Honorable Joshua Chinedu Obika is …………………………………… In this exclusive chat with our publisher, Precious Enebuse, he bares his mind on sundry issues.

Excerpts: 

For the benefit of our readers who may not be familiar with you, could you kindly introduce yourself by sharing your personal background including your upbringing, core values, and academic qualifications that have shaped your career?

 My name is, Honorable Joshua Chinedu Obika. I am originally from, Anambra State.  I was born there about fifty something years ago. And I schooled in Awka, both my primary and secondary school. And, it wasn’t until I came to Abuja that I went to Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa where I obtained my diploma in public administration. And I’ve been involved here in politics, even, I’ve been doing my business  I would say I’m an accidental politician, and, I continue to be, so it’s no longer an accident. And, my passion for community development is what led me to it. I was, staying with a sister of mine when I came to Abuja 1996 in Kado Estate. And my passion to make sure that my community gets some of the, basic things that they need drew me into standing in for them anytime there is any issue arising in the community where I stayed. And because of it, I was given the chairman of the Estate Association. From there, the members of the association asked me to represent them as a councilor when, Abacha died and the political dispensation came up. And that was the first time that I got elected as a councilor in 1998. And since then, I’ve been involved to date,

During your term as a councilor in the Federal Capital Territory what are the significant projects or initiatives you championed that you believe have had a lasting impact on the community? Could you highlight some specific achievements or challenges you encountered?

Well, as a councilor, I can tell you that, I was adjudged to be one of the bests among my colleagues of the 12 wards that we had. I represented Gwarimpa Ward. In Gwarimpa Ward, if I take you by the airport road where you have, Karamajiji, you have, Kuchigoro, you have Piwayi. If you go to Karamajiji, Karamajiji then is a community. You know, those days, well, they were not as populated as they were now. And, I was the first person that graded the Karamajiji village roads. As a councilor, I used to hire, um, um, bulldozers to grade the community roads on my own, funded by myself, not by government. Because that time, I believe that was the first time councilors were paid almost 200 and something thousand. So it was huge. And I was looking at how I can give back to the communities that made it possible. I graded Karamajiji Road. I was the person that brought the first transformer that gave Karamajiji light. I repaired Kuchigoro transformer that was having problem as of then. I graded Piwayi Road, and Piwayi got a health center built. It’s still standing there as I speak. I graded the Jahi-Kadokuchi Road.  I introduced a program called JAD, Joint Action Development. What do I do with JAD? I come to a community, go to a school that is dilapidated. I bring sand, I bring cement, I bring, zinc. I bring some woods. Then I call the carpenters in the community to contribute with their own handwork. I call the mason man in the community to contribute to his handwork. I call the youth in the community to even gather some of the sands if there’s anything that is remaining or break e the area that need to be broken and rebuilt. And with that, we are able to put in order some of the schools which were not, okay as of then. And, I was able to revitalize some of the boreholes that DIFRI did that is not functional. If you go to, Jaiye 1, I did that. Even that time when this generator I pass my neighbor is a huge thing that time I had donated some of them to some mosque, you know. Showing that. I don’t have anything like religious bias, you know. And, some of our chiefs that get, some of their palace, giving them chairs and everything. I shared books, just like I’m still sharing today, to the schools between my constituencies. So to the best of my knowledge, I did a lot as a councilor. But if you want to get this specifically, look at my councilorship time there behind you, you can see the poster. All listed under in it is my achievement as a councilor. You can see, you can get a lot from them, which I cannot remember again because it has taken some time.

So given your track records of effective leadership and public service, how do you assess the performance of those who succeeded you as councilors? Do you believe they have continued to pursue the vision you set, or are there areas where you feel improvements are needed?

 I don’t want to judge people based on the way I have performed. There is no law that says that you have to, as a councilor, use your personal money to help leaders. There is no law that says that you should, renovate the primary schools that, uh, the, boreholes that are not working with your money. So, if that is my judgment, I will get it wrong, because they have not done any wrong. They can only act between, within the ambit of what is made available to them. a councilor is not the one that’s supposed to be doing that. It’s the council itself. That I went out of my way is something that has to do with individualistic. So, I can’t judge them. I can’t judge them because that is not their job to do.

