Senator Okey Ezea (Labour Party. Enugu North) has highlighted the importance of unity towards development-oriented politics in the zone. Ezea, who spoke during a thanksgiving service held at the St. Teresa’s Catholic Cathedral, Nsukka, yesterday, to mark the first year of his election into the National Assembly, called on the people to eschew private goals and aspire for the common good.  He vowed not to abandon the mandate given to him by the people.

Admitting that his victory at the polls was not because he was the richest or the most politically connected, the senator stressed that his election marked the first time in over three decades that the people’s votes were allowed to count in any election in Enugu.

While acknowledging the high expectations from the people in bringing development to the zone, he promised to do all that was possible to improve the quality of life of the people.

“Many people worked hard for my victory and are possibly expecting rewards, but what reward is greater than the ways we’re creating to make life easier and happier for everyone in our zone,” he said,adding that his job as a legislator was not the same as those of the President and governors, who have executive powers.

Listing his achievements in the nine months he has been in the National Assembly, Ezea said he worked with other legislators elected from the zone to mitigate the incidents of marginalisation of Enugu North in the distribution of federal appointments and projects.

He added: “The ongoing three rural road projects at Uzo-Uwani, which I inherited from Sen. Chukwuka Utazi, are moving on smoothly. Granted, the roads were attracted during the 9th Senate to which Utazi was a member; however, because of the nature of our budgeting system that ensures that budget implementation takes place in the succeeding year, the actual award of the projects took place last November, five clear months after my inauguration in June last year. It took the collaborative efforts of Utazi and me to ensure that the projects were not diverted after the dissolution of the 9th Assembly.”

He assured that his tenure would give a sense of ownership to every person in Enugu North, stressing that the era of leaders abdicating their responsibilities to the people soon after elections was over.