Sen. Nwebonyi: Jinx Breaker And Poster Boy Of Legislative Competence
From inception, Ebonyi North senatorial district seat has been used as gratuity for aged and retiring men. Being the old people's home as it was, Ebonyi North senatorial seat was literally dormant and bereft of vibrancy between 1999 and 2023. However, all that changed since 16th June, 2023 when Senator Peter Onyekachi Nwebonyi was inaugurated to represent Ebonyi North in the 10th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. For the very first time, Ebonyi North has a voice in Senator Onyekachi Nwebonyi; and the resonance of this voice of Ebonyi North has permeated the alcoves and crannies of power to stir up proactive actions that are yielding jinx-breaking projects to Nigerians in general and Ebonyi people in particular.
Senator Nwebonyi started politics as a young man in his grassroots which is Ishieke, Ebonyi State. From day one, Nwebonyi's watchwords in politics seemed to be pristine loyalty laced with humility, diligence and discernment that matched the eagle's. In addition to these, Nwebonyi has the patience of the vulture. All these endeared the unassuming lawyer to the stakeholders of Ebonyi politics and set him on a trajectory of positive referrals and the attendant rises in politics. Onyekachi Nwebonyi was an ex officio member of the Ebonyi State Executive Council of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. He was appointed the Coordinator of Mbeke Development Centre in Ebonyi State and, later, Ebonyi State Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party. Nwebonyi's days at the helms of PDP affairs was the golden era of PDP when PDP won all elective positions which included the 171 ward councillors, 13 local government chairmen, 24 state legislators, six House of Representatives seats, three Senatorial District seats, and both the Deputy governorship and Governorship seats in Ebonyi State. In 2020 when Nwebonyi's ambitious benefactor switched political camp, Nwebonyi who wore his loyalty to his politically migrant benefactor like a robe was caught in a crisis of trust. The PDP which could not trust Nwebonyi to lead an opposition political party against his benefactor had to use the big axe on the Ebonyi State PDP Executive Council.
With the dissolution of the Nwebonyi-led Ebonyi State PDP executive council, Nwebonyi was appointed into Ebonyi State Executive Council as Honourable Commissioner for Abakaliki Capital Territory. Pursuant to his charge to restore Abakaliki, the capital of Ebonyi which remained a rural state, to its masterplan, Nwebonyi unavoidably stepped on toes. In the build up to the 2023 general elections Nwebonyi was indubitably one of the most reliable, loyal, exposed, courageous, savvy and energetic. These, combined with the fact that Onyekachi Nwebonyi hailed from Ebonyi LGA which held a record of perennial marginalisation in the rotation of the Ebonyi North senatorial seat, combined to sway the APC Ebonyi North senatorial ticket and ultimately the polls to Nwebonyi. He won so convincingly that his political rivals had no reason to go to the Election Petition Tribunal. By that victory, Nwebonyi broke the jinx of marginalisation of his Ebonyi LGA in the rotation of Ebonyi North senatorial seat. He moved on to demolish the jinx of somnolent representation of Ebonyi North by giving Ebonyi North senatorial district a strong, relevant national voice. It is interesting to note that the first motion of the 10th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the urgent need to end police harassment and extortion of Nigerian road users was moved by Senator Onyekachi Nwebonyi, an easy going political socialite whose face was ubiquitous during the political horsetradings and fireworks which midwifed the leadership of the 10th session of the Nigerian Senate.
As a proactive legislator, Nwebonyi moved another motion on the urgent need for the Federal Government of Nigeria to link Oturkpo in Benue State and his native Ishieke in Ebonyi State with a trunk A road. This all-important Benue - Ebonyi States link road will specifically ease road transport between Northern and Southern Nigeria, enhance food security in Nigeria, open up the food vaults of Nigeria to local and international markets, make farming attractive and minimise the trio of poverty, unemployment and rural - urban migration as well as congestion in the Abuja FCT. Nwebonyi diligently followed up the resolutions of this motion to the point that the jinx of executive ditherance over this necessary and utilitarian 75.4429 KM road project which has been on the Federal Government's cards for long has been broken with the survey and measurement of the road by the Federal Ministry of Works. Nwebonyi is working on a historical gender-sensitive bill to dismantle traditional impediments stacked between women and their rights to inheritance. These milestones have convinced even the political rivals of Senator Onyekachi Nwebonyi that the electoral investments of the people of Ebonyi North in Nwebonyi were considered profitable political investments. As Nwebonyi is celebrated across political divides in the entire Ebonyi State and beyond, Ebonyi people and followers of national political developments, crave that it pleases Senate President Akpabio and the APC caucus of the 10th Nigerian Senate to fill the vacant Deputy Majority Leadership position with Senator Peter Onyekachi Nwebonyi who has unassailably become a jinx breaker and poster boy of legislative competence.