𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟳: 𝗜𝘀𝘂𝗶𝗸𝘄𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗼/𝗨𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗼𝗰𝗵𝗶 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗔𝗳𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗮 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲-𝗢𝗳𝗳 𝗔𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻

𝗕𝘆 𝗘𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗵 𝗦𝗲𝗯𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗻

There is an old African proverb that says, ‘When a warrior picks up a pebble to throw at a bird, the bird does not celebrate the pebble. It fears the hand that throws it.’ In the politics of Isuikwuato and Umunneochi, the pebbles are what have become empowerment items dressed in colourful mini trucks, tricycles, freezers, and sewing machines. They catch the eye. They make for good optics. But the hand that has truly moved things for this constituency has never needed to wave trinkets to prove its strength.

As the 2027 general election draw closer, again, the voters will face a choice in 2027. On one side stands Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, who has served them for sixteen years in the House of Representatives and as a federal minister. On the other side stands Amobi Ogah, should he secure the Labour Party ticket, or whoever else emerges if he does not. This is not a choice between equals. It is a choice between someone who builds systems and someone who gives gifts.

Let me take our readers through the parable of two farmers. One spends his days building an irrigation channel that waters every plot in the village. The other goes from house to house giving away buckets of water. The villagers cheer the second farmer because the water is immediate and they can see it. But when the dry season comes and the irrigation channel is complete, every family eats from the first farmer’s labour. The buckets, however, run dry. This is the difference between Onyejeocha and Ogah.

Ogah has been in office for close to three years now and has become known for giving out mini buses, tricycles, motorcycles, freezers, sewing machines, and cash grants have been distributed to a select crowd at events that generate headlines. These are not bad things. They help a handful of people in the short term.

Now contrast that with Onyejeocha. She has never needed to stand before a crowd and hand out freezers to prove her worth. Her work speaks for itself, and it speaks to every single person in this constituency, not just the ones lucky enough to sit in the front row on distribution day. What the cameras do not capture is that she has quietly from her personal purse given cars, motorcycles, tricycles, grinding machines, and more to her people over the years. She does not turn these into media events because she has always understood that such things are not the primary reason her constituents sent her to represent them.

Take education for example. In February 2023, her foundation registered over one thousand indigent students for the West African Examination Council’s Senior School Certificate Examination. That is not a handful of people. That is one thousand children from every public school across the two local government areas who would otherwise have stayed home or failed to fulfill their dreams. She has been doing this for years. This was the fourth edition of that intervention, but her educational support stretches back more than a decade, long before she ever became a commissioner. She also provides financial support to the best graduating students to cover their first year of university tuition. Scholarships from primary school to university level, in their thousands. That is a well- an investment that does not vanish when the cameras leave.

What does Ogah’s empowerment do for education? Does it pay WAEC fees for a thousand children? Does it send brilliant students to university? No. It gives a freezer to one person and a sewing machine to another. Those are fine for the individuals who receive them. But they do not build the human capital of an entire constituency.

Take health. For over sixteen years, Onyejeocha has run free medical outreaches that have treated thousands upon thousands of people. But beyond the malaria, typhoid, hernia, glaucoma, high blood pressure, diabetes, and hepatitis she has consistently addressed year after year, there is something truly remarkable: the eye operations. She has restored the sights of thousands, old men who could no longer see their grandchildren, young women who could not read or trade, children whose futures were dimmed by correctable blindness. She has also empowered them with glasses to boost their vision. That is again, a well- a system of care that keeps souls alive, and opens their eyes to the world.

Now consider infrastructure and institutional legacy. While some politicians give out freezers, Onyejeocha brought a Federal Polytechnic to Umunneochi, a permanent institution of higher learning that will serve generations of young people from this constituency. The school of Aviation is there as a legacy that will live from generation to generation. She also played a key role in advancing aviation infrastructure in Nigeria, having chaired the House Committee on Aviation, where she oversaw reforms and upgrades that positioned Nigerian airports for safer and more efficient operations. These are not handouts. These are lasting structures, educational and institutional, that outlive any electoral cycle.

