Assessing Rt. Hon (Mrs) Owoidighe Ime Ekpoattai under one and a half years of effective representation
By Abasiubong Tom…
3rd Oct 2016
“The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of of the weak, became a stepping stone in the pathway of the strong”
Thomas Carlyle.
The essence of representation is to speak the mind of the people; involve actively in the mental power and struggle to bring to the people at home their share and to share in the economic feelings and wellbeings of the people.
Take note, It is not all songs that you know you can equally sing well. Many people tend to have credence that they can represent and therefore become armchair critics, but put them there, they go with the wind. Many of our representatives in the Green Chamber have disappeared in the scene. If men men could sleep what would women do?
But I thank God because I am not disappointed drastically. No matter how dry and scalding desert might be, there will still be cactus. There is a woman that has let bare her talent nature of charisma to my utmost amazement and that woman is Hon Mrs Owoidighe Ime Ekpoattai. It is true that the gentle movement of of a tiger does not mean that it is timid.
Rt Hon. (Mrs) Owoidighe Ime Ekpoattai is the former Chairman of Onna LGA and also the former treasurer of the PDP at the State level. She is married to a former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy; Bar Ime Ekpoattai and their union is blessed with children.
Her one and a half years in representative government has endowed us with the hope that before the end of her representative services we will be left with no option but to tell her “MMA YOUR KIND IS RARE, REPRESENT US AGAIN PLEASE”.
Absolutely, for the past sixteen years in Eket, Esit Eket Onna and Ibeno Federal Constituency, I have neither experienced nor heard this nature of milestone in empowerment of people in this constituency within sixteen months. I stand corrected.
I see Rt Hon. (Mrs) Ekpoattai as a gift to the people of the Constituency and Akwa Ibom State at large. She has demonstrated the essence of living in the bench mark of live and let’s live, eat let’s eat, love and let’s love, and care and let’s care.
Recently, she came, saw and display kindness to the people in her Constituency with the focus on the poor in an attempt to bring them into the same world of peacocks.
Her random and indiscriminate throw of charity signals that there are still Pharoah’s daughters no matter how evil the society is. Should I mention good numbers of try-cycle and motor-bikes she distributed to the people for the empowerment within the four LGA’s. What about the two hundreds (200) bags of rice, beans and garri to the have-nots? She has clothed many women with three hundred (300) pieces of wrappers, three hundred (300) blankets and other fabrics. Fifty-seven (57) sewing machines were also distributed to help some people to rise with the philosophy of Dakkada initiative thereby improving their well beings.
Hon (Mrs) Ekpoattai has as a priority the pursue of a sound health to the elderly, pregnant women and the people in general. This fundamental preoccupation gave her no rest until she provided free surgical operation to more than eighty (80) persons, free eye check and distribution of eye classes to 200 persons and medical test/treatment to pregnant women in her representative province. Routine visit to the fathers/monarchs and the stakeholders in a bid to strengthen our traditional institution within the four LGA is always timely knowing that this sets of persons matters a lot.
Having understood the individual, socio-economic and socio-political advantage of education, Mrs Ekpoattai has initiated a routine exercise and civic obligation to pay school fees and grant scholarship to a good number of students within and outside the constituency. She has provided training/ empowerment programmes for the Youths and almost fifty (50) youths have been employed through this scheme as at date.
In her usual magnanimity, the past Christmas was gracious as largesse of five hundred thousand (500,000) and comestible in hundreds of bags were distributed to each of the four LGAs.
On her call to service, she has within short span sponsored bills to enshrine constitutional development in the secondary school curriculum and be made mandatory; and a call for Federal assistance on Ibeno fire disaster even as she has already visited the area with some gift items. And to her credit she has move motions on flood disaster and many other motions in the floor of the House.
I think with the above evaluative measures on this amazon, one could have a sigh of hope that before the arrow point of her first term, the good people of Onna, Eket, Esit Eket and Ibeno would have reasons to thank God for a gracious gift in the person of Rt Hon. (Mrs) Owoidighe Ime Ekpoattai.
