of the ten heart surgeons Nigeria ranks there. We were told that in any field you will find them excelling and excelling well.
So what encouragement are we going to give them to encourage them to come; we must create the enabling environment for them to come home and establish. We must give the incentives, these incentives shouldn’t be on sugar, cement and what have you, it should be on these guys who are coming to do real manufacturing.
We must look inward, we must not wait until China or America gives us and give us conditions because there is no free lunch, they must attach conditions to it.
So I think and think seriously, that even the appointment of ministers should be contested. You should tell us, we must see your profile otherwise you take a medical doctor to go and man seaports or otherwise, it is not proper. We must be able to put people in the right perspective.
Even in the economic world Nigerians are the best. How come NgoziOkinji-Iweala, she has never been out of international job for one day and then she came here and we toyed with her.
We must go back and wear our thinking cap and set up very strong independent economic advisers to give Nigeria a model that will not be based on party lineage because all the parties I make bold to add has no ideology and operates with no ideology, they operate according to who is at the helm of affairs or who calls the shot. I am scared for Nigeria.
CODIV-19 could give us an opportunity to rise more than we are if we exploit it properly, if we man it properly. So the industrial sector must grow and what will grow the industrial sector is agriculture and that brings me to our steel project.
Are we talking about development when we are joking about our steel. Look at the investments put so far in the Ajaokuta steel, I heard that they are going to merge it with Iron river, good idea but we must bring it to conclusion.
We were told that we need about $600million to complete it even though on information I got we need less than that but we have spent more than that on importing what couldn’t be seen, what we don’t know. So who is setting our priority?
Until we set our priorities right and as we resume, I urge Mr Speaker to tell us the status of Ajaokuta Steel Mill, when will it be completed. I urge the house to move a motion that the minster should come and brief us what deal did they have with Russia.
Mr President went to Russia and until today we didn’t know what they discussed. They should tell us so that the house will domesticate the agreement.
Never again should the executive go out to draw an international agreement without involving us.
The pandemic matter became an urban issue because the potential carriers had remained in the urban areas. I have been here for a month plus, I may want to rush to my village to see things then the potential carriers will go to the villages and it will spread and there they may not even have the number of NCDC, NCDC may not even be close so you can you imagine what will happen.
That is why I advised that we should stop fooling ourselves that we are building new hospitals or tents and so on, no, it cannot be.
What we need do and I advised government they agree is to create more testing centres and they don’t have the facility and we cannot build it now, no magic.
Therefore get existing laboratories; we have a lot of privately owned laboratories that are better than the government laboratories. Look at them, give them accreditation, tell them to beef up if need be and then use them.
But because they are doing business, there is a business surrounding the COVID-19 money, they want to put it in what I may call the exclusive list so that others will not go into it; it should be taken to the concurrent list so that these other laboratories can also do test.
In the same way, get to hospitals don’t wait for them to come and apply, beg them, strike a deal with them to treat and whatever treatment you used to discharge this three hundred if it is true, make it available to the medical personnel so that they can begin to treat and contain it.
I am from Abia state for example; there are good laboratories in Umuahia and Aba precisely, if they have about three to four of them there and about five hospitals designated for the test and treatment, people won’t mind, they will go and complain, where you can tell the hospital to keep records of those that came for treatment so that we can manage them, so that you can also do tracing and it becomes easier.
But when you allow people to keep speculating that it is this drug or that drug that is used in the treatment, abuse will now come in but when you make it open that this is what it is but it must be handled by a medical personnel, then the medical personnel will treat them and they will live.
So why are they centralizing it so that only them will use the donation money and after the houses will burn down, it is not good. They should decentralize the whole thing.
I came here to sponsor a bill on codification of herbal medicine. President Buhari assented to it, today I am waiting that one department in the health sector had been commissioned to take charge of that codification.
Every drug is made out of herbs. We were told China used herbs and we are now told that Madagascar somewhere in Africa is importing fluid of some herbal things to us.
In the past, when we were very small, we will have malaria, my grandmother will say bring my children back and we will come back. They will go and cut all manner of leafs including bark of mango, pawpaw and boil them together and cover you with blanket, they will steam you there so that by the time you come out you will be hot, then they will go and take dried plantain leafs turned it into sponge and use local soap and bath you and after then they give you hot pounded yam and good soup and in the next three hours you are back on your feet playing football, no chloroquine, no nothing, herbs, you drink some and then you wee.
