High Hopes Of Unprecedented Change With Hon Chinda As Green Chamber’s Minority Leader

Nurtured by the political wizardry and mentorship of Chief Nyesom Wike, the former Governor of Rivers State and stitched with a template of political victory in producing a successor, three Senators, 11 House of Representatives members from his party and further embellished with a masterstroke cross-political pollination, which saw the emergence of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senate President Godswill Akpabio and ultimately plucking the low hanging political fruit which was up for grabs in the 10th Assembly and bequeathing same to his political mentee to become the Minority Leader in the green chamber, representing Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency, Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda is the man to beat.
He is a square peg in a square hole. He has abundant energy and he is gutsy. He is not a green horn, neither would it be said that he is treading a path that is terra incognitia – an uncharted course. His exponential popularity and support base in the six geopolitical zones is so intimidating as it is reflective of a man who has shown class and dedication to legislative duties.
The fiasco that trailed his emergence as the Minority Leader of the 10th Assembly cascaded into a crescendo with the supreme battle from a fractionalised division among party faithful shuttling between his boss, Chief Nyesom Wike and Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential candidate, which saw Wike succeeding in displacing Atiku’s preferred choice of Hon. Oluwole Oke, representing Obokun / Oriada Federal Constituency of Osun State. Tied also to the political apron is the office of the Deputy Minority Leader which emerged with razor-sharp intellect, Hon. George Ibezimako of Labour Party, representing Anaocha / Njikoka / Dunakofia Federal Constituency.
Nyesom Wike’s political asymmetrical hotchpotch in navigating across political divides is not only phenomenal but legendary. He controls the political narratives such that his traducers become numb while trying to weigh him on the scale of political probabilities. “Don’t fly where eagles dare”, has always been his body language and nuances, reflecting a gargantuan political enigma of the 21st century.
Operating from opposition sideline, the PDP needs a robust leadership representation with a focal lens and critical mindset geared towards equity, fairness and justice, propagated and championed by persons imbued with wealth of experience, high performance scorecard and who is vociferous in giving flowers to legislative actions, where merited, while surgically and clinically observing shortcomings of biased legislations by making proactive interventions to stall future challenges by targeting areas that need straightening, especially in this period where interpretation conundrum has besieged our law courts.
Hon. Kingsley Chinda undoubtedly offers a beacon of hope and as a grounded leader, he has always had the masses at heart flowing from executed projects, human capacity building, financial empowerment, youth empowerment via industrial training, provision of startup kits for micro businesses and has always been consistent since the 8th Assembly to date. Little wonder why replacing a winning team is always met with stiff resistance.
There is also no doubt that the social contract with Hon. Chinda and his victory would automatically translate to signing an irrevocable contract with service delivery. It is often said that it is phenomenal to find someone who understands the dynamics of leadership and readily offers himself to the people who have elected him. In the 8th Republic, he performed creditably well as the Chairman Of Public Account Committee of the House of Representatives. In exercise of the legislative powers as conferred on it by virtue of Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which gives responsibility to the legislative arm of government to investigate, expose corruption in the executive arm of government.
Unfortunately, presiding officers of both chambers are too weak to effectively expose corruption stemming from the fact that they all belong to the same arm of government. But Hon. O.K. Chinda, while he chaired the Public Account Committee of the 8th assembly, changed the narrative that it is not going to be business as usual. He injected freshness into the system and carried out serious revolution in the manner that a critical committee carries out its investigations and checks on the executive arm of government. He introduced new ways on how audit queries should be carried out.
In the Renewed Hope Assembly, the green chamber’s bell has tolled for a leadership that is courageous, selfless, far-sighted and dedicated. It also offers the golden moment which Hon O.K. Chinda will seize to initiate and/or facilitate people- oriented legislations that will alleviate the sufferings of the people. Appropriating the words of Williams Shakespeare: “There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the floods leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their lives is lost in shallows and in miseries upon such a full sea are we now afloat and we’d now afloat and we’d better take the sails while they serve or loose our ventures…”
Way back, he has always maintained that “an individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individual concern to the broader concern of all humanity and that life’s persistent and urgent question has always been what are you doing to advance humanity?” There might be twists and turns, ups and downs and the problem of navigating through the treacherous waters of politics, but we are filled with high hopes and expectations that there will be huge rays of light in the end of the tunnel of his leadership.

By: Nkem Oputa