In your current capacity as a member representing AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency and Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Legislative Library, Research and Documentation, what strategic, goals have you set for your tenure? Could you elaborate on key legislative or constituency achievement that demonstrate progress?

I have three major legislative agenda. One is on education, two is on health, and three is rural infrastructure. Let us go down to education. It is disheartening that most of the schools when I talk the schools now, I’m focusing on the primary education. Why primary education? If you don’t get it right at that foundation, everything that you are putting on top cannot stand. If a child did not go through proper primary education, he can’t go to secondary school. He can’t go to university. You know, what made the Igbos where I come from most successful in Nigeria as businessmen that during those days, no matter how stubborn you are, your parents will say, “You must finish six. Anything you want to do, Chukwudi. You must finish six.” And what that has done is that, that six, gives us basic knowledge. You cannot say you have money if you don’t know how to count it. You must know how to buy and sell. You must know how to communicate to somebody. All these things is what basic six can give to you. So, that gave us an advantage. And when I came up here, I see it that, that is what is lacking. Believe me, more than, 50% of our primary schools in Abuja are dilapidated. No roof, no chair. When it rains, almost 40% of students don’t go to school, because the school itself is open. You know, rain will beat you blue and black in that place. It’s too touchy for me to see anything like that. During my campaign, I went to somewhere in Karu. Three classroom, 620 children, nine teachers. When mothers cannot take care of four children, then nine teachers shared by 600, that means a teacher is having about almost 70 something to 80. How is it possible? That shows that those children are not learning. And that’s why I insisting that FCT administration and the federal government, the President being the Governor of Abuja, should pay attention to that basic infrastructure that an ordinary person need. I know that our minister is trying. They are connecting roads that need to be connected. But that rural communities should be focused on also, you know, places like Kubwa.  Kubwa Township road, if you look at it now, is not in good shape. Go to, Share Igbo road, it’s not worked. So, there are some places that we should also focus our attention. And these schools, you know, that is what demands attention from us right now. And based on that, I have been able to attract renovation of about three schools. I’ve been able to put about three of them again through my own private, personal, constituency, and project. We’ve been able also to, do some computer labs in one or two secondary school that we have done one. The other one is still on the way. We will get it done, you know, which, these are things that are lacking in our system. We’ve been able to do school bags and, school books to help the parents who is not easy for being the new economic realities, to support them in school. I’ve been able to give about, 56 student’s scholarship in the federal, College of Education, Zuba. Both tuition and the accommodation paid. And this will happen over the three years that they would be in that school. That is my own strides in the field of education. We’ve been able to pay, you know, the little stipend that they pay to primary school students. Most parents in the rural community wake up in the morning, you go around, you see that some of their children cannot go to school because of 2,000, 3,000. So we’re able to gather in some of these schools to pay it, to make sure that these children get the basic things that they should be able to get. All this is what we are working within the education, sector. We are having about now in this 2025 budget to train about almost 50 people as caregivers that will be working in our health institutions and other places, and that can work independently and earn their living. I can tell you, a trained caregiver can earn even money more than a graduate who have, one or other, professional courses studied, because they end up being in a lounge selling beer as a waiter. So, this is even more dignifying that you are taking care of human being. So, that is it. Then that is in the terms of education. And in terms of education again, we’ve been able to bring a bill, to formalize the school of nursing and midwifery, Gwagwalada, which has been existing since 1981 from Suleja to here. But all the needful has not been done in giving it a legislative, backing to enable it to function better. The bill has gone through the first reading, I’m on the second reading now. And that is also for this. And through my personal effort, I have pushed to have what is called FCT, Caregivers College. So all these things are things that we are doing.

What does that intend to achieve?

