A former House member that represented Ihitte- Uboma state constituency in the Imo State House of Assembly and currently the state chairman of Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) Imo State, Hon. Greg Owuamanam has stated that the quit order given to the Igbos by the Arewa youths was uncalled for and unconstitutional. According to Hon. Owuamanam, the quit order given to Igbos by Arewa youths should be seen beyond what we are seeing because the pronouncement of the quit order was done in the popular Arewa house in Kaduna under the watch of security agents and even backed by prominent persons from the North like professor Ango Abudulahi and others. He posited that the federal government should not treat the quit order issue lightly to avoid possible resultant effects. He therefore advised the Igbos to shine their eyes, while watching the situation.Hon. Owuamanam made his views known to some newsmen who visited him recently.
On the issue between the National Assembly and the Hon. Minister of works and power Barr. Fashola, Hon. Owuamanam who is a knight of St. Mulumba opined that the National Assembly has every right to review the budget upwards or downwards to suit the masses they are representing. According to him, the National Assembly members who were elected by the masses will always do the needful to protect the interest of the masses that elected them. On the whole, he said there was nothing wrong in the tampering of the budget submitted by government ministries and agencies, provided the tampering was made to cater for the needs of the masses.
On the restructuring of Nigeria, Hon. Owuamanam posited that restructuring will take care of Nigeria lingering problems like agitations by IPOB, Niger Delta people, the Afenifere group and others. If there is true federalism where nepotism, Corruption and the likes will be taking care of, the problem of Nigeria will stop. He gave example of revenue allocation sharing formula, where States like Kano, Jigawa and other Northern states will go home with revenue allocations higher than that of Bayelsa, Rivers, Delta, Akwa-Ibom that produces Oil which provide the money being shared. These imbalances will only be solved when Nigerians sit around the table under the spirit of restructuring to thrash out problems of lopsided revenue sharing, lopsided appointments, nepotism, favoritism and the likes. If this is not done, Nigeria problem will persist. Hon. Owuamanam maintained that restructuring and true federalism is the panacea for lingering Nigeria problems.
On the recent Sallah message sent in Hausa by President Buhari, Hon. Owuamanam made it point blank that Nigeria is gradually being reduced to a kindergarten level. The president of Nigeria Muhammud Buhari cannot send Sallah message to Nigerians in Hausa in a country that has over 250 ethnic groups. He doubted if the purported message in Hausa was actually from President Buhari. He opined that Nigeria belongs to all of us and if president Buhari should send message to Nigerians, he should do that in English Language. He therefore cautioned the media handlers of president Buhari’s administration to stop over heating the polity by doing the right thing at the right time.
On the removal of Christian Religious Studies from WAEC syllabus, Hon. Owuamanam made it clear that Nigeria is a secular state and that if the study of Muslim religion is allowed in the WAEC syllabus that of Christian Religious studies should also be allowed because this country is not an Islamic country. According to him, the issue of removal of Christian religious studies from WAEC syllabus is mere rumour.
On the way forward for Nigeria, Hon. Owuamanam said that he wants to see Nigeria where people will love each other, a Nigeria where his children will aspire to the highest position in the country, a Nigeria where appointments will be spread to all the Zones on merit, a Nigeria where people will live together and enjoy the resources of the land without segregation and acrimony and a Nigeria that is restructured to douse tension in the land.
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