By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
A group of youths operating under the aegis of the South South Regional Diversity in Support of Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, has hailed the chairman of the National Assembly for his numerous contributions towards effective legislation, law making and performance of his oversight functions in the 9th Senate.
Speaking at a solidarity rally organized by the group’s stakeholders in support of the Senate President, at the Government Secondary School, Federal Housing Estate, Calabar, yesterday, the Coordinator of the youth group in the South South geo-political zone, Comrade Eba Peter Okoni, said that the group’s decision to throw their weight firmly behind Lawan is based on the numerous achievement made by the law maker in the law-making process, and effective legislation which tremendously impacted not only to the lives of his constituents, but the entire nation.
Eba, who spoke on the theme: ‘Taking Excellent Work and Achievement of the 9th Senate to Grassroot Level Across the Country,’ stated that through Lawan’s ingenuity, a lot would be achieved, not only in Yobe North senatorial district, which Lawan represents at the upper chamber of the National Assembly, but play a tremendous role by doing the needful to ensure that President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB.
Maintaining that with the passage of PIB, a lot of jobs would be created to check the high rate of unemployment that bedeviled the country in recent decades, Eba averred that the uncertainty that hitherto exist on the part of investors in the all important oil sector of the nation would be removed, adding that certainty associated with PIB would create possibility for foreign direct investment in the oil industry.
He stressed that the passage of PIB, which the Senate President facilitated, states and local governments will henceforth begin to have more revenue that would translate into projects that would boost the economy of the nation.
He said that with the Mr. President’s assent to the bill, job creation in the mainstream value chain would be another area that has made Lawan endeared himself to the group, stressing that Lawan’s resilience, honesty, integrity and hardwork is responsible to whatever giant strides that he had recorded.
Other areas that made the group to put their weight solidly behind Senator Lawan include the way and manner in which he has attracted human and capital projects to Yobe North senatorial district which he represents.
Eva said, “I saw a lot when I followed a friend of mine, who is of Northern extraction to Badu, one of the areas in the senatorial disteict that the Senate President hails from.
“A lot of impact has been made by the Senate President. ‘Sardauna,’ as he was being addressed by his people, has indeed distinguished himself as a promising leader embued with sterling qualities, backed by skills, experience, intelligence, integrity, honesty, resilience and candour; indeed he is a leader who walks his talk.”
The group, which is not even from the North hailed Dr. Lawan for initiating and executing about 90 constituency projects within 21 months of existence as senator representing his constituency, calling on others to emulate the Senate President.
Apart from the township road construction projects in Yobe North, Lawan has also initiated and sponsored several capital projects, currently ongoing in Yobe North.
Worthy of mentioning is the construction of 72 classrooms and 24 toilet facilities in each of the six local government areas that made up the senatorial disteict.
Others include: construction of a vocational training centre in Gasua; world class skills acquisition centres in Nguru and Gashua; community ICT centre at the Federal University, Gashua, among several others.
The group also noted, “He also donated relief materials to flood victims in Bade, Karasuwa, Jakusko, Nguru, Machina and Jakusko local government areas.
To boost food production and fight hunger in the land Senator Lawan also distributed 3,000 bags of NPK fertilizer to Yobe North farmers across the six local government areas in the senatorial district.
Apart boosting food production, he also organized free annual medical hydrocele (hydrocelectomy), and hernia hemiotomy across the senatorial district to take care of those suffering from thse ailments, stressing that these human-oriented initiative will at the end of the day metamorphose to overall development which would add value to the nation’s economic wellbeing.
Other achievements of the Senate President worthy of mention is the sponsoring of the training of thousands of youths to acquire several skills, particularly in the maintenance of GSM and acquisition of several entrepreneurial skills programmes for self reliance.
The group coordinator stated that policies initiated by Lawan, if emulated by leaders in other regions, will serve as a cornerstone to attaining development, not only for their regions, but for the nation at large.
He added, “All these kind gestures made the Senate President to endear himself to us, irrespective of the geo-political zone he hails from; after all, we are all Nigerians.”
