The Senator representing Enugu North Senatorial Zone, Senator Chukwuka Utazi has expressed concern over security situation across the country.
Utazi, who spoke at his Nkpologwu, Uzo-Uwani country home, weekend, at the grand-finale of the distribution of the Federal Government’s empowerment items meant for the constituents, said urgent measures must be taken to address the situation.
He called for more efforts by all governments at all levels towards issues of job creation, stressing that unless that was done, tackling security challenges would remain a mirage.
Senator Utazi said “all of us are concerned over the security issues in this country; the security challenge is terrible and that was the reason, while the last Senate was rounding off, I summarized the situation in the country; my last motion was on bridging the gaps between the haves and the have-nots, stemming the tide of the looming revolution about coming whereby people who are deprived are not having the courage to confront the problem, and anybody who is before them is their trouble.
“So, they don’t care who you are. That is why I came up with that motion that we need to do something; urgenty, job creation is at the heart of every serious government. If you go to America, the campaign is going on, Trump will win or lose with the number of jobs created; it was a problem for Obama because they said he moved the jobs offshore, to China.
“Job creation must be at the heart of everything we are doing here. A young man will graduate from the university and have nothing doing; so, you feel difficult to tell them to be good citizens, to be good Nigerians, with hunger? How can they become good citizens? That was why I brought that motion at the tail end of the last administration – the mood of the country, and then set agenda for the present government that has just won election.”
He said in the same direction, he would upon resumption of Senate by September, bring another motion that touches on power.
“You don’t ask investors to come and create jobs when they don’t have the basic necessities; they don’t have electricity to power what they are doing; of course they will have to go to Ghana and other countries, where they have constant power supply.
“So, I am coming with another well researched work that is going also to set agenda for the government. We address issues, I don’t go into frivolities, anytime I am standing up bringing a motion or a bill, it is going to address a national issue.”
While earlier commenting on the empowerment programme, he said it was the end of a week-long programme, which touched on the entire 6 local government areas that make up the senatorial zone.
“What we did today is the grand-finale of continuation of distribution of empowerment items, which is part of our zonal intervention geared towards poverty alleviation of my constituents.
“This is just a segment of what we are doing as part of our zonal intervention, beyond that the road you passed through, we are doing the maintenance because kidnappers have taken that road, people cannot go to Adani to bring their food stuff or go to Ada Rice.
“Because of that, I decided to engage the FG to do road maintenance, we are also doing a police station there because of the kidnappers that are using that place as cell; we are building residential house for the police that will stay there, it is an ongoing project, we are drilling boreholes, building schools, all these is to make our people feel the impact of government.
“We make sure that government through us reach the unreached. Even though you are building infrastructure, you also need to empower these people, so that they can generate revenue for themselves and help themselves.
“The people need to earn income, but if they don’t have anything, you won’t even be in a good position to admonish them to be good people; they will fall into crime and you would not be justified to talk to them.
“If you are telling a woman not to go into prostitution, what have you provided for her? Widows that lost their husbands, you just ask them to pray, is that enough? So, you need to give them something too so that they can have something to take care of their children.
“We will wish that the FG will consider giving more money for zonal interventions; it is only when we have such that we can do more. If we have more, we will give to people so that they can heave a sigh of relief.”
