The emergence of Right Honourable Uchenna Okafor as the seventh Speaker of the Anambra State House of Assembly has been hailed as a practical recognition of the place of the youth in productive governance.
Honourable Okafor, in his thirties, represents Ayamelum Constituency at the Anambra State House of Assembly, and joins the league of few youths who have made breakthroughs in Nigeria’s legislative politics, including Adebo Ogundoyin, the thirty-one-year-old new Speaker of Oyo State
House of Assembly; Abok Izam, the new thirty-three-year-old Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, and Oladimeji Bankole who became the youngest Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives at the age of thirty-seven, in 2007.
Correspondent, Daniel Ezeigwe, interacted with stakeholders on the sidelines of the Inauguration of the Seventh Anambra State House ofAssembly, on their opinions about the new Speaker and reports that Mr. Episeni Victor Uchenna Okafor, a two-time member of the Anambra State House of Assembly, becomes the first male Speaker of the House after a double succession of female Speakers namely: Chinwe Nwaebili and Rita Maduagwu.
One rare thing with the Seventh Anambra State House of Assembly, however, is that there is only one female member, Honourable Beverly Ikpeazu -Nkemdiche representing Onitsha South One Constituency, out of the thirty House members.
That apart, the emergence of Honourable Okafor as the new Speaker, according to Chief Chukwuma Okoye, the member representing Awka South Two Constituency, is a signal of the renewed vigor for quality legislative business in Anambra State.
For Chief John Nwokoye, who is the member representing Awka North Constituency, the choice of Mr. Okafor has further streghtened the drive towards encouraging active youth participation in governance by the present administration of Governor Willie Obiano, while the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Legislative Matters, Chief Edozie Ezeugwa, urged the new Speaker and his colleagues to harness their youthful energy to promote progressive governance in Anambra State.
In their separate views, the Chairman, Local Government Service Commission, Anambra State, Doctor Peter Egenti, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Anambra Broadcasting Service, ABS, Chief Uche Nworah, and a political stalwart, Chief Dan Ogbuefi, described Right Honourable Okafor as a charismatic youth who has worked his way up the tall ladder of success, noting that his youthfulness would be cardinal in achieving results
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