And then there are the roads. Beyond the gully erosion project at Oguduasa, she has attracted and facilitated the construction of numerous roads across Isuikwuato and Umunneochi, roads that now serve as the very arteries through which empowerment items, commerce, and human movement flow. These include: Construction of 3km at Uhuolugho/Amokwo/Mbato Road, Construction of Amaba Road Isuikwuato, Construction of Amaigbo Road Isuikwuato, Construction of Amuda Ikpa Otamkpa Road Isuikwuato, Construction of Umuada Osisa Nikita Road, Construction of Umuada Obinagu Road, Construction of Oghighe/Uruala/Olukabi Oguduasaa Erosion Site, Construction of over 4km Umuogele/Achara/Ugwueme Road (Ongoing), Construction of 2 km Amuda/Ngodo/Umuada Road, Construction of 500mtr of Umuezi Umuigwe Mbala Farm Road, Construction of Umudike/Ugwuawuru Road Umuaku, Construction of Obiagu Lekwesi Road, Construction 1 km Road at Leru Umuchieze, Construction of Obulo Nneato Bridge, Construction of Umudim/Umunze Okoro/Lomara Road, Construction of 1 Km Umuelem/Ihie Road, Construction of over 1km Umuobi Eziama Nneato Road, Construction of Amaidi/Ahioro Road Achara Uturu, Construction of 1 km Ahor Umuaku/Umudi/Amaeke Road (ongoing), Construction of Mbaezi Umuigwe/Umuobasi Road Mbala (ongoing), Construction of 2 km Okpuhu Ihite Road — they are just few among many.

She fought year after year to have these roads included in federal budgets.

In Isuikwuato, the people of the Oguduasa clan had waited over twenty years for help. The gully erosion at Oghighe/Urualla Ohukabia Aligbara had cut off their communities, swallowed their farmland, and provided a hideout for armed robbers and kidnappers. Then Onyejeocha went to work. She initiated a request for urgent presidential intervention through the Ecological Fund Office. President Muhammadu Buhari approved the project as one of twenty ecological interventions in the first quarter of 2020. The project was completed and commissioned. At the handover ceremony, President Buhari, represented by Onyejeocha herself, said the project would ensure the safety and wellbeing of the people.

Ask yourself: when Ogah rides in his bus to distribute his sewing machines, what road does that bus travel on? When his beneficiaries drive their new tricycles, what surface do those tyres touch? The roads that Onyejeocha fought to include in budgets. The roads she advocated for year after year. Imagine if there were no roads. Imagine if the erosion had been allowed to continue. Where would the grand empowerment rally be held? In a swamp? He is riding on her infrastructure to distribute his gifts.

But let us move beyond constituency projects to the realm where Onyejeocha truly separates herself from anyone else in this race: federal legislation. A good representative solves problems for her people. A great representative solves problems for the entire country.

In 2017, she sponsored the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act. Before this law, if a person was shot on the Enugu-Port Harcourt road, hospitals could turn them away without a police report. People bled to death in hospital car parks while clerks demanded paperwork. Onyejeocha ended that. Section 1 of her law states that every hospital in Nigeria, public or private, shall treat any person with a gunshot wound immediately, with or without police clearance. That law affects every Nigerian. It affects you, your children, your relatives travelling the highways. It is a well that never runs dry.

She also sponsored the Anti-Torture Act of 2017 and the National Senior Citizens Centre Act of 2018. These are not handouts. These are permanent structural changes. What federal law has Ogah sponsored? What national impact has he made? The answer is none. He is a first-term lawmaker who has not yet learned to move legislation at the federal level. That is not his fault. It is the nature of inexperience. But the constituency cannot afford to pretend that inexperience does not matter.

Just recently, the traditional rulers of Umunneochi hosted a grand civic reception in Onyejeocha’s honour. They conferred a chieftaincy title on her. They celebrated her service. President Tinubu, represented at the event, praised her tenure as minister, noting that she brought stability to a ministry previously known for persistent unrest and created coordination between organised labour and the federal government. That is the kind of access Onyejeocha commands.

Those who make a case for Amobi Ogah can do so politely. They can beg the people to give him another chance. They can point to his empowerment programmes and his Uturu Ultra-Modern Market. But let them not measure him against Onyejeocha. They are not on the same level. One gives fish. The other builds the pond and passes laws that protect the fishermen. One hands out freezers. The other writes laws that protect millions.

The people of Isuikwuato and Umunneochi deserve transformation. They deserve roads, not rallies. They deserve laws that save lives, not photo albums full of handovers. The well is already dug. The water is already flowing. It would be a mistake to trade it for a bucket of water that will run dry.