Keeping Hope Alive: My Vision, Mission and Passion For Anioma Nation – Nwoko

In his usual refined approach to burning issues, the first runner up of the just conducted Delta North Senatorial Primaries on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Prince Ned Nwoko has explicitly reiterated his Vision, Mission and Passion for Anioma Nation if given the mandate to advocate for the people of Delta North, Niger Delta and Nigerians at the Red Chambers.

Prince Nwoko who parleyed a legion of Journalists at an evening sit out in Asaba after the contest, reechoed his goodwill for the people of Anioma, and unequivocally expressed his profound thanks to the Press for partnering with him during his campaign moments in the months leading to the intra-party election.

Ending his address with a striking eulogy on the State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa and endorsement of his second term bid, Nwoko double down of his ambition on becoming the next Senator for Delta North come 2019. According to Prince Ned Nwoko, “that hope is still there”.

Read his full address to Journalists as transcribed by Miracle Chinedu Enuji, Publisher, ASABA METRO.

“I say thank you for the partnership that I have enjoyed in the past few months in this journey to RESCUE ANIOMA as we’ve tagged it. I know that not all of you here are from Anioma, I’m sure we have some from Central, and some from South too and even some beyond from Edo State. But you know, my focus, my interest is really Delta North, Anioma. It is an area that is close to my heart.

“I grew up thinking about Anioma. I grew up believing that I could do something to change the lives of the people of Anioma and of course, those of you here. I will just give you one or two instances of things that are of great concern to me. I will just focus on two; why the drive to represent Delta at the Red Chambers.

“The First One is about the Pollution of the environment caused by Oil Spillages, Gas Flaring and other such Hazards. I’ve always felt that I could do something about it. That as a UK solicitor, that I could make the Oil Companies account for the wrong deeds. I know for a very long time, we’ve had very uninformed representatives because getting Oil Companies to become responsible to Host Communities is not a difficult thing to do. I felt that Oil Companies have such huge establishments, that they have very high standards. There are what you call, the International Best Practices. So you expect them to clean up the environment, to stop Gas Flaring, to stop those things that they know are harmful to the environment but they don’t do it because they always compromise our leaders, those who would have held them to account to their deeds are compromised. So, they just do the damage without any recompense, without any punishment, certainly without any redress.

“So, that is something that I was thinking that if elected as a Senator, I will Pursue. Not pursuing on the floor of the Senate because that will not get us anywhere, that will just be political talks, speaking on the floor of the Senate. It’s just like passing resolutions but after that, as a lawyer in UK, I know where their headquarters are; some of them are in America, some are in UK, some are in Holland. It will not be difficult to sue them, it will not be difficult to make them to account for their years of neglect and degradation. So that was just something that I had in mind to do as a Senator.

“The Second thing has to do also with the environment, Flooding. Flooding is an annual catastrophe because once it comes, you will see the devastating damage caused to homes and farms. Sometimes, lives are lost but I also know talking to experts, that it shouldn’t be so. Must we wait for it to happen every year and start looking for relief materials or temporary homes or shelters? No, we don’t need to.

“I felt that there is a very simple solution and that requires some kind of leadership which I was prepared to offer myself to do and what is this, River Niger. We know it has had huge sand fills over the years because as the water flows through, it carries sand through Nigeria into the Atlantic Ocean. But I just felt that there is one solution, which is to dredge the Niger, not only dredging it to a depth that will enable huge vessels to pass through, but also to widen the width of it. If this is done, we have Inland Water Ways for instance, (that is charged with the maintenance of such water ways) Inland Water Ways through my support should be able to get some international bodies to do the dredging, complete dredging of the Niger and once it is dredged and we have the shore lines lifted up, we can also encourage government to build small settlements above the banks of the River.

“That will just create the water flow that is required for the Niger right from the Confluence all the way to the Ocean. When this is done, it will not only improve on the lives of the people, it will also ensure that commercial activities become quite easy because when you have vessels passing through (carrying goods and people along the Niger). Now, we just probably have some canoes going through Aguleri to Oguta across to Aboh, that is not what I’m talking about. I am talking about huge commercial ventures that will impact on the lives of the people.

“So, these are just part of the things that I had in mind amongst other things that I will do in the Senate. That hope is still there, election only took place yesterday. So one will sit back and go back to the drawing board and still decide on the best way forward.

“The Governor of the State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa is doing well as a Governor. He has showed some exemplary leadership. So somebody like me, that I am in PDP, is purely because of him. Purely because I feel that somebody like that, quite focused, who is people oriented should be supported for a second term.”