Efio-Ita Nyok|21 June 2016|6:48am
An Overview of a Legislative Year
—By Owai Obo
On 11th June last year, Hon. Ogbor U. Ogbor (aka Rootman Ogbor) was part of the 8th Assembly sworn in by the Governor of Cross River State, Sen. Prof. Ben Ayade.
Looking back on the whole, as Chairman, House Committee on Youth/Sports Development, Labour Matters and also serves as member, Judicial and Petition Committee, he and his colleagues, proposed and passed 18 bills into law, passed 32 Resolutions and currently have 21 members bills at various committee stages. They have also established the Cross River State Legislative Direction 2015 to 2019 and Citizen Agenda Policy. They have also established by Law 10 Agencies of government and 8 legal regulatory framework regime and have successfully undertaken 3 quarterly oversight activities and budget implementation review.
Just as Gani Fawehinmi was nicknamed “Nation” in his university days in London because of his belief in his country and her potentials and Hon. Ogbor is a Ganist who believes in the potentiality of his immediate constituency and her constituents whose passionate contributions on the floor of the House is scored high as he propose and sponsored bills into law to amend the CRS Sports Commission Law-2000, a Law to make provision for the Establishment of the CRS Scraps Regulatory Agency and he co-sponsored a bill into law to establish the Cross River State Employment Bureau and a Law for the Establishment of the Cross River State Primary HealthCare Development Agency.
Although dwindling oil revenue has impacted negatively on our economy and has consequently limited the capacity of government to meet basic commitments, Hon. Ogbor Ogbor remains committed to giving the best representation to the various wards in his constituency as he is maintaining a cordial working relationship with Prof. Ivara Ejemot Esu OFR, the number two citizen of the state, the leader of Southern Senatorial District and the leader of Biase people, the Chairman of council and his appointees, the Commissioner for ICT, Chairman of Internal Revenue, political appointees of Biase extraction to the state governor and other highly placed Biase indigenes both home and in diaspora, all geared towards the sustainability of the relative peace currently been enjoyed, as peace is the panacea for any meaningful development.
His open door policy was the reason he opened a constituency office at Akpet Central (the first ever) where the people could come and air their minds or pass through the Liaison officers/Coordinators appointed across the 11 wards. There, he openly heard from those who praised, those who criticized him and those who always came to “ask for more”; he then backed it up with Regular Consultation/Collaboration with the Community Development Unions (CDU), traditional rulers, religious leaders, opinion leaders, age grade, voluntary/community based youth groups, political elites, just to mention a few.
Am sure, If we continue to patiently pray and support government’s (Sen. Prof. Ben Ayade led) effort at decoupling the state from complete dependency on federal allocation, guaranteeing peace, jobs creation, empowerment, bringing foreign investors into the state and welfare of all will be a reality.
Am also sure, Hon. Ogbor will continue to insist on probity, efficiency and accountability in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the 2016 budget.
Am convince, if he continuously gets our support, he will translate legislative activities into meaningful and far-reaching results that every electorates will directly or indirectly feel and touch.
He will continue to be press and public friendly with a keen interest on educating, engaging, equipping and empowering the youths and maintaining the elders.
The last one year has been quite eventful, I asked the good people of Biase to brace up for another superb year from Hon. Ogbor U. Ogbor a.k.a Rootman.
Owai Obo
Writes from Calabar