FCT Caregivers College are the one that will train caregivers that can work in our health institutions and that can work in private places. So a lot of people that doesn’t have handwork, that has given them, you know, something to do. You know, we’re talking about employment and job opportunities, that is what that has done. A lot of people that are living in FCT today, when their parents come over to come and be with them, maybe because of illness because of one thing or the other, they don’t have people who have health experience that can be with them. Sometimes they are admitted in the hospital, you can’t leave your work to go and be with them. So this is the kind of work they cover, you know, and they are well paid. Because if you go now, some of these boys selling in the bars are not paid more than 50,000. But I don’t think I would train anybody in that, college that can earn anything less than 70,000 and above. 

Honorable. Now politics often involve collaboration across party lines….

I have not finished on the issue of the achievement I talked about. I have only spoken on education.  Because of my passion about it, I —– will more. So if you come again, we have done a lot in the area of empowerment. For the first time in the history of Abuja, there has never been any member that have carried out the kind of empowerment that I did. That was, either 2023 or 2024, where we empowered people, a lot of people with, different items. We have block molding machine. We have freezers for those who are selling drinks. We have pots and, gas cookers for those who are starting small businesses. We have oven for the… We have tool boxes, we have grinders, and we have, sewing machines. We have quite a lot of things distributed. And I trained 261 women on, baking, on, what do they call it? Makeup artist. we trained them also  in soap making, and we gave that 201 about 50,000 each as a startup  under the same mechanism. We have given people, forcanizer tools, those that are making shoes, you know, train them in it to enable them to, that we have done also. And we have been able to, put boreholes here and there. We put about 400 and something street lights to lighten up our communities in different places. You know, we have reactivated some boreholes that are not working, but in the schools to help the sanitary, this thing in the schools and, also in our communities. Very soon we are grading road. After the rain stops, we will grade the roads that leads to our… That I’ve been doing since I was a councilor, so I can’t back off from it now. So there is a lot that has been achieved, actually. It’s just little and few that I can mention. Even transformers that we have in 2024, we have about four transformers that will be distributed in different places. We have put new boreholes. I have borehole in Nyanya, I have borehole in Gwarimpa, I have borehole in Guyi, I have borehole in Duste, I have borehole in, Bwari Central. So these are things that I have done. You know, I have made sure that even our markets are, light up so that, it can curb the issue of insecurity that we have at it at night of those who like to go to the market and set it on fire. We’ve done all this. But the major thing a legislator should be doing is parliamentary work, not this work of, this thing. And based on it, I have done the one of, nursing school that I told you about. I have a bill on, FCT original inhabitants, resettlement and compensation agency is going on second reading. We have FCT emergency agency because we’re not prepared in FCT if anything happens to us like Lagos, and FCT is a fast-growing city. Even the influx of people in the FCT is more than what we have in Lagos today. So we have to get the city prepared for it. And we talk about education. So I have another one now, FCT scholarship board. So these are the four bills that I’m pursuing right now in there. And then finally, the one that we are starting up is FCT security trust fund to help our security agencies because what is being given to them now cannot be able to take care of the problem we have. They are grossly overwhelmed and they need extra funding and we have to source it from other places.

Politics often involve collaboration across party lines. How has your working relationship been with the minister of the  FCT and the leadership of the National Assembly, especially considering  differences in political affiliation and ideology, what mechanism have you employed to foster cooperation towards common objectives?

The greatest problem we have in Nigeria, people say it’s leadership. I disagree with it. Leadership is not our problem. Our problem is ethnicity and religion. That’s the problem we have. We have had some minds that should have done better as leaders, but they ended up being screwed into, ethnic agendas and the rest of them. You know, that is the greatest undoing of what we have. I remember my father telling me that the first mayor of Enugu state was a Fulani man. So, you can see that. And today, I’m the second or third person that have represented this place as not originally coming from FCT. This is the kind of Nigeria that we should have. I believe in the state and all, if you leave California today and move to Florida, you just go and change your card, you become a Floridian.  Anything that anybody that lives in Florida will benefit from, you benefit it immediately. Nobody will tell you whether you come yesterday or today or this. That is the way it is. If you come to California, you become a Californian. If you go to New York, the same thing. You know but this is not the case here. And that is what makes us as a people, you know It’s not really the party thing, but this religious and tribal, sentiment has been the, the greatest setback we have as a country. Talking about the minister, I do my part as a parliamentarian. He is the part of the executive, you know on the personal ground of relationship, people who want to work with you, work with you. Those who don’t want to work with you cannot work with you, and they cannot force it. So, to the best of my knowledge, I want to work with the minister. So, that is the actual thing. Anything that will bring support to the people I represent is of my utmost interest. I don’t care where it comes from. In governance, you remove partisan politics, you know that is the way I see it 

Now, reflecting on the leadership of the FCT minister, in what ways do you believe his performance compares with that of his predecessors, such as Mohammed Bello, who left office two years ago? Could you provide specific areas where you think progress has been made or where challenges remain?