The Chinese green tea in Nigeria today is in billions. Who verified the tea? So who said we cannot also develop our own herbal tea and so on. If you come to my house you will see lemon grass that is what I take, that is pure green for me, no storage.
And we were told by the so called scientists that the ten most natural antibiotics are garlic, ginger, turmeric, onion and the rest of it and we grow them here and why must you keep importing them here when we can export them. So you can see that there are a lot of jobs in agriculture.
Bills like future trading, foreign exchange trading are the things we must look into now.
If we must succeed there must be a radical leap in the science sector because the minister of science and industry was a governor 30years or more ago, then he was 50years add to his age then and now.
So we need radical people, we need people who can showcase and I am hoping that the day they will tell us that they are doing technological show, show us what you can do so that people can exhibit their inventions and what they have manufactured, it is great, we have done much.
And then we the politicians should focus attentions in laws that will make Nigeria move, laws that will look at the local content, laws that will encourage using what we have to get what we want.
Let me take you back a little to what transpired on the floor of the house on this infectious disease bill; the spokesman told me that this bill has been sent to your emails, that most of you are dependent on your aides that is why you have not been able to study it and of course stalling the persons; what is your take on that?
Well I wouldn’t want to join issues with my brother because anybody who covered the house on that day knew that nothing was sent to anybody or circulated, it came as an emergency, the urge and I said that speed is inferior to direction.
You may be going to Kubwa now and because you don’t know the direction, you go on a speed of 140kms and you find yourself in Niger state but me that knows the direction I will go on 40km and just drive into Kubwa and by the time you will make a turn in Suleja or wherever, I will be long there already.
We have emails, and I want to advocate that we also do e-parliament to save time. In UK, you don’t see all the members of parliament (MP) at the same time, some are in the office watching as soon as there is a topic they are interested in comes up, they come down and while they are there their SA’s are in the office feeding them the points they are reading.
But here when we come in, they even jam the network, so you cannot communicate with outside. You may have MP, who may not know what they are discussing but because of that he will call to ask his SA, are you in the office, he will quickly check and send it to him right while he is seated at the chamber and he argues but here we will even first of all jam the network so that you won’t do anything.
The place was designed like a theatre, it was not designed to function like a parliamentary seating, it is like a theatre where you relax and watch a movie, if you look at the setting.
So we should have a very sound e-library whereby notices can get to you, whereby you can even send to the speaker what you deemed fit, send to your colleagues what you deemed fit, circulate your idea, exchange it and then come back. There is nothing you cannot do with electronics and technology. People do meetings with zoom and the rest of it, so that error has been taken care of.
The paper is now being circulated properly, we will digest it and come and expunge what we need to, add what we need to add and balance it; we cannot create another thing now that we cannot follow.
One of your ranking members raised an allegation that there is no platform like WhatsApp group that has the 360 member of the house; how true?
ANo, I don’t think it is true. There are many platforms; there is one that I think is most encompassing which is joined hands or hands join, or whatever, I think that looks like the official house WhatsApp in fairness. Whether the administrator included the 360 members I don’t know.
But I know I am there but I don’t contribute to it because I don’t know whether it is house or partisan, so I avoid contribution there I merely read because if it was for house then we will debate or post core national issues before us not party issues. If we join issues and we tear the place, so there are platforms.
So you also have South-East platform and other caucus platforms. You also have committee’s platform and the one that I belong to that is where they even post committee assignments and all what not.
But there should be a platform controlled by the clerk not members but by the management whereby only official things will be posted, where stuffs like order papers and things .
We can even argue our motions online. You put it there, you say this is my thought, people will put in all the amendments so that by the time we come for seating 2hours we are gone.
One of the things that kill members is that they go sit down for 6hours and some of them are old they don’t do exercise. But if we have e-parliament, there are certain things we do, 2hours you are gone.
And we don’t have facilities for recreation there like gym. I went for one training in the UK some time ago, the person I was waiting for, came in on a bike and with his briefcase.
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To be completed …
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