2019: Why I’m under extremely pressure to struggle for Senate – Ngige

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, on Monday, disclosed that he was considering contesting for the Anambra Central senatorial seat in the 2019 general elections.

The minister stated this at a press briefing in Obosi, Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, saying he was under pressure from people of the zone, Anambra State and South-East leader to contest the election.

He, however, said he was still considering the request and would make his stand known within the next two weeks. Ngige, if he vies, would be squaring up against Chief Victor Umeh, who currently represents the senatorial district.

He said, “The people who are pressurizing me, I have made it clear, my constituents, people of Anambra State and some prominent people from the South-East, are all in agreement that we need to go and better the milieu of the Ninth Senate.

“Many people feel that the present eight Senate has been engulfed in a battle of supremacy with the executive and they feel that some of us who have tested the executive and legislature before should get back.

“I am considering it, I am consulting and the result of my consultations would be made known in the next fortnight, by then I would have concluded.”

Ngige described as mere allegation, deliberate falsehood and campaign of calumny from the opposition, that the impact of the APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari had not been felt in Anambra State and the entire South-East.

He said, “The Federal Government of Nigeria has been generous to the people of the South-East; I am from the South-East. You see the President promised us infrastructural development and the South-East has not been left out. When you talk about infrastructure, you are talking about transport, road infrastructure, air infrastructure, sea, health and power infrastructure. In all these areas, we(South- East) have not been left out.

“If you drive from Enugu now to Awka, you will see the work that is going on in Enugu-Onitsha expressway, if you go there and see the asphalt with thickness that has got to Oji River and coming down fast by RCC, the same people who built these roads in Anambra State when I was governor of the state, that have lasted for 14 years; most of my roads in Anambra were built by RCC you can see them they are still standing.

“The Second Niger Bridge has been scaled up from the former N100 billion to N216 billion and work is going on there, as I speak to you now, they have gotten up to 48 per cent.

“When we came it was about two per cent but they have reached 48 per cent and work is going on and the people working on the bridge are not small boys – Julius Berger.

“There is also Enugu-Okigwe, Okigwe-Umuahia, Umuahia-Aba, handled by four Chinese companies working day and night,” Ngige pointed out.