 Mohammed Bello is a disaster when it comes to the, project implementation or budget implementation. You know, he was returning money to the government coffers when our schools are under bad shape, our hospitals, the equipment’s are down. Go to our hospitals today. And that’s why I continue to tell even the FCT minister to prioritize through the areas that people need, what a common man needs. A common man does not need to go to, conference center to do anything. He cannot afford it. A common man wants the hospital to be working. A common man wants the school in his community to be working so that his child can go to school. A common man want the rural road that leads to the community where he lives to be accessible. That is what common people want. I think that we should focus on community, you know, rural community development is what will help FCT and to decongest the city, because the city is congested. That’s why people see any little spot where maybe our indigenous people live that has not been developed, people cluster, and they are both criminals and everything. So, we need to decongest the city, give people options. You know, if you know there is road that leads to, Karu and there is bus that apply Karu road and come back, you can go and live there as a family. And also, while you are living there, you have a space that will enable you to have a space where you can farm and get some things and get things cheap for your family and have, enough accommodation to live in. So, that is the area that I’m talking about. But for me to compare with them, he has done better than most of them that I know. I don’t think only during the military, when you say the military built all these high rises that you see, that you talk. But till recently, to compare since this political dispensation, there is no one that can equate with him in terms of development. But do you know one thing that people need also, that the minister need to give us? Minister need to give us the kind of; FCT needs a kind of relationship with their minister. FCT will never tolerate somebody they believe that is too autocratic in his posture in dealing with them. These are where great men and women lives who cannot accept to be intimidated by anybody. You know, you must play that politics of being, more friendly all-inclusiveness is what FCT wants, and let me tell you in the name of God, if I have my way, I would be proposing that we should remove politicians from being FCT minister. FCT minister is better to be appointed as a non-politician. Technocrats. Because this is a place that unites us, so that we don’t play politics with it. It will destroy everything for us. And once this area is set on fire, Nigeria is on fire.

Youth empowerment is critical for national development. From your perspective as a federal lawmaker- how effective has government policies and programs been in creating opportunities for young people to develop their talents and contribute economically? What gaps still exist and how can they be addressed?

You know, I think, look at this, my brother. I will tell you, Tinubu’s government, I will not say that, I know that it’s not easy coming where they are coming from. Even there, I’m in no position I will say the truth about that, because a lot of things even went wrong in, in Buhari’s administration. And that comes, and being that party politics, Tinubu don’t want to say what is wrong, so he inherited it, he’s also bearing that burden. But I think the greatest mistake he made is in the issue of subsidy removal, and I will tell you why. Every three major candidates of this last election of 2023 agreed that subsidies should be removed, but what they did not agree on is the method of the removal. But Mr. President, on the day of inauguration, announced subsidy removal without preparing the ground for it, and that is what brought us to where we are. The shock will not even, it will last till in, the 8 year.  I mean, this devastation and the next will still be witnessing that. A lot of discussion could have been on the ground and a lot of things would have been agreed upon before that can be done. this money, if we remove it, the reinvestment, on what direction are we going to go? Are we going to invest in energy? Are we going to invest in agriculture? Are we going to invest in education? Are we going to invest in health?  Are we going to invest in security? Then there will be a law backing it, so even when the money goes to the states, the state cannot spend this money out of this already legislated, areas of investment. No matter how they try to eat that money, there, by the time it’s dropping, across the 36 states, there will be a significant impact and progress made. But today the governors are receiving three, four times of what they used to receive. Go to the state and see if anything has changed. Rather, it’s getting worse. So, he did it wrongly. And he did it with good intentions, believing that the governors will use that money to work. But that is not the issue now. So, that is exactly the place I will tell you that I’m in peril with what the president has done. It has good intention in it, but implementation is not going well. So, with that, the aim of achieving that more employment for youths, we have not been able to reach that. And federal government has invested hugely on agriculture. that is one area that Buhari did very well, in agric. Even though there is insurgents and everything, but he was encouraging agriculture. But now you have seen, all those investment made in agriculture has collapsed. Now, there have open borders, rice is coming from everywhere. All those people that government encouraged to go into rice farming, what will they do? You know, so I think that we should really, sit down as a nation and know where our strength is and invest in it. And there’s nowhere that we have such strength like agriculture. We must pay attention to agriculture. that is what will create much of our jobs. We are not into tech and everything that, no matter how we think about it, we have not gotten that advanced. At least let us feed ourselves.

