Posted by By Tony Amadi on
A bill seeking to restore hope and survival to youths who fell by the wayside has gone through the first reading on the floor of the Federal House of Representatives in Abuja.
A bill seeking to restore hope and survival to youths who fell by the wayside has gone through the first reading on the floor of the Federal House of Representatives in Abuja.
Known as the National Youths Development Commission bill, the sponsor is the House of Representatives member for Ikwerre/Emohua Federal Constituency, Chief Andrew I. Uchendu, a former Managing Director of Rivers State-owned Risonpalm Limited, Ubima.
Chief Uchendu, who also sponsored another bill for the setting up of a standard procedure of making tenders for the award of contracts in public services, told journalists that if the federal government could set up a youth scheme to consider those who completed their education, it was very proper to also consider those who for some reasons could not complete their education, and provide them "another window of survival".
He condemned the level of underdevelopment of the Niger Delta, stating that his concern for the region started even when he was the MD of Risonpalm, during which time he was involved in the reclamation of over 20,000 hectres of flooded land in the urban delta plain of the Niger Delta.
According to him, this country has been most unfair to the Niger Delta. He, however, believes that God is never mocked, and wherever there is a problem, he provides the solution as well.
"It is only fair that we draw from the earth's bowel and develop the surface", he said, re-echoing calls for resource control and throwing his weight behind the action of South-South delegates to the National Political Reforms Conference (NPRC) in Abuja. He remarked that another conference will not come soon, and advised the delegates to make their points now.
Regarding the position of the federal houses on the setting up of the NPRC, the honourable member stated clearly that the federal houses never objected to this but rather reminded the president of the country that resolutions from the confab must not be laws themselves, but must be subjected to the process of lawmaking.
The recent bill in the House of Representatives has the support and co-sponsorship of 63 other house members, and places Chief Uchendu in the class of about 17 out of the 360 members in the house who have been able to sponsor 2 bills within their present tenure.