SAN lauds sister for serving 12 years in Anambra House
By Juliana Nwachukwu
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Onyechi Ikpeazu, has lauded his sister, Beverly Ikpeazu Nkemdiche, who represented Onitsha South II constituency in the Anambra State House of Assembly, for serving her constituents for three consecutive times (12 years).
Making the commendation during a Thanks-giving service of her sister held in the family residence on Oguta road, Onitsha, the SAN said that her sister served meritoriously during her 12 years as a lawmaker.
"My sister served meritoriously, not only elected but she was re-elected thrice, that led to the period of 12 years; representation is not a matter of one person going once and another person going. For you to be a ranking member, you have to be consistently re-elected, so that you will get the leadership position in the House, and it can affect people who you represent their constituencies.
"We should snap out the issue of you have to go once, let another person go, if you go there once, you will be junior, you will stay there for four years without office not to talk of responsible office, you will not get any position in the House," he explained.
To buttress his point on the need to vote for lawmakers who have served more than once for quality representation he noted, "I remember 18 years ago, there was an American speaker in the Congress, his name was Tiponil, as at the time I left US, he was in his 32nd year as a representative in the Congress, he was the Speaker but he was doing more powerful than every governor in the country, even the Vice President himself.
"In the situation like that, the constituency should be adequately represented because of the fact that he has been there for a long time. So 12 years is good, I believe my sister made impact, she represented her constituency very well, those that think she did not do well should get elected to take over from her and improve on what she had done. Thank God for being the author and finisher not just our faith but everything under the sun."
On the Thanks-giving special church service, he stressed the need for all to give gratitude to God for what He did adding, "Everybody should imbibe that culture, let us not look at the fact that we did it, but God enabled us to do it, so I congratulate her for this remarkable thing and I pray God to bless and protect her".
Asked if Nigerian has embraced democratic polity he added,"Democracy is relative, it is not what we call it, it is what we make it out to be, even in America, they don't have democracy, what they have is elitism, the elites get together in four years' time, they decide who will be the president and the masses will vote believing that they make great impact.
"In Nigeria it is worse than that, the rich people will decide together on which of them will have the rate of the political party and sponsored by the political party, people will go out and vote and their votes don't count, we have a very long way to go.
"We can begin by sitting down and try to fashion a system of government that will be suitable to us, we are fooling ourselves, it is not democracy actually, we need to go back and decide on the system that will accord with our culture, we can find it, we don't need to borrow anything."
Responding, Nkemdiche thanked God for giving her the opportunity, protection, guidance and strength to serve her people, adding that she served her constituency better than she met it.
She commended her constituents who joined her to uplift the constituency to the next level even as she thanked all who came to join her in the Thanksgiving service. (MOI).
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