ADC chieftain hits S’East governors, lawmakers over Christmas rice politics

By Jude Opara

A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, (ADC), Comrade Adolphus Ude has lambasted South East governors and lawmakers for playing politics with the distribution of rice during the Christmas festivities.
Comrade Ude also warned that the South East governors are killing investment and economic growth in the region by embarking on excessive taxation, instead of creating ideas to boost productivity in the region.
In a press statement he released in Enugu yesterday, the ADC chieftain insisted that the governors and lawmakers were doing great disservice to the South East by distributing rice produced in other parts of the country as Christmas gift, rather than revamping the moribund farm settlements in Eastern Nigeria.
Ude, who is the Coordinator of ADC Enugu Like Minds, maintained that the distribution of rice produced in other regions of the country as Christmas gift in the South East was killing productivity and stifling economic growth in the region.
He lamented the failure of the governors to harness the massive agricultural potential of the South East region, in spite of the billions of Naira that they collect monthly from both federal allocation and internally generated revenue (IGR) of their states.
Ude criticized the governors for not investing enough in infrastructure and provision of basic amenities, but rather embarking on projects that would enrich them individually, such as building of luxury hotels and other recreational centres.
He bemoaned the inability of the governors to revamp the abandoned plantations and farm settlements established in the 1960s by the government of the Old Eastern Region under the regime of Dr. Michael Okpara.
He said, “The attention of Enugu ADC Like Minds has been drawn to the Christmas rice politics being played by South East Governors, senators and other lawmakers. This is reprehensible.