Rt. Hon. Francis Ogbonnaya Nwifuru: Representing Beyond The Talk-shop
When the fifth session of Ebonyi State House of Assembly was inaugurated in June 2015 with Rt. Hon Francis Ogbonnaya Nwifuru, an unassuming, humble but firm second-term legislator, as the speaker of the House, political pundits did not see the possibility of Hon. Nwifuru lasting long or even having an eventful reign as the sixth speaker of Ebonyi State House of Assembly. Given the controversial profile of the fourth session of Ebonyi State House of Assembly which was described by public analysts as "House of commotion", one may not readily blame the pundits for their pessimistic disposition to Hon. Nwifuru's leadership of Ebonyi state legislature. This is moreso if one recalls that the Honourable speaker [who was the Deputy chief whip] and majority of the members of the fifth session of Ebonyi State House of Assembly were also in the fourth session of the state legislature which was known more for chaos than anything else.
However, a midterm assessment of the performances of the fifth session of Ebonyi State House of Assembly under the leadership of the honourable speaker, Rt. Hon. Francis Ogbonnaya Nwifuru, has proved both pundits and book-makers wrong as the scorecard show that the fifth session of Ebonyi state legislature was set on positive trajectories on inception, breaking all positive records in the history of the state legislature since its first session in 1999 and creatively delivering on its mandate to the glory of God and for the benefit of Ebonyi people.
Within two years in office of Rt. Honourable Nwifuru, who holds the chieftaincy title of Epfu eme 1 of Izzi land, as the speaker of Ebonyi State House of Assembly, the state legislature passed a total of twenty bills into law. All of the bills have been assented to by the Governor of Ebonyi state, making them extant laws of the land. Two more bills are pending at the committee stage. Added to these are plethoras of resolutions or motions and approved letters and requests from the office of the Governor of Ebonyi state. For instance, the approvals for the "stomach infrastructure" programme which gave "human face" to Governor Umahi's administration by providing for the involvement of over two hundred youths and women in governance as Senior Technical Assistants and Technical Assistants, the payment of mega-bonuses to Ebonyi civil servants which is known as 13th month salaries in Ebonyi state and the periodic distribution of festival hampers to the rural Ebonyi citizens during festivities was done by Ebonyi State House of Assembly under the leadership of Rt. Honourable Nwifuru who equally holds the chieftaincy title of Onwa Owherekpe.
The fifth session of Ebonyi State House of Assembly under the leadership of Rt. Honourable Nwifuru is noted for internal peace and harmony as well as a peaceful relationship with the executive arm of Ebonyi State Government - a rare commodity which was absent in the fourth session of the state legislature.
It is worthy of note that the harmonious working relationship between Ebonyi State House of Assembly and the executive arm of Ebonyi State Government has not in any way deterred the House from intensifying her efforts in her oversight functions as stated in the constitution. It suffices that the dedication of Rt. Honourable Francis Ogbonnaya Nwifuru to duty and his ability to coordinate his members and colleagues to undertake their oversight functions is one of the major factors that provided the Governor of Ebonyi state the enablement to achieve the feats that are celebrated today in Ebonyi state!
Beyond the hallowed chambers of Ebonyi State House of Assembly, humble, unassuming and dedicated Francis Ogbonnaya Nwifuru who represents Izzi West state constituency has continued to demonstrate his involvement in humanity through acts of charity and empowerment which he does off-camera because of his belief that charity is a godly vocation to which every human being is called; and that in doing charity, one should not let one's left hand know what one's right hand is doing. Recently, Rt. Honourable Francis Ogbonnaya Nwifuru unleashed his milk of human kindness on his people distributing tricycles, motorcycles, sundry equipment and cash to those he was more comfortable than. Added to this was the attraction of meaningful projects to his constituency, the high point of which is the Hilltop - Nwofe Agbaja road. The recent call of Rt. Honourable Francis Ogbonnaya Nwifuru on the newly sworn - in council Chairmen of Izzi Nnodo extraction to appoint people from both Igbojima and Unwu-erwa kindreds is seen by pundits as the boldest and most realistic step towards ending the malevolent kindred dichotomy which has held the progress of Izzi Nnodo land at the jugular for years running.
All these and more serve as the reasons for which Ebonyi people nominated the ebullient speaker of the fifth session of Ebonyi State House of Assembly, fellow of the Institute of Corporate Administration and Goodwill Ambassador of the State of Israel - Rt. Honourable Francis Ogbonnaya Nwifuru - as the Best Ebonyi state Legislator of the Year 2017. Receiving the honour which was conferred on him on Friday, 19th May, 2017 at the Women Development Centre Abakaliki, Rt. Honourable Francis Ogbonnaya Nwifuru dedicated the honour to his esteemed colleagues who incidentally accompanied him in numbers to the occasion and his constituents. He equally charged Ebonyi people to continue to support the administration of the wonder-working governor of Ebonyi state, Chief David Nweze Umahi, who has demonstrated that he was in power to do good to Ebonyi people for whom he was building many life-touching projects which has distinguished Governor Umahi as the doyen of good governance in Nigeria.
As the fifth session of Ebonyi State House of Assembly marks its second anniversary, one has good reasons to congratulate the respective honourable members and the speaker - Rt. Honourable Francis Ogbonnaya Nwifuru - of the peaceful and harmonious fifth session of Ebonyi State House of Assembly and to wish them happy and fruitful deliberations in the years ahead.
It is well with Ebonyi state!
