Zika Bobby
The lawmaker representing Apapa Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Mufutau Adewale Egberongbe of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been described as an astute democrat by his constituents.
The legislator has served as the Secretary of Education in Apapa and was also a two-term lawmaker at the Lagos State House of Assembly who represented Apapa Constituency 1 before moving to the Green chamber.
Mike Egbayelo, Special Adviser on Maritime Affairs and Strategic Communication, who spoke at a meeting where a vote of confidence was passed in Egberongbe, said the lawmaker, who was also the immediate past Special Adviser to the Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly on Legislative and Political Affairs, was popular for always putting the people first.
“Egberongbe has continued to demonstrate his unique leadership qualities in practical terms. In the last one year as a federal lawmaker, he has exceeded expectations in terms of providing dividends of democracy to his constituents in Apapa, making sure that constituents who voted for him and those who didn’t are equally impacted through various community development and poverty alleviation programmes initiated by him. This is in addition to carrying out his legislative duties with a sense of purpose. He has consistently drawn the attention of necessary government agencies to the plights of Apapa Federal constituents as well as contributing meaningfully to debates on the floor of the House of Representatives on issues affecting the nation as a whole,” Egbayelo said.
He added: “He is a politician who embraces all, irrespective of political affiliations, ethnic dimensions, religious beliefs and individual backgrounds. He provided a constituency office for “feedback” from his constituents. Recognising the importance of Education, he purchased an 80-seater school bus that commutes over 150 pupils to school everyday.
“He established a vocational training centre where over 100 young men and women are trained in hairdressing, fashion designing, make up and costume among others, and are provided start up equipment to participate after the training.
“His office also organized employability and graduate training for 100 youths to simplify access to decent jobs for them and prepare them for work life in the corporate world.”
A resident of Apapa, George Udeh, corroborated Egbayelo. “In the last one year, Egberongbe has empowered 350 indigent constituents of mostly women in the Apapa Federal constituency with a cash grant of N20,000 each to support their small scale businesses. He further provided and equipped artisans, empowering 150 of them with grinding machines, popcorn making machines, hair dryers and sewing machines. The youths were not left out as he also gave out tricycles popularly known as “Keke Napep” and motorcycles to the unemployed,” he narrated.
It was gathered that Egberongbe also brought relief to his constituency during this period of lockdown. Over 5,000 indigent constituents were provided with food relief support and cash to cushion the effect of the stay at home order to avoid the community spread of the coronavirus, it was gathered.
Egberongbe is one of the three lawmakers nominated by the leadership of the National Assembly to the Progressive Governors’ Forum Legislative session on True Federalism in Abuja.
Egbayelo noted: “There is no gainsaying that the people of Apapa Federal Constituency definitely made the best choice in electing Egberongbe to represent them at the Green Chamber.”