Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, has said he was under immense pressure to contest for 2019 senatorial election.
While declaring he will make his stand known in two weeks time, Ngige said the pressure was coming from not only people of Anambra State and the South East, but also other parts of the country, including his former colleagues in the Senate.
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Chris Ngige, who spoke to newsmen in Obosi, in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, said the Senate should be for statesmen and not kindergarten politicians, while expressing displeasure with what is happening in the 8th Senate.
He said: “What is going on in the police now is restructuring, quiet restructuring. There is a bill by Senator Ekweremadu in the Senate and House of Representatives on state and local government policing and he elucidated so many things there and if carried out, that gives you a good police that is decentralised.
“What are we going to constitutional conference to do? The answer is in a good National Assembly. People should get those to represent them, people who are cerebral, people who are energetic, people who know other Nigerians, who have the reach so that you go there and negotiate.
It is not by bullying. Yes I am under pressure from so many people in Anambra State. They come to me and say why don’t you think about going back? Some are my former colleagues, who are even in the 8th senate.
“They are coming to me and saying: ‘Distinguished,’ why don’t you think about coming back to the Senate,’ that what is happening in this 8th Senate is not what we bargained for. We have a lot of issues, a lot of kindergarten senators. The Senate is for statesmen.
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“My constituents, people of Anambra State and some prominent people from the South East, are all in agreement that we need to go and better the milieu of the 9th Senate.
Many people feel that the present 8th Senate has been engulfed in a battle of supremacy with the executive and they feel that some of us who had tested the executive and legislature before should get back.
“I am considering it. I’m consulting and the result of my consultations would be made known in the next fortnight.”
Chris Ngige, who reeled out some of his achievements during his time in the Senate, stressed that the APC-led Federal Government had done much for the South East than past governments.