Hon. Chief Austin Chukwukere is one of the two All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers from the South-East. Representing Ideato North/Ideato South Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, a constituency he describes as federally marginalised, the affable lawmaker has not rested on his oars to ensure that his constituency and the South-East in general are not marginalised.
In the build up to the appointment of the principal officers of the House of Representatives, he was touted in some quarters as the candidate for the Majority leader. However, with the turn of events, Hon. Chukwukere had ceaselessly demanded explanation from the APC. He spoke with Time Nigeria Magazine on this issue and other burning national issues. Excerpts
In what way has your constituency been marginalised?
My constituency suffers a dearth of federal presence. It is a thing that does not give anybody joy. I am not saying it because I want to feel proud or I want to draw unnecessary attention. The marginalization is enormous and recently you saw what happened in position distribution in the House of Representatives. You also saw what is happening in the distribution of posts and positions and all of you are witnesses to that. I allow you to be the judge of that.
What can you pinpoint as federal presence in your constituency?
(Sigh) I don’t know what I will say is federal presence there?
You have been in the private sector and there are private individuals that affect their constituencies positively without going into politics, why didn’t you follow that path?
The truth about it is that there are limits to what an individual can do in an economy that is posited like the Nigerian economy. Government is the biggest spender and all things are wrapped around government in Nigeria. No matter how rich you are, you can barely tar a kilometre of road for your people not to talk of doing all rounds and you can hardly affect as much lives as you want to affect. But in this stance, all of us have surrendered our sovereignty to the government. Government should be able to do everything in terms of infrastructure for us. That is why I feel challenged and I challenge the others to look at it and see what can be done to ameliorate the suffering of my people.
What is your assessment of the state government?
Before Owelle Rochas Okorocha came into the realm as the governor of the state I can tell you that things were very bad. There was virtually no infrastructure. When he came in he told people that he was in a hurry to develop the state and he initiated several developmental projects and programmes. Activities started happening and people were happy that they were feeling the impact of government. Like I said in the case of the individual, there are also limits to what states can do given their financial resources.
Imo state is the only APC controlled state in the South-East and out of the 10 federal constituencies in the state, the party controls two. Is there any disconnection between APC and the South-East?
In the last elections all of us knew what happened in the South-East especially with reference to the National Assembly and presidential elections. Things that were not supposed to happen happened. We are living with it. It is not because South East doesn’t like APC or did not vote for the party. They did, I can tell you that. APC is well received in the South-East
I can tell you that APC has an opportunity to set the record straight and tell the people to continue to support the party. Right now, what will determine that are the actions and the attitude of the party.
In the fallout of the appointment of principal officers of the NASS you categorically said you want your party, APC, to give clarification as to why the South-East was left out of the arrangement. Have you gotten any explanation?
We are still waiting for that explanation. It is not easy for you to take out a zone and keep it in the dark for too long. This is politics and before you know it we will be in for another election and those questions will come up if the answers don’t come out now. Until the party and the Federal Government begin to address those issues they will not just be wished away. Until you’ve done that you still owe them that debt of explanation and we are still waiting.
Since the party leadership refused to give any clarification on the matter, is that not an indication that the South-East is being treated like the child of the unfavoured wife?
I don’t think APC has two wives and if it does I don’t know who the second wife is. But what I know is that there are issues and those issues are what everybody knows about. If there has been an explanation you will know about it. The explanation is not going to come to me as Hon. Austin Chukwukere. You will know because it will be in the open.
Has there been any private discussion on the matter?
This is not a private issue. I wasn’t asking for a personal explanation. I said the South-East should be explained to why those things happened. When that explanation is done you will hear about it. It will come to the open and the people that it’s meant for will also hear about it and they are the ones that will decide whether it is good for them or not.
With the recent appointments made by the Buhari-led administration, can you comfortably say that the South-East is marginalized?
I should be saying with every sense of responsibility and respect that the South-East is even crying more now than ever before. It is time that the Federal Government addresses those issues. When you allow certain issues to stay for too long it allows people to begin to speculate. Those speculations will get to a point where people will begin to make assumptions and those assumptions at certain points get into decisions that might be very dangerous and we don’t want to get to that point.
President Buhari recently made some appointments and the South-East is still left out in the cold, with this attitude from the government and the party, what is going to be the reaction of the South-East as a bloc? Are you going to pull out of the APC if this persists?
We are not going to pull out of APC. We are part and parcel of APC and we will continue to talk about our rights from within. We have contributed a lot in forming APC and in guaranteeing its success. What the APC South-East contributed is what made President Buhari the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We want a stronger APC in the South-East and that is why we are talking about all these things. That is why we are making all these issues known and calling on the authorities concerned to address them because it will be difficult for us to go back and ask our people to support APC if the party did not treat the South-East well.
Federal lawmakers are fond of disconnecting from their constituency after elections, how are you connecting with your constituency?
We have constituency office back in my constituency. I don’t see myself belonging to that class of politicians that say one thing and do the other. In the course of my campaign I told my people that I want a departure from what it used to be and move into a new realm of what it should be. I have also promised them that we will be doing constituency clinics from time to time. You cannot do that if you do not have a constituency office.
From your experience, what are the challenges of being a lawmaker?
It is enormous. Especially the challenges you have with the people. Lawmakers are being misunderstood in our society. Most times, lawmakers are seen as people who don’t do anything. They just sit down and at the end of the month they take salaries. Fat ones as they say (general laughter). In fact somebody called me sometimes last week and he said he heard we take wardrobe allowance and where is his share? I don’t know what is called wardrobe allowance and all kinds of things people concur.
What are the untapped potentials in your constituency that government at all levels and even the private organizations can tap into?
There are enormous resources. There are rice mills, and a lot of arable land and agricultural produce. We used to have one of the industrial sites of Imo state. Most of these have gone moribund because of bad roads and other issues
How do you unwind?
It is a difficult situation. At this point the family front is suffering because this is more like a 24- hour job. All I do is to tell the family to understand. So far my family members have been wonderful. They try to tolerate me.
How would you like to be remembered as a member of the House of Representatives?
I like to be remembered as someone who came here, made a mark and spoke for his people, spoke for Nigeria and stood on the path of justice and ensured that the correct and the right things were done. That I came here, I did what I am supposed to do and my constituency is the better for it.