The political arena is continually evolving. With your experience and insight, how do you foresee the political dynamics shaping up as we approach the 2027 general election? What key issues do you anticipate will influence voter decisions and political alignments?

Hunger,

Insecurity remains one of Nigeria’s most pressing issues affecting peace and development. What are your thoughts on the root causes of this persistent challenge? And do you consider foreign interventions or support necessary for effectively combating terrorism and ensuring national security?

If in your house, you don’t have money and your children are hungry, you will not be ashamed to go and beg any man to give you money. Yes. So, that is the way it is to Nigeria based on the issue of security, based on the issue of, development and everything. I will not be shy to say that this thing has lasted long. Please help me, international community. But neither will I like the international community to impose the help. But they can come when they believe that there is something going wrong in the country. It’s for you to prove it wrong, whether what they said is true or not. But what we know is that the greatest problem we have in this country today, insecurity is standing on the top corner of it. And insecurity is what brought hunger. Before now, people were; in fact, when things are difficult for you in the town, you say, “make I go village.” Is that not the thing now? They say, “Make I go village again?” it does not happen the people in the village don’t have nothing. You can’t find; So, town is the village that the people go to now. That is how bad it is for the country. So, given the recent, statement by President Trump on Truth Social warning that the US may halt all aid to Nigeria and potentially engage militarily against Islamic terrorists if the Nigerian government does not act swiftly to protect Christians, how do you assess the implication of this declaration for Nigeria’s security, sovereignty and international relations?

The truth is this, Muslim and Christians alike are killed but I know that there can be more on the Christian side of it. And what I can say, is that mostly in the Christian dominated areas, people in the communities are pushed away. But in the mix area, there can be some, attacks and it goes down. But when you set the whole community ablaze and chase the people, why wouldn’t the international community think that that is the direction of the intent of those doing that? So, Nigerian government has to do a lot to do that, because this insecurity has turned to business as far as I’m concerned, because ilooking at it, there has never been a day that the military brings any budget for us to pass to enable them to tackle the issue of the military that the National Assembly have not done, that the president have not accented. We’ve done that and we’re all Nigerians. The president also will not come down from the presidency to go to Bruno to be fighting. Our military should stand up to it, because you bring us budget and we approve it. We have every information, we have DSS, we have DNA, we have secret service, we have army, we have air force, we have navy, we have all this for crying out loud. We are at war, we know that. But I don’t think that we have done a good job all this while. And, one truth, again, they are not saying too much, is how many men in uniform that we have lost. Gallant young men that have sacrificed their You know, when people are talking about all this, nobody remembers what those in the military are going through at the junior cadre, because the senior ones that can be benefiting from. But the junior ones are really suffering, dying. These are children of human being like me. He can be my child, he can be yours. We should be concerned, So, I think the Nigerian government has to do more to prove to the world that the accusation is wrong.

Nigeria has marked 65 years since independence, but continues to face hurdles in realizing the vision of its nationalists, particularly in technological advancement and economic development. What comprehensive strategies or reforms would you recommend to accelerate the country’s transformation and position it among the world’s developed nations?

