Raymond Chukwuma Agwu is the Chief Executive officer of BEVVY Multimedia, BEVVY Studios, BEVVY Links and BEVVY Exchange Limited. 

 

He hails from Amaogudu Amaekpu Item in Bende LGA of Abia State.

 

 

In this interview, he talks about his ambition for the Abia State House of Assembly and more.

 

Who is Chukwuma Agwu?

I am a graduate of Theatre and Film Studies from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where I served as a two terms Director of Socials of the National Association of Abia State Students, UNN chapter, a House of Representatives member representing Theatre Arts at the Students Union Government, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Department of Theatre and Film Studies Association (TAFSA), University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

 

I was born in Aba, Abia State on 25th August 1990.  I had my primary school education at Evergreen Model Academy, and obtained my WASSCE at Fibella International Schools Port-Harcourt in 2008. I am a businessman, an entrepreneur and a traveler, with over four countries of the world traversed, including Ghana, Turkey, Cyprus and Dublin.

 

What are your political visions, missions?

My vision is to use my constitutional legislative powers to influence a deepened concern, focus and action on the contingent issues of job creation and youth empowerment, education and poverty alleviation, and economic and political inclusion for the good people of Bende North State Constituency. My mission is to lobby, support and sponsor people-oriented bills which will have direct positive effects on the short term and long term social and economic lives of the people.

 

What inspired your ambition for the house of assembly?

The job of legislation and representation is one that not only requires love, self-sacrifice, selflessness, death of the self, clarity of vision and purpose, but the ability to feel the pulse of the people, to have been to the mountain tops with the people, or at least be familiar enough with the feelings so that you are able to put on their shoes and, if not, at least know where and how it hurts.

 

I have not only been there with the people, I am experiential to their feelings and plights. I know exactly where and how it hurts. Growing up was more than hectic, the pain, the hunger, the schools, Mama’s struggle, etc. The pains of my people are home to me and I am experiential to them.

 

I am a young entrepreneur. I have been able to visit more than three countries in the world in the course of my business. In the course of this journey within and outside the country, I have been able to compare and contrast my host states and societies with my own home state. The gap is wide, our challenges are tremendous, but they can be overcome with the right man with the right passion and political will in power.

 

It is this passion to change the lot of my people, and which is born out of my oneness with them that drives me, and it is on this passion that I shall rely for strength and resolution in my choice to represent my people and better their lots.

 

What are your beliefs and ideologies?

As I launch into this struggle to serve my people, I wish to clearly spell out the beliefs and ideology upon which I shall anchor my motivations and political drives. I believe in God, the just, the kind, and the rewarder of good intentions and deeds. I believe in love and service to the people as the ultimate worship of this God. I believe in the people as the foundation and peak of democracy, and, therefore, the residence of the supremacy of power in the people, and I believe in the supremacy of the party but in the sovereignty of the conscience.

 

What do you think the people of Bende North need?

We need a Bende North with an unquenchable and an uncompromising political voice! A voice that will not be put out like the last flint of a dying flame as soon as it is confronted with even a lesser than fierce opposition, or that would lose and mute its vocality as soon as it is tipped with some selfish financial baits. We need a Bende North that is represented by a fierce, smart, intelligent, young, vibrant, passionate and revolutionary mind. We need a Bende North that is represented by an articulate and a people-passionate mind who is completely at one with the people in the great legislative battle for the voice of Bende North and the suffering Abians in general. We need a Bende North that is represented by a dogged and committed mind, capable of carrying our constituency along in the design, planning and execution of the desires of the people.

 

We need a Bende North that is represented by someone who has a firsthand experience of what it means to strive to survive, someone who has offered a voice in the upliftment of others, and who has risen from rudimentary want and lack to a height where primeval greed and self-aggrandizement would no longer meet with the conditions for which he would be ready and willing to sacrifice what by right, accrues to the people of Bende North, or take part in the legislation of laws that would profit him alone at the expense of the vast majority of our suffering people.

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We need a Bende North that is represented by someone who is available, accessible, tolerant, respectful, humble, outspoken, discerning and prudent in judgment and action. Finally, we need a Bende North that is represented by a mind which understands that by being chosen as the representative of the people, he or she bears the oneness of the dreams and aspirations of the entire constituency, and becomes a symbol of hope and struggle to rid our constituency of all forms of setback and denials which the power of the state legislature affords.

 

What are your manifestos and agenda for the people of bende north?

Let me begin this Manifesto with an honest admission of the realities of the time:

Yes, our challenges as a nation are quite numerous. And whether one chooses to begin the analysis from the economic, socio-political, security, infrastructures or health, these challenges do not lessen but increase in some very unbearable measures as we return from always heaping blames at the distant centre, to our state, Abia State, and to our constituency, Bende North. Bende-Northerners, is it in our Stars that we shall occupy the rump of Abia State? No! There is a newness of tide in the affairs of this nation, it is a new energy, a new song born by the New Nigerian people. Bende North, we must share in this newness!

 

What is your agenda for your constituency?

I have a five point agenda – 1. Job creation – An idle mind, they say, is the devil’s workshop. The increase in the rate of crime and several related issues in our society today owe its root to lack of jobs for our people, but most importantly to the feeling of injustice which blind leadership creates through favoritism as against meritocracy. As a House of Assembly member representing the good people of Bende North, I will use my office to agitate and secure the job opportunities that are due my people. But I will not stop there. The office will equally elevate my clout and afford me the opportunity of making recommendations for jobs both within the private and public sectors. I will not only ensure that these chances and opportunities get to my people, I will, most importantly, ensure that they are not sold to the highest bidders but offered to the qualified members of my constituency and to those who really need such opportunities to better their lots.

 

2. Youth Empowerment – My empowerment plans for the people of Bende North are categorised into two: the skilled and the unskilled category. The youth population of Bende North boasts of determined young men and women who have been able to acquire some very important skills that, when given a little support, can help comfortably sustain their livelihood.

 

Many have either been able to start the practice of their skills but need some financial support to boost and upgrade their businesses, or are unable to start up due to financial constraints too. For this set, I will offer financial assistance and go the extra mile of making their access to loans much easier.

 

The other second category is the unskilled set. Within this group, two sets exist. The first are the very young ones who are only looking to be empowered with modern skills. With this sect, I shall use my business connection, experience and clout to organize free but intensive skill acquisition programmes, especially in the areas of ICT, to enable them meaningfully be engaged.

 

The second sect within the unskilled group who would rather be empowered with material equipment and machines, will equally be properly taken care of.

 

3. Education – Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

 

-Nelson Mandela. One of my most critical concerns as a House of Assembly member representing Bende North, shall be to reduce the now alarming out of school children within the constituency, and to assist with moves and bills that would help extend this reduction throughout the state. Families who for financial reasons, are unable to keep their under aged children in school, will be assisted to be able to offer basic education to their children.

 

I equally intend to create motivations and incentives that would stimulate our people’s interest in education. It is no longer a hidden saying in our society today that “education is a scam”. This philosophy, to me, is not only destructive of the individual person, but of our society in general. I will, therefore, institute scholarships across the different levels of our education, to be able to motivate the interest of our people in education and rekindle belief in Nelson Mandela’s words that, “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

 

4. Opportunities for Women and Children and Economic and political inclusion for all – Despite the advancement in time, women and children have generally remained the most vulnerable class in the global society. The result gets worse when one narrows down to the continent of Africa, to Nigeria, to our dear state, Abia, which is today occupying the economic and social rump of the South-East.

 

In Bende North, the condition of women and children do not point to any better indices. Similar to this regrettable condition is non-inclusive governance and government policies that we are gradually adapting to instead of working hard to destroy in our society. As an Honourable member representing Bende North, I will not only support policies and bills that resonate with inclusive governance where everyone is an equal participant in the process of governance and policy development, I will ensure a special recognition and input for women and children.

 

5. Restorative Justice – I believe that at this critical time of our journey, and being thus afflicted by economic, political and social hardship and conditions which seem rather deliberately generated by bad leadership and manipulated to incriminate the people and make them helpless victims of artificial conditions, we may need to explore other alternatives to keeping our society safe, just, secure, disciplined and loving. I believe that one of the ways to go about this is to explore the routes of restorative justice instead of strict retributive justice.

 

As an Honourable member representing Bende North, I will use my legal powers to engage, support and initiate bills that resonate with the repair of justice through reaffirming a shared value-consensus in a bilateral process. I believe that by providing opportunities for those harmed and those who take responsibility for the harm caused others, we can better communicate as one people, work for a better society, and liberate ourselves from the helplessness.