 The greatest demon that has destroyed Nigeria as a country is the state, particularly the local government. The death of the local administration has killed the center of development in Nigeria. Today, local government is no longer functioning. The governors use their touts to occupy the local government offices. There is no delivery at the lower level. It’s only the state and the federal that still exist in the types of government. If you go to your community, you can hardly identify what your local government chairman has done. And local administration is the closest to the people. I’m saying this because I started my political life as a councilor. I know the impact, how impactful it is when I was doing those things that I mentioned to you, to the community. You can imagine if that is happening at a time in all the wards across Nigeria. At least that will build up the people’s mind in government and know that there is at least benefit of what they can get from governors. Until we get the local government administration right in Nigeria, we cannot achieve much. If the amount of money that is meant in local government is delivered to that local government across the 774 local government that we have. 774 It is going to be a huge impact at that level. But today, that is not the case. The governors hijack local government fund, and that is where it ends. Put their cronies, call them, pay salary, give them small stipends, and the other money vanish whatever way they are doing it. So, every government that wants to put Nigeria on the right trajectory will start by liberating the local administration. That is one. Two, we have to revisit subsidy by a way of not reverting back to the old, but by a way, by using legislation, to legislate how the subsidy money can be used so that people cannot go on buying flashy cars while in their area nothing is done. No road, no light, no good school and everything. We have to think about it and work about. Now, today, in Nigeria, nobody talks about the mineral resources that are being looted by criminals. And we are here talking about oil in Bayelsa. What about gold in Zamfara? What about tantalite in the other; who talks about them? Who knows how many quantity has been taken? Who is in control? Where is the money that is being earned for it How can we quantify it? How do we know how many that have been taken? Nigeria is not truthful to itself. I think the government have to go a long way to prove otherwise.

Every political career comes with its own challenges. Could you share what has been the most doubting obstacle you have faced in your journey so far? And how did you overcome it? What lessons have you drawn from that experience?

Have I overcome all? I’m still working on it. A lot of it. Lack of cooperation from the people who would have ordinarily cooperated with you to achieve what you need to achieve. I have area council chairman that doesn’t cooperate with me and my counterpart here in pursuing the agenda of FCT as a people. The type of relationship that we might have from FCT is not what we are supposed to be getting. To help to, put things in order that it should be. So, that is the greatest challenge. Apart from that, I continue to; do you know, I have called for National Assembly to remove constituency projects from the parliament, because that has scattered everything that we stand for—Parliament, that is the name of your newspaper. Parliamentarian means a legislator that legislate on issues and make laws that affect the people. Not to put light here, put road here and put that. Now, legislators have turned executive arm of government, chasing jobs that they can put in different places for them to be re-elected. People that come to you don’t talk about laws. They talk about lights, they talk about road, and they talk about personal money. My daughter’s school fees, I’m going back to; so how do you not; The greatest problem Nigeria have is not the leadership, it’s the led, because the led put the pressure on the leadership to do the wrong thing. When you come and tell me about your children’s school fees, where do you think I can get the money? Is it budgeted in the budget? So, you’re telling me to steal money to give you, and if I don’t, you threaten me that I will not come back. So, these are the issues. The led have major issues and the leaders have too, and religion and terrorism has capped it all.

Looking ahead to the next legislative year what specific initiatives or projects can your constituents expect from you? How do you plan to address their needs and ensure that their interests are effectively represented in the National Assembly?

 My focus more will be on the legislation, to getting all these bills that I have done, work out and, praying that Mr. President should ascent on them. That is the major work of a legislator. Then, other things that I can do, I’m not a member of the executive arm, so I should not start talking about them. How much do I have in constituency project, I should start talking about rules. Things like that. It’s pretty not, the, it’s diversionary. I will be the happiest man if these four bills that I have set out and the fifth one passes. Even if I leave this place because I’m not able to give them money to bring me back, I will beat my chest and say, “When I was here, this is what I’ve been able to do.” And my children can come back at any time and want to know the mindset of their father when he was in the parliament. And they will go through things the bills and motions that I moved, and they will know my mindset towards the issue of governance in the country.

Thank you, honorable, for granting us audience.